Hillsborough County presents draft Local Mitigation Strategy, seeks public feedback

Hillsborough County on a virtual public meeting reviewed a draft Local Mitigation Strategy, a federally required plan that outlines actions to reduce the county's long‑term exposure to hazards including flooding, hurricanes, extreme heat and technological failures.

Troy Salisbury, hazard mitigation and resilience manager for Hillsborough County, told participants the LMS “is not an emergency response plan. It's a proactive guide to making our community more resilient in the long run.” County staff and partners from the University of South Florida and consulting firm Dewberry led the presentation and fielded questions.

The draft update, prepared on a roughly five‑year cycle, incorporates a vulnerability assessment being developed concurrently by USF. Scott Chikat, a Hillsborough County staff member, said the plan update draws on updated loss estimates, FEMA tools such as HAZUS and the National Risk Index, and the county's recent storm history. "National studies ... show that for every dollar spent on hazard mitigation ... six dollars are saved in future benefits," Chikat said, citing widely used mitigation cost‑benefit research.

The project team reported more than 3,400 public survey responses collected during the update process. Survey respondents identified hurricanes, flooding, extreme heat and evacuation as the top concerns; other recurring issues included power outages, sewer and water infrastructure failures, traffic and cybersecurity. The draft adds new emphasis on future land‑use planning, tree canopy and green infrastructure to address urban heat and runoff, the presenters said.

Maggie Winder, a researcher with the University of South Florida, described the vulnerability assessment linking critical community assets—transportation and evacuation routes, natural resources, critical infrastructure (including agriculture), community and emergency facilities, and sociodemographic data—to flood surge and extreme rainfall modeling. “The vulnerability assessment right now is using the most updated NOAA data,” Winder said, and the team is mapping schools that also function as shelters to understand interdependencies during response and recovery.

The mitigation strategy section (section 5 of the draft) inventories specific projects and broader mitigation initiatives assigned to the county and the three municipal jurisdictions: Tampa, Plant City and Temple Terrace. The plan also documents the capability assessment (administrative, fiscal, technical and political capacities), tools and appendices with detailed hazard data, community engagement records and exposure analyses by census tract.

Next steps: the county will post the draft on the HC Engage page, provide a two‑week public review window, incorporate comments, then submit the draft to the Florida Department of Emergency Management for review and to FEMA for approval before formal adoption by Hillsborough County and the three cities. County staff provided a QR code and an email (hazardmitigation@hcfl.gov) for submitting comments and said a recording and the presentation will be posted on HC Engage. No formal votes or binding decisions were taken at the meeting.

The draft plan is positioned to keep the county eligible for federal mitigation grant programs and for participation in the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System, which can reduce community flood insurance premiums. The presenters emphasized that the LMS is intended to be a living document: the LMS working group is scheduled to meet at least quarterly and the plan will be maintained and updated as funding opportunities and hazards change.