Pinellas County will be submitting a grant proposal for $992,000 to fund data acquisition, flood hazard mapping, and mitigation planning efforts. Please review the information below and submit any questions or comments via the link below.

REBUILD FLORIDA CDBG-MIT GENERAL PLANNING SUPPORT PROGRAM GRANT APPLICATION SUPPLEMENTAL PUBLIC NOTICE

Pinellas County will be submitting a grant proposal for $992,000 to fund data acquisition, flood hazard mapping, and mitigation planning efforts. Please review the information below and submit any questions or comments via the link below.

VER EN ESPANOL

WE AN KREYOL

In response to presidentially declared disasters in 2016 and 2017, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that $633 million in first-of-its-kind funding would be made available to the state of Florida for disaster mitigation projects. These funds are available through HUD’s newly created Community Development Block Grant – Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) and will be used to fund disaster mitigation programs to better protect Florida from future disasters.

Administered by the State of Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO), a federally required State Action Plan was developed in partnership with state agencies, as well as with input from local communities and stakeholders to determine Florida’s most critical disaster mitigation needs.

On May 15, 2020, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) launched the Rebuild Florida General Planning Support (GPS) Program, making a total of $20,000,000 available for eligible applicants, including units of general local government (UGLG). The GPS program is designed to provide funding opportunities for local governments to engage in pro-active mitigation planning and to create regional disaster mitigation plans. Final proposals are due to the DEO on July 31, 2020.

Learn more about: Rebuild Florida's Mitigation Programs 

Pinellas County is seeking $992,000 to create a Countywide Flood Mitigation Action Plan, which will be developed in coordination with its municipal partners, regional agencies, various county departments and community leaders. This funding is specifically designed to support mitigation opportunities that can leverage local resources and involve a collaborative effort towards reducing our risks. As we seek this funding opportunity, we would appreciate your thoughts and ideas on the proposed project. Comments are due by 12 pm on November 5, 2020. 

The plan will benefit local governments by providing more precise data and mechanisms to address flood risks, as well as residents and business through education. The planning effort will leverage the recent state-approved Local Mitigation Strategy and an on-going vulnerability assessment that is evaluating future tidal and storm surge inundation. This new plan will conduct precipitation modeling for future climate conditions, collect terrestrial lidar of flood-prone structures, conduct asset exposure analyses for a suite of County/municipal owned assets located county-wide, and create a multi-decade flood mitigation plan that is tied to local comprehensive planning, capital improvement projects and enterprise asset management.

Initial Areas of Benefit include the Anclote River, Curlew Creek, McKay Creek, and Joe’s Creek watersheds, as well as the Southern Keys.

Proposed Activities include:

1. Flood hazard data and modeling acquisition
2. Community asset inventory collection
3. Flood hazard map development
4. Governmental asset exposure analysis
5. Flood risk mitigation and community adaptation strategy development
6. Mitigation prioritization and actions for community planning and procedures

How will this project benefit us?

The Pinellas Countywide Flood Mitigation Action Plan will provide substantial benefits to the community during current-day flooding circumstances and future conditions, including extreme weather events and impacts from sea-level rise, by providing advanced data and tools for planning and mitigation. Currently, the data collection, risk analysis, and hazards planning process varies at the municipal levels based on organizational capacity and governance protocols. It is known throughout the resilience industry that water knows no bounds and it is prudent to overcome vulnerabilities with a regional, collaborative approach. Thus, this project will provide a unified method for each local government to address flood risks that persists in the community.

The ultimate goal of the project is to provide local governments with information and guidelines to reduce flooding impacts to life and property. The project will assess the flood risks to a variety of day-to-day functions and thus impact a range of FEMA community lifelines such as, safety and security; food, water, and shelter; health and medical; energy; communications; transportation; and, hazardous material. Once completed, communities will have a more informed and standardized approach to update their internal programs, policies and infrastructure projects to increase the resiliency of its residents and visitors.  

View the proposal by following this link: FMAP proposal document.

Questions?

Please provide us your feedback and let us know what you think. This project would play a critical role in mitigating our current and future risks and strengthening our resiliency. We appreciate your interest in the project. Your input is invaluable in attaining the project goals. Please share your thoughts on the proposed project. In case you have any questions, please contact the project lead:

Hank Hodde, CFM, ENV SP

Sustainability & Resiliency Program Coordinator

[email protected]