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Berkeley council adopts 2024 hazard mitigation plan to preserve federal aid eligibility
Summary
The council unanimously adopted the 2024 Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, updating Berkeley's safety-element appendix to meet FEMA and state requirements and preserve access to federal disaster recovery and mitigation funding; staff said the plan adds actions on wildfire vegetation management, sea-level rise and infectious-disease hazards.
The Berkeley City Council on March 18 adopted the 2024 Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP), a federally prescribed update that officials said is required to preserve the city’s eligibility for disaster recovery and hazard-mitigation funding. Deputy Fire Chief Keith May and Emergency Services Coordinator Jamie Albrecht presented the plan and said FEMA issued an approval pending local adoption.
“I'm here tonight to present the 2024 draft local hazard mitigation plan and here to ask council to adopt a resolution,” Emergency Services Coordinator Jamie Albrecht said, summarizing the document’s structure and the community outreach that informed it.
The plan, a roughly 400-page document assembled in-house, updates Berkeley’s risk assessment and mitigation strategy for natural and selected man-made hazards. Albrecht told council the 2024 plan adds hazards and new actions that reflect recent experience — including wildfire, earthquakes, sea‑level rise, utility interruptions and infectious disease — and ties mitigation projects to available funding.
Albrecht said the August 2024 public review produced more than 20 letters and over 100 comments. In response, the plan added a hazardous-vegetation section and new mitigation actions to strengthen evacuation planning and improve coordination between land-use planning and emergency services.
“Mitigation activities provide protect us by preventing damage in the first place,” Albrecht said, noting federal guidance that every dollar spent on mitigation can reduce later recovery costs.
Council members praised the outreach and technical depth of the plan before moving adoption. A motion to adopt the LHMP and amend the general plan to reference the 2024 LHMP was seconded and approved on a roll call vote.
Adoption will allow the city to return the locally adopted plan to FEMA for final approval and sustain eligibility for federal mitigation grants and post‑disaster recovery dollars. Staff said the plan focuses on 34 actions the city expects to pursue or fund over the next five years and includes a public-facing story map to help residents find hazard maps and local guidance.
The council’s action was procedural: it approves the plan and the narrow general-plan amendment updating the plan year. Further operational or program-level decisions identified in the plan will be carried out through separate staffing and budget processes.
Councilmembers said the plan will inform future budgeting and land-use choices and noted ongoing reports, including an evacuation-time study that staff expect to present in mid‑May.
