Vision Planning and Consulting is proud to announce the contract award to assist Howard County, Maryland, with their Hazard Mitigation Plan and Flood Mitigation Plan updates. Work officially began the beginning of October and the first Steering Committee is scheduled for mid-November.

The Steering Committee is composed of representatives from Planning and Zoning, Emergency Management, Economic Development, Department of Public Works, community and business representatives, and homeowners among others. The goal is to have input from various agencies, residents, and businesses across the county.

The first Steering Committee meeting will begin with the evaluation of the Flood and Hazard Mitigation Plan actions, goals, and objectives from the 2012 Plan. This includes identifying which of those original actions have been completed, are in process, or have been deferred. Public meetings are planned as well, to garner additional input from residents and businesses from around the county on multiple hazards, in addition to flooding.

Vision Planning and Consulting (VPC) recently completed the Hazard Mitigation Plan and Risk Assessment for the University of Delaware Sussex and Lewes Campuses. The 2016 Plan update included goals and mitigation actions to help protect the campus buildings and resources from hazards including flooding, winter storms, and coastal wind.

The Plan’s recommended actions included dry-floodproofing (building/creating a watertight seal to keep all water out of the building) the Marine Ops Building on the Lewes Campus. The building currently sits 1.5 feet below base flood elevation and extremely vulnerable to coastal and stormwater flooding.

In late 2016, the University submitted a FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) Grant Application to FEMA to seek funding to build a flood barrier wall with manual floodgates around the Marine Ops Building. The Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA) determined the project to be both technically feasible and cost effective and FEMA recommended approval for the project.

Congratulations to the University of Delaware in taking yet another big step toward disaster resiliency.