Glendale Local Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan

SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION Throughout history, the residents of southern California, including the city of Glendale, have experienced and dealt with a variety of natural hazards common to the area. In the 1700s and 1800s, when there were fewer people in the area, these natural hazards adversely affected the lives of those who depended directly on the land and climatic conditions for their food and welfare. Therefore, when a natural event disrupted their lives, the survivors often recorded their impressions in journals, letters, newspaper articles, and more recently, photographs. In the 1900s, as we began to attempt to understand and modify the natural environment to reduce the impact of these natural hazards on the local population and the environment, natural events were also recorded in scientific journals. Many of these sources are referred to in the following chapters in an effort to document the area's past vulnerability to specific natural hazards, and to assess the area's potential future risks. This is especially important because as the population of southern California increases, natural hazards have the potential to pose an even higher risk to the population and the economic welfare of the area. Southern California is the fifth largest economy in the world, and the city of Glendale, as the third most populous city in Los Angeles County is a vibrant and significant member of that economy. People originally from all over the United States and the world now call the city of Glendale home because of its gentle Mediterranean climate, geographical attributes (the ocean and mountains are both within a one- to two-hour drive) and ample job opportunities. However, the area's terrain is the product of powerfully active natural forces forming and tearing down mountains at remarkable rates by geological standards, and when humans interact with this changing environment, there is a high possibility for the population to be negatively impacted. Thus, a natural event, such as an earthquake, clearly has the potential to cause significant damage at the personal, local, and regional levels. In this document we discuss scenarios that estimate how much damage (in terms of loss of life, injuries, and economic loss) an earthquake could cause in Glendale. In addition to earthquakes, the city of Glendale, like most of the region, is also subject to wildfires, floods, landslides and debris flows, windstorms, tornadoes, and other geological hazards. Some of these hazards, like tornadoes, occur fairly infrequently and are difficult to predict, whereas others, such as expansive or compressible soils, can be effectively mitigated with engineering applications. The historical record and our current state of knowledge indicate that those hazards with the potential to cause the most damage in Glendale, listed in order of decreasing severity, include earthquakes, wildfires, floods, and landslides. These are the four natural hazards that are covered in most detail in this document, given that it is possible to minimize the losses that result from these hazards through careful planning and community participation in the implementation of natural hazard reduction measures. Why Develop a Local Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan? As the costs of damage from natural disasters continue to increase, communities realize the importance of identifying effective ways to reduce their vulnerability to disasters. Hazard mitigation plans assist communities in reducing their risk from natural hazards by identifying resources, information, and strategies for risk reduction, while helping to guide and coordinate mitigation activities throughout the area. This document aims to do just that for the city of Glendale, California. The Plan provides a set of action items that if implemented can help reduce the risk from natural hazards through education and outreach programs, by fostering the development of partnerships, and by implementing preventive activities (such as land use programs) that restrict and control development in areas subject to damage from natural hazards. The resources and information contained within the Mitigation Plan: Establish a basis for coordination and collaboration among agencies and the public in the city of Glendale; Identify and prioritize future mitigation projects; and Assist in meeting the requirements of federal assistance programs. The Local Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan works in conjunction with other City plans, including the City's Safety Element of the General Plan and the City's Emergency Operations Plans. Whom Does the Mitigation Plan Affect? Glendale's Local Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan affects the entire city (see Map 1.1 below). This Plan provides a framework for planning for the four main natural hazards that have the potential to impact the Glendale area. The resources and background information in the Plan is applicable citywide, and the goals and recommendations can lay the groundwork for local mitigation plans and partnerships. Natural Hazard Land Use Policy in California Planning for natural hazards should be an integral element of any city's land use planning program. All California cities and counties are required to have Safety Elements, one of seven mandatory elements of their General Plans, that document the natural hazards specific to the area, and provide the framework by which ordinances to reduce these hazards are implemented. However, Safety Elements are typically updated only once every 15 to 25 years, and are often superseded by other local and statewide planning regulations. With the requirements for Local Hazard Mitigation Plans, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has essentially exported the California municipal Safety Element idea to the rest of the United States, but they also have expanded on it by requiring a more publicly open and economically quantifiable planning process for community disaster reduction, and a process by which the document is reviewed yearly and updated every five years. Current Safety