Castle Valley mitigation committee approves edits to plan-review tool, to submit draft next week

Castle Valley’s Hazard Mitigation Committee on Dec. 10 approved edits to its draft hazard mitigation plan and the associated plan-review tool and agreed to submit the materials to reviewers next week.

The meeting chair opened the discussion of item 3 by asking Colleen, who prepared a three-page markup, to describe proposed language to meet reviewer comments. Colleen said she added text on page 10 explaining how the jurisdiction integrated mitigation planning into other planning mechanisms, and proposed a short sentence describing how background documents informed the committee’s hazard evaluations.

The committee debated requirements in the review tool that ask whether the plan documents each participant’s existing authorities and the ability to expand capabilities. Members noted ambiguity in terms — jurisdiction, participant and agency — and clarified that because Castle Valley is the approving jurisdiction for this plan, descriptions should focus on what the town controls while also listing contributing participants (for example, the road department and the emergency operations group).

On how to reflect capacity constraints, the committee agreed to add brief language to the resources/assets section noting that the town’s ability to expand and improve identified capabilities is limited without increases in property-tax revenue. “Our capabilities are limited to these resources without increasing tax revenue,” the meeting chair said when summarizing the agreed wording.

Committee members also addressed a reviewer request that the plan describe how existing plans, studies and technical information were incorporated. Colleen proposed adding a concise sentence stating that listed sources provided background information for committee deliberations and were used to evaluate hazard scenarios; members agreed to include page references to the appendices that list those sources, including the town’s drainage master plan.

The group debated whether a separate public hearing was required to adopt the plan. Members recalled prior open meetings and said the town can submit the plan and appendices as a separate file and act by resolution, so they agreed to delete the paragraph about holding a formal public hearing to make room for required additions.

The committee agreed to adopt Colleen’s edits, work with Holly to finalize formatting and page numbers, and submit the plan and review worksheet to reviewers next week for evaluation. The chair summarized the consensus: “We’re approving the changes that Colleen came up with … Let’s ship it.”

At the start of the meeting the committee also approved minutes from the Oct. 9, 2024 meeting; the chair called for aye votes and recorded affirmative responses.

Members closed the meeting by discussing whether Castle Valley should rejoin a county-led multijurisdictional plan or continue independently. Some members said joining Grand County could marginally improve prospects for certain federal funding thresholds in a large disaster; others said local control and the process of developing the town’s own plan produced more targeted mitigation projects and local buy-in. The committee will revisit that question after reviewer feedback and when planning the next update.

The committee expects reviewer comments within the agency’s evaluation window and will schedule its next meeting after receiving that feedback.