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GENERAL PLAN AMENDMENT TO MODIFY EXISTING AND INCORPORATE NEW GOALS, POLICIES, AND IMPLEMENTATION MEASURES RELATED TO 200-YEAR FLOOD RISK AND PROTECTION
recommended action
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the Planning Commission adopt a Resolution forwarding a recommendation to the City Council to adopt a General Plan Amendment to conform with state law requirements related to 200-year flood risk and protection by the statutory deadline of July 2, 2015.
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Summary
The Central Valley Flood Protection Act of 2008, enacted by Senate Bill 5 (SB5), was approved in 2007. This legislation primarily focused on flood requirements for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley, which includes the City of Stockton. Flood requirements are primarily tied to land use planning decisions and the consideration of potential flood risk related to the occurrence of a 200-year flood event. Local cities and counties, including Stockton, are required to amend General Plans to address development within 200-year floodplains.
DISCUSSION
Background
In 2007, five interrelated pieces of legislation were enacted to address the problem of flood protection and liability. The legislative package also made $5 billion in State bonds available for flood protection improvements. The Central Valley Flood Protection Act of 2008 (Chp. 364, Stats. 2007), commonly referred to as SB 5, contained provisions for local agencies to incorporate flood risk considerations into land use planning. This legislation primarily focused on flood requirements for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley within an area defined as the Sacramento-San Joaquin Hydrologic Regions, which includes the City of Stockton (Attachment A - Hydraulic Regions Map).
SB 5 identified the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) as the agency responsible for preparing a strategic Central Valley Flood Protection Plan by July 1, 2012. The Flood Protection Plan was primarily intended to identify necessary improvements to state flood control facilities and establish flood protection building standards where flood levels are anticipated to exceed three feet for a 200-year flood event.
A 200-year flood event is generally considered a flood of a magnitude that statistically occurs once every 200 years, or has a 0.5% likelihood of occurring in any given year. SB 5 defines this as the “urban level of flood protection.” The Central Valley Flood Protection Board adopted the Flood Protection Plan by the July 1, 2012 deadline. The Central Valley Flood Protection Board is a State regulatory agency charged with overseeing the flood management system in California’s Central Valley.
SB 5 requires each city and county within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley, including charter cities like Stockton, to amend its general plan to include data and analysis from the Flood Protection Plan and goals and polices for the protection of lives and property that will reduce the risk of flood damage from a 200-year flood event (Government Code Section 65302.9). SB 5 also requires that the general plan amendment take place within 24 months of the adoption of the Flood Protection Plan. Additionally, SB 5 requires each local city and county to amend its zoning ordinance to be consistent with its general plan within 12 months of the amendment to the general plan (Government Code Section 65860.1).
Since local agencies are accustomed to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood protection standards for a 100-year flood event and possess maps to this effect, the determination of a 200-year flood event posed a challenge because there were no readily available maps or data to reference this information. On September 25, 2012, Senate Bill 1278 (SB 1278) was approved as a solution to this problem and required DWR to prepare 200-year flood maps and data for local agencies by July 2, 2013 (amended Water Code Section 9610).
Recognizing that local agencies required this information to amend their general plans and zoning ordinances, SB 1278 extended the local agency deadlines for amending general plan within 24 months of July 2, 2013, and amending its zoning ordinance not more than 12 months after the amendment of its general plan (amended Government Code Sections 65302.9 and 65860.1).
On the effective date of the local agency’s amendment of its zoning ordinance, cities and counties are required to make findings related to urban level of flood protection (200-year flood event) before:
• Entering into a development agreement for all types of property development
• Approving a discretionary permit or other discretionary entitlement for all development projects
• Approving a ministerial permit for all projects that would result in the construction of a new residence.
• Approving a tentative map consistent with the Subdivision Map Act for all subdivisions.
• Approving a parcel map for which a tentative parcel map is not required, consistent with the Subdivision Map Act for all subdivisions.