Elements such as Glendale's recently adopted document (adopted in October, 2003), emphasize hazard mapping and develop forward-looking land use planning policies to minimize those hazards. FEMA has directed that, following the hazard mapping effort, an emphasis be placed on hazard mitigation policies that are based on quantifiable vulnerability, loss, and risk analysis. FEMA also requires extensive public participation in this process, because they recognize that without public education and citizen buy-in of mitigation needs, it is nearly impossible to mobilize the level of support necessary to fully begin to deal with multi-hazard mitigation over multi-decadal timescales. Map 1.1 - City of Glendale, in the center, showing the major roadways that traverse the area. Source: 2004 Thomas Brothers Maps. The continuing challenge faced by local officials and state government is to keep the local hazard mitigation plans effective in responding to the changing conditions and needs of California's diverse and growing communities without forgetting the effect that low-probability but high-risk natural events (such as major earthquakes and floods, which can skip entire generations and are therefore likely to be dismissed over time) can have on the built environment. This is particularly true in the case of planning for natural hazards where communities must balance development pressures with detailed information on the nature and extent of hazards. Planning for natural hazards therefore calls for local plans to include inventories, policies, and ordinances to guide the safe development of areas that history shows can be greatly impacted by infrequent but large-magnitude natural hazard events. These inventories should include the compendium of hazards facing the community, the built environment at risk, the personal property that may be damaged by hazard events, and most of all, the people who live in the shadow of these hazards. Support for Natural Hazard Mitigation All mitigation is local, and the primary responsibility for development and implementation of risk reduction strategies and policies lies with local jurisdictions. Local jurisdictions, however, are not alone. Partners and resources exist at the regional, State and Federal levels. Numerous California state agencies have a role in the research and public education about natural hazards and in natural hazard mitigation. Some of these key agencies include: The Governor's Office of Emergency Services (OES) is responsible for disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery, and the administration of federal funds after a major disaster declaration; The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) gathers information about earthquakes, integrates this information on earthquake phenomena, and communicates this to end-users and the general public to increase earthquake awareness, reduce economic losses, and save lives; The California Division of Forestry (CDF) is responsible for all aspects of wildland fire protection on state lands, and administers forest practices regulations on non-federal lands; The California Geological Survey (CGS) is responsible for geologic hazard characterization, public education, and the development of partnerships aimed at reducing risk, and The California Division of Water Resources (DWR) plans, designs, constructs, operates, and maintains the State Water Project; regulates dams; provides flood protection; and assists in emergency management. It also educates the public, and serves local water needs by providing technical assistance. Plan Methodology Information in the Mitigation Plan is based on research from a variety of sources, with emphasis on data previously collected by the consultant for the City's Safety Element of the General Plan, a document adopted by City Council in 2003. The consultant was helped on this effort by staff from the City of Glendale, who conducted data research, facilitated steering committee meetings and public workshops, and developed the final Local Hazard Mitigation Plan. The research methods and various contributions to the Plan include: Input From the Steering Committee The Hazard Mitigation Advisory Committee guided development of the Mitigation Plan. The committee played an integral role in developing the mission, goals, and action items for the Mitigation Plan. The committee consisted of representatives of public and private agencies and organizations in the City of Glendale, including: City of Glendale Fire Department, including Emergency Services City of Glendale Community Planning Department City of Glendale Police Department City of Glendale Public Works Department City of Glendale Management Services City of Glendale Police Department City of Glendale Water and Power City of Glendale Parks, Recreation, and Community Services Department City of Glendale Information Services City of Glendale Development Services City of Glendale Management Services Glendale Unified School District Glendale Memorial Hospital Verdugo Hills Hospital Recognizing that work "by committee" often needs to be streamlined to be effective, the first four members on the Advisory Committee currently form the Glendale Hazard Mitigation Steering Committee. These members have the added responsibility of overseeing implementation of the Plan. Additional information regarding the responsibilities of the committees is provided in Section 5. Stakeholder Interviews City staff has conducted interviews with individuals and specialists from organizations interested in natural hazards planning since 2002, when the process of preparing the Safety Element of the General Plan began. The Safety Element was adopted in 2003 after a comprehensive planning process that included public input in the form of community open-house meetings, and presentations to the public and City officials. The Draft Plan was also placed on the City's Wide Web site and feedback was sought from each reviewer. Copies of the Draft Plan were made available for review in all branches of the Glendale Public Library. Once the Plan is adopted by City Council, the final document will be available on the City's Web site and at each branch of the Glendale Public