Funding & Policy Action Meeting – Q2

We look forward to seeing you all at the next Floodplains by Design Funding and Policy Action Group (FPAG) meeting on May 31^st from 9:00-11:00 AM. There has been a lot happening at the legislative, agency and community level related to increasing flood resilience as part of community planning so we have structured the following agenda to highlight the emerging items and implications for your work. The DRAFT agenda includes the following bullets. More information will be shared in the meeting packet at the end of next week.

• Debrief on Puget Sound Day on the Hill – Ahren Stroming (Puget Sound Partnership)
• Analysis and outcomes of the 2023 Legislative Session – Skippy Shaw (TNC)
• Climate Planning Element of Comp Plan Guidance and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Funding – Valerie Smith (Dept. of Commerce)
• Local funding and policy reflections following the 2021 floods in Whatcom County – Debra Johnson (Whatcom County)

Zoom Info: https://americanrivers-org.zoom.us/j/84980134297

EMD also recently shared an update on the State Enhanced Hazard Mitigation Plan (SEHMP)process and new FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) funding opportunities that I wanted to pass along.

SEHMP Update:

• • The draft 2023 SEHMP has gone through a first round of review with FEMA R10. FEMA published an updated Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) policy last year, which went into effect on April 19, 2023. Although EMD funded and developed the SEHMP under the 2015 policy and submitted the draft for review before April 19, R10 decided that the plan must meet the new policy – which means there are a handful of revisions and changes that have to be made that were not expected. Fortunately, they are nothing that require rewriting the draft or re-doing analyses, so EMD is still confident that they will meet their deadline for approval of September 30.

HMA:

• • • There is a new Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) round open for pre-applications right now. This round is related to DR-4682 (November 2022 floods/storms). A reminder that State agencies are eligible to apply for these funds. Click here for more info on the announcement. Pre-apps are due June 9.
    • The BRIC 23 announcement is expected by the end of summer/early fall, so EMD is starting to have conversations with State agency partners about project development. As always, EMD is looking for larger projects ($10+ million) that would be competitive nationally – that means lots of mitigation potential (good BCAs) while also addressing other concerns like social vulnerability, climate resilience, nature-based solutions, etc. If you have any ideas for a potential project, reach out to me and we can talk through it.

Please let Brandon Parsons (bparsons@americanrivers.org) know if you have any questions or if you have other ideas of timely topics to discuss.