Travis County Commssioners Court
April 22, 2003
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Item 2
Item number 2, discuss draft mitigation plan and plan for public comment and take appropriate action. Melinda and joe, this is an item that we had presented to the court last week, but if we could have an abbreviated staff presentation, then we'll go from there. Good morning.
>> good morning, Commissioners. [inaudible] transportation and natural resources department. We're here today to ask for the Commissioners court's authorization to release a draft plan for hazard mitigation for public review and comment. The plan has been prepared by a committee of members including county departments of office of emergency services, flood plain administrator, various staff from transportation and natural resources, in coordination with several other entities that deal with these issues, the city of Austin, the lower colorado river authority. The purpose of the plan is to identify measures that can be taken to reduce loss of life and property in future disasters. We've looked at primarily floods that also included other potential disasters such as fire, ice storms or tornados. What we appropriate to do now is take the draft plan that we've presented to you in the work session last week and post it on the internet at the county's website, distribute it to libraries, mail it out to the individuals that attended our public meetings who expressed an interest in it and anyone else who asks us for a copy, and send it to the organizations that are in t.n.r.'s database. We'll hold open the public comment period for three weeks. Of course, we would continue to encourage people to give us comments on the plan as long as they want to. It will be a living document. But what we receive in the next three weeks will be incorporated into the final draft that we'll be bringing to you for approval in about early to mid-june.
>> melinda, would we actually have to conduct a public hearing on whatever the final version of this document is?
>> I believe so.
>> okay. That's why we're not having a public hearing because it's not a document in its final stage for us to --
>> that's correct. We're following actually four different sets of state and federal guidelines, and so there's a series of requirements. We've already held two public meetings out in the communities. We will post this for review, then we'll be coming back tore the hearing, as you say, when it's in final form.
>> is it my understanding this [inaudible] just a couple of questions. With this particular document, we in the preparation of it, we are kind of in a lead role as far as having this placed out in this particular regard, what will be the status of it as far as us doing it, the county doing it at this point and where is everybody else that has to basically do some of the same similar things that we're doing today.
>> yes, sir, I believe Travis County is in a lead role in getting this plan to completion. There is a requirement that's come out from the state and fema that will require every city, county, local government in the country to have such a plan in place by November of 2004. And because we have an ongoing program to mitigate for flood in particular, we've made sure that we got in early and have our plan produced early and I believe we will be the first ones to have it into the state, that we know of.
>> I think your point was also that we will not be eligible for any kind of proactive or reactive grants unless we have some kind of a mitigation plan in place, so we don't want to sell ourselves short in terms of getting the aid that this community may deserve if indeed circumstances warrant it. Any other questions from members of the court?
>> no, and we don't want to delay anything, this action, so I would move that we release this draft for public comment. All of the things that you said would be done, posted on the website, sent to libraries, to the t.n.r.'s database, and it will be out there for three weeks.
>> and I would like to add where to -- the public can submit these comments. To the transportation and natural resource department, post office box 1748, Austin, Texas, 78767, to the attention of me, melinda mallia.
>> it's been moved and seconded to go with the authorization of the plan as suggested by t.n.r. Any other questions, concerns?
>> I would just like to thank staff for doing such a great job. I think you have done a great job and I would like to tell you that publicly.
>> Commissioner Daugherty?
>> I understand the importance of this. I mean, I think everybody does, but I do need to make sure that everybody is really going to understand that the storm water management part in particular of this is going to be -- going to be one expensive undertaking for the county. We're going to be relegated, I guess, joe, to find a way to pay for those things, and I know that those will be of utmost importance to your staff about how we go forward with this kind of stuff, but this has some huge financial implications to the county, and we are relegated to find out what to do because we have got to take care of some of the issues that we are having in this county.
>> well, let me say that there is a -- probably a larger cost in terms of buying properties within the flood plain if we don't adopt this plan. And with this proactive plan, there are other drainage issues associated with our subdivision regulations, and that's somewhat aside from the hazard mitigation plan. We reported to the court on both of those issues on -- during the work session. This particular plan doesn't have as much of a price tag with regard to the drainage maintenance as the issue of the drainage [inaudible] in our subdivision regulations. But with that said, there is a cost if we don't begin to properly regulate what is going on in our flood hazard areas. And this plan does address that.
>> thank you.
>> any other questions, concerns from members of the court? We have a motion on the floor. All those in favor? That passes unanimously. Thank you.
>> thank you all very much.
>> you've done a great job.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 5:52 PM