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Hazard Mitigation

Mitigating Against Hazards

Hazard mitigation is defined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as “any sustained action taken to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to human life and property from a hazard event.” The Federal Emergency Management Agency mandates communities update their Hazard Mitigation Plan every five years. As a jurisdiction within Jefferson County, a multi-departmental team from the City of Arvada participated in the 2021 update process towards the goal of reducing the impacts of events like flooding and fire on residents and property in our community. This plan is a valuable resource as the City works to protect our residents and resources to make our community more resilient.

2021 Plan Update

To begin the update process, Jefferson County and its communities identified hazards that threaten our residents and determined the likely impacts of those hazards. After assessing and identifying risks, the City set mitigation goals for the next five years. This planning process culminated in an annex specific to Arvada, which provides a more detailed assessment of our unique risks as well as our specific mitigation strategy. It contains:

  • A community profile summarizing geography and climate, history, economy, and population;
  • Hazard information detailing previous occurrences and probability of future occurrences;
  • Vulnerability information in terms of future growth and development in hazard areas;
  • A capability assessment describing existing regulations, planning documents or personnel in the organization with a role in mitigation;
  • Outreach efforts and partnerships and past mitigation projects.

View the final plan documents here:  https://www.jeffco.us/488/Hazard-Mitigation-Plan (scroll to the bottom of the webpage).

Public Outreach/other Key Dates

Community engagement and feedback was included throughout the updating process and other important milestones were achieved. They include: