Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Hazard Mitigation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
New River Valley hazard-mitigation plan heads to supervisors; county staff outline FEMA requirements and mitigation priorities
Summary
Montgomery County staff briefed the Planning Commission on the New River Valley hazard-mitigation plan update, saying the regional plan must be adopted by each locality to retain FEMA disaster assistance eligibility and the county will hold a public hearing before the Board of Supervisors on Sept. 8.
Montgomery County staff presented an overview of the New River Valley hazard-mitigation plan update during the Planning Commission’s Aug. 13 work session and said the plan is scheduled to go before the Board of Supervisors with a public hearing and possible adoption on Sept. 8. "The Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 says we have to do it. Without an approved plan, we do not have access to FEMA assistance," staff member Brie said.
The plan is a regional effort led by the New River Valley Regional Commission and updates the county’s prior mitigation work; Montgomery County participated via staff representatives on the steering committee, including Tyler Hall (deputy director of fire and emergency services) and Kim Wright (planning staff). The update began in October 2022 and is the third regional plan; participants included local police and fire, nonprofits, Radford University, Virginia Tech, the Department of Forestry, hospitals, the National Weather Service and other agencies.
Why it matters: federal disaster assistance and eligibility for certain FEMA grant programs hinge on having an approved mitigation plan. Staff said local adoption is required by each participating jurisdiction and the plan must be updated and reapproved every five years to maintain eligibility.
Risk assessment and priorities: staff summarized the regional risk ranking used in the update. For the New River Valley as a whole, severe wind, severe winter weather, high winds and flooding were ranked as high risk; wildfire and drought rated medium risk; karst-related issues, tornado, rockfall/landslide and earthquake were judged low risk. The update examined historical disaster declarations (the state has had 53 presidentially declared disasters from 1969 through Feb. 2022; Montgomery County had 10 declared disasters in that period) and noted two 2024 federal declarations tied to Tropical Storm Helene.
Planned mitigation steps and county actions: staff listed completed and ongoing local actions (participation in the National Flood Insurance Program with county standards that exceed FEMA’s baseline, use of GIS mapping for flood hazard and wildfire risk, stream and rain gauges, reverse 9-1-1 and storm-ready designation). Proposed initiatives include pursuing funding for green-space acquisition around repetitive-loss properties, establishing an equalization basin to protect a wastewater treatment plant, predevelopment wildfire-risk databases to guide construction standards, additional stream- and rain-gauge deployment and partner-led wildfire mitigation.
Staff set out next steps: the regional plan will be reviewed and, if adopted by participating localities, move into implementation. Montgomery County’s Board of Supervisors is tentatively scheduled to hold a public hearing and consider adoption on Sept. 8; if adopted, the county will incorporate relevant mitigation objectives into the comprehensive plan update, zoning and subdivision ordinance work, and emergency-services planning. Staff said the plan will be reviewed annually with the New River Regional Commission and updated in three years.
Discussion versus action: the Planning Commission received the briefing in a work session; no vote was taken by the commission. Staff asked the commission to note that several mitigation actions will require work by multiple departments (Planning, Emergency Services) and outside partners and that grant funding will be sought to implement projects.
Quotations and attribution: "We are a storm ready designated community, and have been for several years now," Brie said when describing existing local capabilities. Brie also emphasized that the plan’s adoption is required to maintain FEMA assistance eligibility.
Ending note: staff said the full plan is available on the New River Regional Commission website and that the county will continue public outreach around mitigation priorities before the Board of Supervisors’ scheduled public hearing on Sept. 8.
