The 2023 updated FEMA-approved Local Hazard Mitigation Plan is available for residents, businesses and visitors. The Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP) was approved by FEMA and City Council unanimously voted to adopt the updated plan on December 12, 2023.  This plan remains current for 5-years before it must be updated and submitted for approval to Cal OES & FEMA.

This plan helps create a safer community for residents, businesses, and visitors. The LHMP allows public safety officials and city staff, elected officials, and members of the public understand the threats from natural and human-caused hazards in our community. The plan has made specific recommended actions to proactively decrease these threats before disasters occur.

The Local Hazard Mitigation Plan can be found here.

The purpose of the Safety Element is to establish policies and programs to protect the community from risks associated with seismic, geologic, flood, and wildfire hazards, as well as from other concerns such as drought.  The updated Safety Element was approved by the Board of Forestry on Sept. 21, 2021, and adopted by City Council October 19, 2021.

The 2021 Safety Element can be found here.

The Wildfire Mitigation and Fire Safety Report was developed at the request of City Council in December 2018 to analyze the wildfire risk in our community and to identify possible actions to be taken to mitigate this risk.

The report is the product of six months of intense study and analysis which has led the Subcommittee to two conclusions: (1) it is not possible to reduce the risk of wildfire in the City to the point of insignificance, and (2) there are many tangible steps that we can take to make our community more resistant to wildfire and better able to respond in case disaster strikes and we need to alert and evacuate the City.

The report contains 47 possible actions to be taken to mitigate the risk of a wildfire occurring in the City and to minimize the impact should one occur. These possible actions fall into several primary categories: (1) emergency alert systems, (2) evacuation plans and improvements, (3) fuel modification zones, (4) public infrastructure improvements, and (5) undergrounding utilities. The possible steps are further categorized as short, medium and long-term for implementation.

The 2019 report can be found here.

The Evacuation Time Estimate/Wildfire Egress Study was born out of the Wildfire Mitigation and Fire Safety Report to better understand the evacuation times, impaired access concerns, and overall recommended actions to further inform the City’s emergency planning and decision making.  

As part of the Study, engineers from KLD conducted three visits to Laguna Beach, one to gather the roadway data, one to conduct a demographic survey of the residents, and one to examine the access impaired neighborhoods.  The demographic survey provided more accurate information on travel patterns, car ownership, and household size specific to Laguna Beach. 

The Study was presented to City Council in 2021 and serves as a planning resource document to guide emergency planning moving forward.

The Evacuation Time Estimate/Wildfire Egress Study can be found here.