Hazard Mitigation planning is a proactive effort to identify actions that can be taken to reduce the dangers to life and property from natural hazard events. Dallas County adopted a hazard mitigation plan in 2009 and FEMA regulations require that the plan be updated every five years.

The Federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 requires that a community have an approved hazard mitigation plan to qualify for federal funding from the following grant programs. Some of the grant programs available include:

• Pre-Disaster Mitigation Competitive (PDM-C)
• Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP)
• Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA)

A hazard mitigation plan assesses the community’s risks and vulnerabilities to natural hazard events such as flooding, hurricanes, winter storms, and earthquakes. Each jurisdiction uses statewide data and information obtained directly from the community to make this assessment.

The plan includes a set of goals related to the overall goal of hazard mitigation planning, an assessment of existing mitigation measures, and a set of new mitigation measures that will serve to advance the plan goals. The plan update will also look at implementation progress that has been made on mitigation measures from the previous plan.

Public participation is very important to the hazard mitigation planning process. FEMA requires a minimum of two public meetings. Three public meetings were held to collect public and stakeholder input. Topics of discussion included the purpose of hazard mitigation, discussion of the planning process, and types of natural hazards. Each participating jurisdiction within Dallas County including Richardson promoted the public meetings to increase public participation in the Plan Update development process, through posting on their website, on social media sources including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, NextDoor, and X (formerly known as Twitter), and/or posting the information on bulletin boards in public facilities. 

In addition to public meetings, the Planning and Consultant Teams developed a public survey designed to solicit public input during the planning process from citizens and stakeholders to obtain data regarding the identification of any potential hazard mitigation actions or problem areas. The survey was promoted by local officials, and a link to the survey was posted online. A total of 245 surveys were completed online. 

We appreciate the input Richardson residents provided throughout the update process to share the responsibility of community preparedness and resilience.