Glendale (PDF) - Hazard Mitigation Web Portal - State of California

Natural Hazards Mitigation PlanCity of Glendale, CaliforniaSection 4 – Multi-Hazard Goals and Action ItemsConstraintsConstraints may apply to some of the action items. These constraints may be a currentlack of City staff to implement the action, lack of funds, or vested property rights thatmight expose the City to legal action as a result of adverse impacts on private property.Project Evaluation WorksheetsEvery jurisdiction has limitations on the number of mitigation activities that can becompleted within a given period of time, usually because of limited economic resources.This forces jurisdictions and agencies to review and select the most cost-effectivemitigation projects first, in essence prioritizing mitigation projects by their return oninvestment. Given the competition for available funding, multi-hazard action items aregenerally attractive and more likely to be implemented first. The challenge is to maintaina balance between mitigating projects that can be implemented readily and for a relativelysmall amount of money, with longer-term projects that cost more but have the potential toreally reduce the City’s vulnerability to natural hazards.To prioritize the implementation of the action items, and in conformance with FEMArecommendations, the committee conducted a generalized “STAPLEE” ranking analysis ofthe proposed action items. The STAPLEE process considers the Social, Technical,Administrative, Political, Legal, Economic, and Environmental benefits of a givenproposed action item and weighs these benefits against the costs of implementing theaction (see Table 4-1, below). Finding that the action items are in most cases generallyworded, the Committee then used the results of the first STAPLEE analysis to identify thoseaction items that have priority and develop more specific implementation measures thataddress the high priority action items. These specific implementation measures arequantifiable — the costs associated with them can be estimated to at least an order ofmagnitude if not better, and the completion of these action items is measurable, inagreement with the requirements that future updates of this Plan use metrics to qualify thesuccessful implementation of the action items in past versions of the Plan. These specificaction items were then prioritized using a similar STAPLEE approach. The prioritizationprocess, including a description of the criteria and grading system used for both thegeneral and specific action items is summarized in Tables 4-2 (STAPLEE ranking of thegeneral action items), 4-3 (STAPLEE ranking of specific action items) and 4-4 (gradingcriteria used in the STAPLEE process), respectively. These tables are at the end of thissection.Once the process of implementing an action item begins and funding for it is sought,Glendale can follow the FEMA-required Benefit Cost Analysis (BCA) by preparing andsubmitting to the appropriate agencies a Project Evaluation Worksheet as part of theproposal package. An example of a Project Evaluation Worksheet is included at the endof this section. The data on these worksheets can help the coordinating organization andother agencies and committees involved in the project assess the value of an action item(both in dollars and overall benefit to the community). Some projects may need a moredetailed BCA, but this worksheet provides a first-screening methodology.2006 PAGE 4 - 4