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2025 Hazard Mitigation Plan Kittitas County, Washington CHAPTER 2. PLANNING PROCESS The Kittitas County Hazard Mitigation Plan was developed to provide a basis for identifying and managing natural hazards, and to meet federal, state, and local requirements for hazard mitigation and FEMA mitigation grant funding. Updating this Plan began with an initial kick-off meeting with Kittitas County Public Works on September 21,2023. Following this meeting, a Steering Committee Meeting was held on December 11,2024,1o outline the planning process, discuss the role of the Steering Committee, identify the hazards that should be addressed in the 2025Plan update, and approve the mitigation goals and priorities. Furthermore, the planning process involved the following: . Review of the existing Plan. o Updating Kittitas County's hazard history. . Gathering information on local hazards from individual communities. o Gathering input on hazard priorities. . ldentifying specific vulnerabilities and desired mitigation strategies. o Evaluating the previous Plan goals, objectives, and mitigation strategies. . Determining the status of previous mitigation strategies and action plans. . ldentifying Repetitive Loss and Severe Repetitive Loss properties. . Facilitating the activities of the Steering Committee. . Conducting multiple public meetings and outreach activities (e.9., public survey, public comment period). lnformation regarding Kittitas County's hazards and applicable mitigation strategies was obtained through two (2) Stakeholder's Workshops held in the Public Works Upper County Shop and the Kittitas County Event Center Armory Main Hall on February 21,2024, and February 22,2024, respectively. Additionally, a comprehensive public survey that reached 158 residents and resulted in 108 completed responses. The 2025 Kittitas County Hazard Mitigation Questionnaire (i.e., Public Survey) was available in English and Spanish. The English and Spanish survey opened on September 1, 2023. As part of this Survey, Steering Committee members, community representatives, and members of the public were asked to rate each of the hazards in terms of perceived risk. Furthermore, they were asked to rate "mitigation importance" for each of the identified hazards in the Plan. The information gathered from this Survey was used to inform the hazard risk prioritization process, and to ensure the Plan adequately addressed the public's concerns and priorities. Two (2) Public Meetings were held throughout the County on February 21 and 22, 2024. These meetings were advertised for residents to have an opporlunity to provide input into the Plan. Additionally, a draft of the Plan was made available on the Kittitas County Public Works website for public review and comment between October 7 , 2024, through November 7 , 2024. The purpose of the two (2) Stakeholder Workshops was to ensure localjurisdictions had the opportunity to identify their community's risks and identify/update their mitigation strategies and priorities. These Workshops included local planning team members from each city, town, and special district. Participants validated the County's risk assessment findings, described specific hazard risks and concerns for their Chapter 2: Planning Process 11