Flooding Policy Actions
Multiple offices in the County are working hard to meet the moment and support County residents as we take stock of the projected flooding risks. Following discussions in Phase I of the CFMP process, six agencies (identified below as the CFMP Phase 1 "Core Team") identified 17 objectives ("Outcomes of Flood Management") which will increase the counties readiness to deal with flooding events.
The County recognizes that it must improve policies, processes, and systems in order to advance to an organization capable of accomplishing comprehensive flood management. The assessment of the current regulations, policies and distributed responsibilities; the synthesis of observations; the engagement of multiple stakeholders (in particular, agency representation through the Core Team); the review of peers’ performance; and the professional knowledge of the consultant team all contributed to the selection of the outcomes chosen to reach comprehensive flood management performance.
The numbers associated with the Outcomes do not infer any type of priority. These Outcomes are grouped into categories to provide a clear method of organization and a general sense of the topic in which the Outcome focuses. This set of Outcomes was reviewed and approved by the Core Team.
| Category | Outcome | Steward |
|---|---|---|
| Governance | Flood risk management roles and responsibilities and overall governance structure are documented and clearly understood. | DEP |
| Flood Management Planning | Comprehensive land use plans reflect flood risk. | Planning |
| Development and redevelopment standards and building codes are updated to reflect established levels of service and current and future climate conditions for areas of riverine and urban flooding. | DPS | |
| Clear permit process and enforcement of development and redevelopment standards reflecting flood risk exists. | DPS | |
| Flood Hazard and Risk Information | Flood management information is universally accessible and uniformly utilized by all County agencies. | DEP |
| Flood risk and mitigation information is readily available and widely communicated to the public. | DEP | |
| Flood Insurance options are well-defined and communicated to the public. | DEP | |
| Flood risk data and analyses are developed and periodically updated. | DEP | |
| Urban Flood Zones/ Riverine Floodplain are defined/mapped. | DEP | |
| Flood Mitigation | Capital Improvement Program incorporates flood mitigation needs. | DOT |
| County environmental, sustainability, and equity goals are incorporated in flood mitigation activities. | DEP | |
| Asset Management | Asset management principles are followed to ensure infrastructure assets continuously deliver established levels of service (LOS) at an acceptable risk of failure while minimizing lifecycle costs of owning and maintaining the assets. | DOT |
| O&M of drainage and flood control infrastructure is proactive to maintain LOS. | DEP | |
| Emergency Management | The County has an emergency management plan that addresses preparedness, response, and recovery for flood events. | OEMHS |
| The County's emergency management plan includes early warning systems for high-risk areas. | OEMHS | |
| Budget and Finance | Financing options are well defined and communicated. | DEP |
| County budget and staffing needs are comprehensively collated, communicated, and decided upon. | DEP |
While the County is meeting the requirements of current policies and regulations addressing flooding, working towards the objectives above will help the County prepare for future weather events that pose increased flood risk. Technical needs will need to be integrated with land use planning policies, development standards, and permitting procedures.
The County is taking the actions below to streamline the delivery of these outcomes:
- Maintaining the Current Agency Structure. The current agency structure, which is clearly regulatory driven, is meeting regulatory requirements and is allowing the County to move forward to more comprehensive flood management. Thus, there is no short-term need to adjust the current agency structure.
- Instituting a Steering Committee to represent the agencies and provide guidance and provide coordinated, unified advice and recommendations to County leadership is paramount. This Steering Committee will be responsible for answering comprehensive flood management questions such as: Where are we going? What are we doing? What needs to be done? What are the required leading investments? Are we consistent across agencies? Are we effectively using staff among these multiple agencies to produce the result associated with the Competencies and Outcomes?
- Developing a Program Construct. A programmatic approach will provide the functional processes needed to engage, communicate, manage, and produce results and support the advancement of the Outcomes.
- Forming a Program Delivery Team. The Program Delivery Team ensures the operational relationships among the representative agencies are further developed.
- Producing Business Plans which detail the following:
- Designation of the priority Outcomes on which to focus
- Characterization of specific personnel needs to deliver the Outcomes.
- Estimation of costs and investment requirements to reach the desired Competencies and advance the Outcome
- Characterization of the funding opportunities for specific Outcome investments.
- Validation of the stewarding agency and designation of additional agencies and specific resources to support the fulfillment of the Outcomes.
- Scheduling of the activities throughout the planning time horizon.
- Structuring a Program Manager Role to advance all comprehensive flood management Outcomes, not just a single Outcome. The program manager will guide the activities associated with implementing the programmatic approach, accomplishing multiple Outcomes, maintain the energy and focus of those efforts, request program administration funding through the appropriate channels, document results, collate performance data, manage the interactions of the Program Delivery Team, support facilitation of the Steering Committee, and report progress.