A Local Mitigation Strategy (LMS) is a plan developed by each county to reduce and or eliminate the risks associated with natural and man-made hazards. These plans must be in accordance with the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA 2000). DMA 2000 is a mechanism for collaboration between state and local entities that encourages pre-disaster planning, recognizes need for mitigation, and designates funding for projects through Federal grant opportunities.

In 1998, the County approved a subcontract with New Port Richey (and other municipalities) to develop a single, unified LMS for Pasco County. The City approved Resolution 1999-9 on September 7, 1999, supporting and adopting the Pasco County LMS and re-adopted the revisions for 2004, 2009 and 2015. The LMS must be revised every five years. The County and participating municipalities must approve and adopt the revised unified LMS, prior to receiving final Florida Division of Emergency Management approval.

The revised LMS is intended to be a guide for the implementation of pre-disaster mitigation and post disaster recovery initiatives. The implementation and adoption of the revised LMS will benefit City in many ways. First, implementation of the strategy can decrease the human and economic costs of disasters by addressing community vulnerabilities before a disaster strikes. Second, the strategy identifies the programs and projects needed for more effective hazard mitigation and places priorities on their implementation. Third, it will help to secure funding for the community that may not otherwise be available, or may be more time consuming to obtain. Additional access to state and federal dollars is a significant benefit of having an approved, adopted LMS.

The City participates in the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program and the Community Rating System (CRS).  The City’s Class 6 rating affords a 20 percent reduction in flood insurance premiums for owners of property in flood prone areas. A requirement for participation in the CRS program is to maintain a Local Mitigation Strategy which takes into consideration local comprehensive plans, land development regulations, storm water plans, local flooding and construction codes. The current LMS revision also provides status updates for ongoing mitigation projects and discusses anticipated future projects to be undertaken.

In the city 1,211 residences have flood insurance, representing $249 million in protection. $9.3 million in claims was paid out last year.

There are several large appendix files that are too large to be downloaded to the agenda folder. The entire document with the appendices is available on the Planning and Development website.