Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (MJHMP)

Multi-jurisdictional hazard mitigation planning can be an effective process to build partnerships between communities that face common hazard risks, leading to shared solutions. It can also help build a foundation to shift priorities as risks and vulnerabilities change. Hazard mitigation plans are prepared and adopted by communities with the primary purpose of identifying, assessing, and reducing the long-term risk to life and property from hazard events. Effective mitigation planning can break the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction, and repetitive losses. Hazard mitigation plans can address a range of natural and human-caused hazards. Plans can be developed for a single community or as a multi-jurisdictional plan that includes multiple communities across a county. The current Santa Clara County (SCC) Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (MJHMP) was approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on December 19, 2017. Mitigation plans have a 5-year lifecycle and as such the Santa Clara County MJHMP expires in December of 2022. The SCC Office of Emergency Management applied for Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) funding in April of 2021 to hire a consultant to facilitate the plan update process. The 2022 plan will be developed with the participation of all fifteen cities and towns in the Operational Area. The 2022 plan is also being developed with participation from Valley Water, County Departments, and the Santa Clara County Fire Department.

The 2022 MJHMP will be authored concurrently with the Safety Element update of the Santa Clara County General Plan in accordance with Assembly Bill No. 2140. Passed in 2006, this legislation allows California counties and cities to adopt their current, FEMA-approved local mitigation plans (LHMPs) into the Safety Element for their General Plans. This adoption makes the county or city eligible to be considered for part or all its local-share costs on eligible Public Assistance funding to be provided by the state through the California Disaster Assistance Act (CDAA). Hazard mitigation plans are required and necessary to apply to hazard mitigation grants and complete mitigation projects. The Santa Clara County MJHMP is consequential for existing and future grant funding and projects within the Operational Area.