Library. More recently, the City has been involved in Long Range Planning, a process that has included extensive public outreach and input. More than twelve public meetings were held, drawing more than 600 residents. Notices of these public meetings were posted on the City Web site, distributed with utility bills, and advertised in the local newspapers. In addition, focus group meetings were held with stakeholders, including representatives of the local hospitals (May 3, 2006), Glendale Unified School District (April 27, 2006), Chamber of Commerce (April 27, 2006), and American Red Cross (April 28, 2006). The purpose of these meetings was to discuss integration of their own disaster mitigation and response plans with the City Plan. These meetings were also instrumental in identifying common concerns related to natural hazards and developing key long- and short-term activities to reduce risk from natural hazards. Under the Plan, these partnerships will be fostered and will play a role in regional mitigation and response planning. To summarize, stakeholders interviewed for the Plan included representatives from: Glendale Unified School District Local hospitals City of Glendale Chamber of Commerce American Red Cross Los Angeles County Fire Department Los Angeles County Public Works Utility Providers Local Businesses and Local Citizens State and Federal Guidelines and Requirements for Mitigation Plans Following are the Federal requirements for approval of a Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan: Open public involvement, with public meetings that introduce the process and project requirements. The public must be afforded opportunities for involvement in identifying and assessing risk, drafting a Plan, and public involvement in approval stages of the Plan. Community cooperation, with opportunity for other local government agencies, the business community, educational institutions, and non-profits to participate in the process. Incorporation of local documents, including the City's General Plan, the Zoning Ordinance, the Building Codes, and other pertinent documents. The following components must be part of the planning process: Complete documentation of the planning process; A detailed risk assessment on hazard exposures in the community; A comprehensive mitigation strategy, which describes the goals and objectives, including proposed strategies, programs and actions to avoid long-term vulnerabilities; A plan maintenance process, which describes the method and schedule of monitoring, evaluating and updating the Plan and integration of the All Hazard Mitigation Plan into other planning mechanisms; Formal adoption by the City Council; and Plan review by both FEMA and State OES. These requirements are spelled out in greater detail in the following sections of the Plan and supporting documentation. A minimum of two public workshops (or other public forums) is recommended to meet the requirement for public participation, in addition to the inclusion of representatives from outside organizations on the planning committee itself. The timing and scheduling of the workshops may vary from one community to another depending on how each city's committee organizes its work and the particular needs of the community. Glendale's consultant and City staff examined existing mitigation plans from around the country, current FEMA hazard mitigation planning standards (386 series) and the State of California Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan Guidance. Other reference materials consisted of county and city mitigation plans, including: Clackamas County (Oregon) Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan City of Long Beach Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan Upper Arkansas Area Risk Assessment and Hazard Mitigation Plan State of Arkansas Hazard Mitigation Plan City of Pasadena Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan City of Torrance Hazards Mitigation Plan Los Angeles Specific Planning Guidebook provided by the DMACs of Area C Hazard Specific Research Glendale's consultant and staff collected data and compiled research on four hazards: earthquakes, wildfires, flooding, and landslides. Research materials used include publications by federal agencies such as FEMA and the U.S. Geological Survey; state agencies such as CGS, OES and CDF; the City of Glendale's Safety Element, and other sources. The City's consultant conducted research by referencing historical local sources, interviewing long-time City of Glendale employees, who provided invaluable data regarding past local disasters, and locating information specific to the city of Glendale in historical documents. City of Glendale's staff evaluated the feasibility and potential effectiveness of the proposed mitigation activities, resources and programs, and potential action items based on their experience in implementing the action items in the Safety Element, and from feedback from stakeholder interviews. Public Workshops and Public Input City of Glendale's staff facilitated two public meetings to gather comments and ideas from City of Glendale citizens about mitigation planning and priorities for mitigation plan goals as part of the Safety Element of the General Plan. The first open-house meeting was held in the conference room of the City's Planning Department on April 14, 2003. The second meeting was a meeting open to the public that included a presentation to the City's Planning Commission. This meeting was held on September 8, 2003 in City Council Chambers. A third, also televised presentation, was made to City Council on October 7, 2003 as part of the adoption of the Safety Element. The Draft of the Safety Element was placed on the City's Web site and feedback was sought from each reviewer. Copies of the document were also made available for review in all branches of the Glendale Public Library. Over the last two years (2004-2006), the City has been involved in Long Range Planning, an effort that has included extensive public outreach and input. More than twelve public meetings were held drawing more than 600 citizens. Additional information regarding these community meetings is provided in Appendix B. The resources