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Nevada County adopts FEMA‑approved 2024 Hazard Mitigation Plan to unlock future mitigation funding
Summary
The Board adopted the FEMA‑approved 2024 Nevada County Hazard Mitigation Plan, directing submission to Cal OES/FEMA and committing to annual plan maintenance; board discussion raised local concerns including how mines and cannabis agriculture are represented in the plan.
The Nevada County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Dec. 10 to adopt the 2024 County Hazard Mitigation Plan, a FEMA‑approved document county officials say is required under the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 to secure certain federal mitigation grants.
Craig Griesbach, director of the Office of Emergency Services, and project manager Paul Cummings summarized the 18‑month planning process, noting contributions from partners including the Nevada Irrigation District, Cal Fire, local fire chiefs and the Coalition of Firewise Communities. The plan examines quantitative hazard categories — wildfire, flood, earthquake, drought, landslide, hazardous materials release, extreme heat and cold, and winter storms — and includes annexes for partner jurisdictions that will be adopted locally after review by the California Office of Emergency Services and FEMA.
Officials said the plan is intended to make the county more competitive for Federal Emergency Management Agency mitigation grant programs and to create an actionable blueprint for risk reduction, resilience and coordinated response. Griesbach and Cummings outlined the public outreach carried out in English and Spanish, the steering committee participation, and a plan-monitoring protocol that commits the county to annual reviews.
Some supervisors asked about topics that were not emphasized in Volume 1, including cannabis agriculture and abandoned mines. Staff explained those matters are addressed in the plan’s hazard and secondary‑effect analysis and will be more specifically covered in jurisdictional annexes now under state review. Staff said federal funding constraints and the prevalence of federal land ownership around many mine sites limit how mitigation dollars can be applied directly to federal lands, which informed the plan’s framing.
The board voted to adopt the plan and directed staff to submit the required resolution to FEMA and Cal OES. The plan is effective upon submission and will expire in December 2029, with county staff planning to submit for next-round planning funds in 2027. Adoption preserves the county’s eligibility for future hazard mitigation grants and formalizes multiagency mitigation priorities.
