PALM BEACH COUNTY — On behalf of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) is administering a Community Development Block Grant Mitigation Program (CDBG-MIT) to provide funding for disaster mitigation projects in areas impacted by presidentially declared disasters in 2016 and 2017. A total of $20 million is available statewide for the General Planning Support Program (GPSP), with a maximum of $10 million available per project. The objective of the GPSP is to better protect Florida from future disasters by developing and improving state, regional, and local plans and improving state and local mitigation planning mechanisms. In accordance with procedural requirements established by DEO, Palm Beach County plans to apply for CDBG-MIT GPSP funding for the following project:

Palm Beach County Vulnerability Assessment and Resilience Action Plan. The project will identify strategies to mitigate and adapt to hazard risks including flooding, severe storms, tropical cyclones, coastal erosion, and wildfires, all of which are exacerbated by climate change and sea level rise. The objective of the project is to enhance Palm Beach County’s ability to mitigate the risks of natural hazards and protect community lifelines to enable continuous operation of government functions and critical businesses that are essential to human health and safety and economic security.

Through this project, Palm Beach County intends to prepare a vulnerability assessment that will focus on unincorporated areas of the county and its western municipalities that include Belle Glade, Pahokee and South Bay. The county will then use the vulnerability assessment and other resources to finalize a Resilience Action Plan for the entire county. The estimated project cost is $800,000.

For more information, to submit comments, or to request a copy of the application, please contact Megan Houston, director of the Palm Beach County Office of Resilience at mshouston@pbcgov.org or 561-681-3812.