and information cited in the Hazard Mitigation Plan provide a strong local perspective and help identify strategies and activities to make City of Glendale more disaster-resilient. How is the Plan Used? Each section of the Local Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan provides information and resources to assist people in understanding the hazard-related issues facing Glendale's citizens, businesses, and the environment. Combined, the sections of the Plan work together to create a document that guides the mission to reduce risk and prevent loss from future natural hazard events. The structure of the Plan enables the user to refer to specific sections of interest to him or her. It also allows City government to review and update sections when new data become available. The ability to update individual sections of the Hazard Mitigation Plan places less of a financial burden on the City. Decision-makers can allocate funding and staff resources to selected pieces in need of review, thereby avoiding a full update, which can be costly and time-consuming. New data can be easily incorporated, resulting in a Local Hazards Mitigation Plan that remains current and relevant to the city of Glendale. Glendale's Local Hazard Mitigation Plan is organized in three volumes. Volume I contains the executive summary followed by Sections 1 through 5; introduction, community profile, risk assessment, multi-hazard goals and action items, and Plan maintenance. Volume II contains the four natural hazard sections (Sections 6 through 9) and Volume III includes the appendices. Each section of the Plan is described below. Volume I: Mitigation Action Plan Executive Summary: Five-Year Action Plan The Five-Year Action Plan provides an overview of the Hazard Mitigation Plan's mission, goals, and action items. The Plan's action items are included in this section, and address multi-hazard issues, as well as hazard-specific activities that can be implemented to reduce risk and prevent loss from future natural hazard events. Section 1: Introduction The Introduction describes the background and purpose of developing the Local Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan for the city of Glendale. Section 2: Community Profile This section presents the history, geography, demographics, and socioeconomics of the city of Glendale. It serves as a tool to provide an historical perspective of natural hazards in the city, and a springboard to understand how natural hazards can impact the city in the future. Section 3: Risk Assessment This section provides information on hazard identification, vulnerability and risk associated with natural hazards in the city of Glendale. Section 4: Multi-Hazard Goals and Action Items This section provides information on the process used to develop goals and action items that cut across the four natural hazards addressed in the Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan (the Multi-Hazard Action Items), and also includes the hazard-specific action items. Section 4 is the "Policy Document" that establishes the specific action items that the City will undertake to reduce its risk to natural hazards. Section 5: Plan Maintenance This section provides information on Plan implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Volume II: Hazard Specific Information Hazard-specific information on four chronic hazards is addressed in this Plan. Chronic hazards occur with some regularity and may be forecasted through historic evidence and scientific methods. Catastrophic hazards do not occur with the frequency of chronic hazards, but notwithstanding, they can have devastating impacts on life, property, and the environment. In southern California, because of its geology and terrain, earthquakes, wildfires, floods, and landslides have the potential to be catastrophic as well as chronic hazards. The hazards addressed in the Plan include: Section 6: Earthquakes Section 7: Wildfires Section 8: Floods, Mudflows, and Catastrophic Inundation due to Failure of Reservoirs Section 9: Landslides and Slope Instability Each of the hazard-specific sections includes information on the history, hazard causes and characteristics, hazard assessment, goals and action items, and local, state, and national resources available to mitigate or reduce the impact of these hazards. Volume III: Resources The Plan appendices are designed to provide users of Glendale's Local Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan with additional information to assist them in understanding the contents of the Mitigation Plan, and potential resources to assist them with implementation. Appendix A: Plan Resource Directory This appendix provides a resource directory, which includes city, regional, State, and national resources and programs that may be of technical and/or financial assistance to the City of Glendale during Plan implementation. Appendix B: Public Participation Process This appendix includes specific information on the various public processes used during development of the Plan. Appendix C: Benefit Cost Analysis This appendix describes FEMA's requirements for benefit cost analysis in natural hazards mitigation, as well as various approaches for conducting economic analysis of proposed mitigation activities. Appendix D: List of Acronyms This appendix provides a list of acronyms for city, regional, state, and federal agencies and organizations that may be referred to within Glendale's Local Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan. Appendix E: Glossary This appendix provides a glossary of terms used throughout the Plan. Appendix F: California Disasters This appendix lists major California disasters since 1950. Appendix G: List of Dams This appendix provides a list of major dams and reservoirs in Los Angeles County. Appendix H: Maps This appendix contains the maps referenced throughout the Plan. Appendix I: References This appendix contains a listing of references used in the preparation of the Plan. Appendix J: Plan Adoption Documentation regarding the formal adoption of the Plan. Send us your feedback! EMAIL ADDRESS:          Return to Glendale Local Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan page