In addition, the Act requires each local jurisdiction to have either its own local mitigation plan or actively participate in the development and maintenance of multi-jurisdictional plans such as Florida’s Local Mitigation Strategies (LMS). Local plans must be compliant with new federal mitigation planning criteria and receive FEMA approval. Non-compliant jurisdictions will be ineligible for federal mitigation assistance. Key points that must be addressed under the new criteria:

• For multi-jurisdictional plans, every local jurisdiction participating must officially adopt the plan.
• The plan must document the planning process including public comment, public, private, and non-profit involvement; how the plan was prepared; who was involved; and how the public was involved. The process should also include an opportunity for involvement of neighboring communities and local and regional agencies.
• Central to the development of a comprehensive mitigation plan is a risk assessment that includes the identification of the vulnerability to each hazard in terms of population, buildings, infrastructure and central facilities. The risk assessment must provide sufficient information to enable the identification and prioritization of mitigation actions to reduce losses from the identified hazards.
• It must also contain an estimate of the potential dollar losses to vulnerable structures along with a description of the methodology used to prepare this estimate.
• The plan must establish a mitigation strategy to reduce potential losses identified in the risk assessment.
• The plan must outline a maintenance process that includes the method, schedule of monitoring, evaluating, and updating on a five-year cycle.