Resolution_2025 Kittitas County Hazard Mitigation Plan

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2025 Hazard Mitigation Plan Kittitas County, Washington Chapter 3: Community Profile 49 Table 3-23. Potential Future Integration Planning Initiative Description County Comprehensive Plan The next Comprehensive Plan periodic update is due by 2026. A ninth element – Climate Change and Resiliency – must be added as part of this update. This new element is designed to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance resiliency to and avoid the adverse impacts of climate change . Furthermore, the Plan must include efforts to reduce localized greenhouse gas emissions and avoid creating or worsening localized climate impacts to vulnerable populations and overburdened communities. This Hazard Mitigation Plan will be reviewed for eligibility to be incorporated, by reference, in the 2026 Comprehensive Plan to address the climate resilience sub-element. Community Wildfire Protection Plan The Hazard Mitigation Plan and CWPP should be aligned and mitigation actions in the Hazard Mitigation Plan should support the goals of the CWPP. Analysis of the wildfire hazard in this Hazard Mitigation Plan can inform updates and revisions to the CWPP. In addition to the Washington State Wildland Fire Protection 10-Year Strategic Plan and the Washington State Eastern Washington 20-Year Forest Health Strategic Plan, updates to the CWPP will be informed by the Washington Shrubsteppe Restoration and Resiliency Initiative, the USFS wildfire crisis strategy (i.e., Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America’s Forests), and policy recommendations developed by the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission (i.e., On Fire: The Report of the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission). Capital Improvement Plan The CIP should include mitigation measures that will be funded by the County such as improvements to stormwater collection systems, elevation of roadways at risk for flooding and strengthening of structures. Capital improvement project proposals may take into consideration hazard mitigation potential as a means of evaluating project prioritization. Community Rating System CRS planning activities should be aligned with risks and mitigation actions in the Hazard Mitigation Plan. Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan The Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan directly identifies strategies and projects needed to address drought-related water shortages under current conditions, and climate change and resiliency needs. The County’s Local Planning Team will identify all relevant planning initiatives that are scheduled to be updated in the next year and during the annual update process of the Hazard Mitigation Plan. Additionally, opportunities to integrate key elements of the Hazard Mitigation Plan, specifically any relevant strategies, into the planning initiatives will be identified by the Local Planning Team. Mitigation actions were identified to promote plan integration in future revisions of this Plan. 3.11. NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE PROGRAM As of July 2023, six (6) jurisdictions within Kittitas County are members of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Only unincorporated Kittitas County participates in the Community Rating System (CRS) which is a voluntary incentive program that recognizes and encourages community floodplain management activities that exceed the minimum NFIP requirements. As a result, flood insurance premium rates are discounted to reflect the reduced flood risk resulting from the community actions, meeting the three (3) goals of the CRS: • Reduce flood losses. • Facilitate accurate insurance ratings.