Palos Verdes Peninsula Multi-jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan
The Palos Verdes Peninsula cities are developing a local Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan to submit to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The plan addresses threats from potential natural hazards and identifies possible strategies to reduce impacts. The purpose of hazard mitigation planning is to reduce loss of life and property damage by minimizing the impact of natural disasters. Jurisdictions must have either their own Hazard Mitigation Plan on file with FEMA or be a participating entity in a FEMA-approved Hazard Mitigation Plan to be eligible for many federal funding opportunities.
The City of Rolling Hills Estates was awarded funding through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and is collaborating with the City of Palos Verdes Estates, the City of Rancho Palos Verdes, the City of Rolling Hills, Klondike Canyon Geologic Hazard Abatement District, and Abalone Cove Landslide Abatement District to develop the Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan. This planning effort is being supported by a contract consultant, Black & Veatch. The plan will identify hazards, assess risk from those hazards, and come up with hazard mitigation strategies to reduce or eliminate future risk.
What Is Hazard Mitigation?
Hazard mitigation is any sustainable action that reduces or eliminates long-term risk to people, property, and services from future disasters. The best way to do this is to create a thorough plan well in advance, before any disasters happen
Phases of Emergency Management
Emergency management focuses on reducing or avoiding potential losses from hazards, assuring prompt and appropriate assistance from damages, and achieving rapid and effective recovery measures.
This process is divided into four phases:
- Preparedness – strategies and actions of getting people and resources prepared and ready to respond to an emergency or disaster
- Response – actions taken to protect life, property and the environment
- Recovery – the process of returning the affected area and people to pre-disaster status
- Mitigation – the methodology of identifying what hazards pose a risk to the area and determining ways to eliminate or minimizing those hazards
The mitigation phase is all about finding ways to prevent disasters or lessen their impact. It involves thinking of long-term solutions to help reduce the effects of disasters before they happen.
What Is A Hazard Mitigation Plan?
A Hazard Mitigation Plan is a comprehensive strategy that assesses the risks and vulnerabilities associated with various hazards, such as wildfires, droughts, and earthquakes. It identifies actions and measures to reduce the impacts of these hazards, protect lives, buildings, infrastructure, and property, and strengthen abilities to recover from these types of events.
Hazard Mitigation Planning Process
The Planning Partners will be using a phased process to prepare the Multi-Jurisdictional Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, which follows FEMA and Cal OES requirements, along with the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit and the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric) Climate Resilience: Steps to Resilience practitioners’ methodologies.
How Does the Plan Benefit Planning Area?
The Multi-Jurisdictional Local Hazard Mitigation Plan will assist Planning Partners with the following:
- An increased understanding of the hazards faced locally
- Development of more sustainable and resilient infrastructure and ability to provide services
- Eligibility for FEMA pre- and post-disaster mitigation funding for activities and planning before disasters strike
- Reducing long-term impacts and damages to human health and structures, as well as reduced repair costs
Palos Verdes Peninsula Multi-jurisdictional Local Hazard Mitigation Plan
The Multi-Jurisdictional Local Hazard Mitigation Plan will identify hazards that pose a risk to our services and assets and will identify actions the Planning Partners can take to reduce the impacts from the hazards. This plan will guide local governments to implement the mitigation strategies identified in the plan. By having a plan in place, the Planning Partners are eligible for FEMA HMA funding.
The 2026 Multi-Jurisdictional Local Hazard Mitigation Plan is being led by the City of Rolling Hills Estates. The Planning Partnership includes the following:
- City of Palos Verdes Estates
- City of Rancho Palos Verdes
- City of Rolling Hills
- City of Rolling Hills Estates
- Klondike Canyon Geologic Hazard Abatement District
- Abalone Cove Landslide Abatement District
Draft Palos Verdes Peninsula Multi-jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan
Participation
The public is welcome and encouraged to participate during the planning process! Upcoming meeting information and materials will be shared on this page and all meetings are open to the public.
If you have any questions or want to share your ideas, please contact your respective City Hall and attend the public meetings listed below.
Learn More About Each City’s Emergency Planning Process
To learn more about each of the City’s respective emergency planning processes, please follow the links below.
Meetings
The Hazard Mitigation Planning Committee meets monthly as needed to work on the MJHMP for the Planning Partners. PC meetings are open to the public and held virtually. Check back for meeting information and to review past meeting agendas and summaries.
- Planning Committee Kickoff Meeting – June 11, 2025
- Planning Committee Meeting #1 – July 8, 2025
- Planning Committee Meeting #2 – September 10, 2025
- Planning Committee Meeting #3 –November 20, 2025
- Planning Committee Meeting #4 –February 11, 2026
Draft Plan
Future opportunities to comment on the draft plan will be posted here.