While the June 16 meeting of the Windsor Town Council was filled with seat filling and vacancy discussions, there was additional business on the agenda that got done.
Annex to the Sonoma County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan
The council received a presentation on the draft town of Windsor annex to the Sonoma County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP), and authorized staff to submit the finalized draft to the Sonoma County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan to the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for review and approval.
If adopted and approved, this will supersede the town’s current hazard mitigation plan and allow the town to be more tied into the surrounding county resources in case of emergency.
HMP’s are required by law to be eligible for federal aid money and must be approved by the above mentioned agencies to be legitimate. The plans identify natural hazards specific to a local area or agency and evaluated the potential impacts to people, structures, infrastructure and the economy, according to Planner Kim Jordan who presented the plan. The HMPs must be updated every year.
The work to create the HMP is being funded by a FEMA grant that covers 75% of the costs. The agencies coming together under the county’s HMP at present include, the county of Sonoma. the cities of Santa Rosa, Cotati, Sonoma and the town of Windsor.
The primary benefits to being part of a multi-jurisdictional HMP, according to Jordan are, “the ability to pool resources, eliminate redundant activities, provide opportunities for inter-jurisdictional collaboration and create stronger grant applications.”
She also pointed out the a multi-jurisdictional HMP “recognizes that hazards cross jurisdictional and political boundaries, enhances public awareness and understand throughout the county, and promotes compliance with state and federal program.”
The town’s current HMP expires in 2023, so the annexation will take the place of updating that plan.
The draft plan identifies the following hazards in Windsor: dam failure; drought; earthquakes, including liquefaction; extreme weather, including extreme heat; flooding; landslides; and wildfire. Dam failure and earthquake are listed as the highest hazards, due to the large scale destruction and loss of life potential, however the town and county petitioned to move wildfire up into that higher category as well, given the recent history and concerns about the climate going forward, according to Jordan.
Going forward, there will be a public review of the draft from July 12 to July 30, and a community meeting open to all on the drat on July 21. (This meeting is being put on by the county for all annexed towns and cities, though they are the lead agency). From Aug. 1 to Aug. 5 there will be revisions to the draft plan in response to public comments, and in early August of 2021 the plan will be submitted to Cal OES and FEMA for review and conditional approval. Following that approval, the plan will come back to the town council to adopt to the Windsor Annex.
The council voted unanimously to accept the plan and submit it up the chain as necessary.
Other items
Public hearing for the town’s lighting and landscape districts garnered no public comment, and the resolutions to approve the annual engineer’s reports passed unanimously. These public hearings are the third and final action for the council to take this year in relation to these districts.
The estimated deficit in LLAD-1 to be covered by the General Fund is $1,523,596.60. This is an increase of $97,218.44 (+6.8%) from last year. The difference is due primarily to attendance to deferred tree maintenance and mandatory minimum wage increases. The estimated reserve balance for LLAD-1 is expected to be zero for Zones 1, 2, 3 and 6 at the end of FY 2021-22.
Parcels in the LLAD-2 assessment district pay the full cost of their LLAD-1 Zone 1 parks benefit as determined through assessments. Ballot packets were mailed out to parcels proposed for annexation on May 2, 2021. On May 10, staff held a public information meeting and no one from the public attended the meeting.
This district currently consists of 16 zones. An estimated maximum annual assessment has been established for the new zones and increases to the maximum annual assessment by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation factor will be allowed. One new development is proposed for annexation into existing Zone 102, Supplemental Parks. The 2020 inflation rate of +2.0% will be applied to the existing maximum annual assessment amounts for each zone. The total budget for FY 2021-22 is $152,180.21.
Staff needs to now conduct a ballot tabulation of received annexation ballots, and determine if the proposed zones will be annexed.
The council also voted in favor extending the urgency ordinance that allows for the temporary consumption of alcoholic beverages on public streets, parking areas and sidewalks in the downtown area to help address the economic impacts to businesses resulting from COVID-19 and the associated health orders.
The vote extends the ordinance which was due to expire on June 17 until Dec. 1, 2021.
The council also made its final approvals of the budget, will be written up in a separate article.