Before approving any of the above affected land use decisions, cities and counties shall make a finding related to urban level of flood protection based on substantial evidence in the record for one of the following:
1. That flood management facilities protect the property to the 200-year flood event standard; or
2. That the imposed conditions by a city or county on a property, development project or subdivision are sufficient to provide the required level of flood protection; or
3. That the local flood management agency has made adequate progress on the construction of a flood protection system that will result in the required level of flood protection. Construction of the flood protection system for areas protected by State and Federal levees shall be achieved by 2025; or
4. That for urban and urbanizing areas, the property in an undetermined risk area has met the urban level of flood protection based on substantial evidence in the record.
It will be the responsibility of the development project proponent to prepare and submit substantial evidence for the record to support the local agency findings. This process is defined in SB 5 as requiring a report prepared by a professional licensed civil engineer in California. Further, the development project proponent will be responsible for funding the City’s commissioning of an independent panel of experts to peer review the civil engineer’s report.
Project Description
A draft 200-year floodplain map for the Stockton area was recently completed from data provided by DWR. This map shows areas where flooding in excess of three feet in depth during a 200-year flood event is anticipated (Attachment B - Draft 200-Year Floodplain Map). The map identifies a significant portion of the westerly side of the City near Interstate 5, and some isolated areas within the central and easterly side of the City inundated during a 200-year event. It is important to understand that this map is completely independent of FEMA’s 100-year flood maps, which correlate to the National Flood Insurance Program.
DWR prepared a guidance document entitled “Guidance on General Plan Amendments addressing Flood Risk” to assist local agencies in preparing amendments to their general plan in compliance with SB 5. This document was intended to provide options for local agencies to meet their jurisdictional needs. In the proposed General Plan Amendment, staff is recommending only those goals, policies and implementation measures that conform with the requirements of State law. This approach will require compliance with the law, and will not impose unique requirements that would make development opportunities within the City of Stockton less competitive than other cities in the region
Staff is recommending an amendment to Section 11.Health and Safety Element of the City’s General Plan (Attachment C - General Plan Amendment). More specifically, Section 11.6 - Flood Hazards, contains existing goals, policies and implementation measures for flood, based on the Federal 100-year flood event standard. Staff proposes a modification of the existing policies to incorporate the new State floodplain requirements in conjunction with the existing Federal floodplain requirements. Staff also proposes new policies and implementation measures derived from the State’s guidance document.
Approval of the proposed general plan amendment is not anticipated to immediately impact development for the City. However, this approval would start the clock for the City to amend its zoning ordinance within 12 months to conform to the general plan amendment. Once the zoning ordinance is amended, the City will be required to fully comply with State law and this will place additional requirements on the development community. For instance, the development community will be required to prepare engineering reports to provide substantial evidence of 200-year protection for the record for the City to review prior to making a finding determination. This requirement will increase the cost and time required for development projects as a licensed civil engineer will have to be hired to prepare the substantial evidence, funding for a City commissioned expert review panel must be provided, and flood protection improvements may be required to meet the 200-year standard.
Since upgrading the City’s flood protection facilities to meet the urban level of flood protection standard (200-year flood event) will be very costly and take time to construct, this is considered to be a longer term solution to comply with the law. The San Joaquin Area Flood Control Agency is currently preparing a flood feasibility study, which will identify the improvements needed to achieve 200-year level of protection for much of the Stockton Metropolitan area, and is the initial step toward securing federal and state funding for improvements. The cost of these improvements is estimated at roughly $1 billion and will require funding commitments from the State’s competitive flood funding programs.
The proposed General Plan Amendment satisfies all requirements of the Stockton Municipal Code and the required affirmative findings for approval are provided herewith (Attachment D - Findings). As such, staff recommends that the Planning Commission adopt a Resolution forwarding a recommendation to the City Council to adopt a General Plan Amendment to modify existing and incorporate new goals, policies, and implementation measures related to 200-year flood risk and protection
Environmental Review
The proposed General Plan Amendment is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) under the “general rule” that CEQA applies only to projects that have the potential for causing significant environmental effects, as specified in Section 15061(b)(3). All future requests for any discretionary approvals relating to a project would be required to comply with the General Plan and would be subject to compliance with CEQA based upon their own merit.
VOTES REQUIRED
A vote of a majority (four) of the total authorized membership of the Planning Commission is required for the Commission to take action on this matter. A matter that is subject to the Commission’s action shall be deemed disapproved without the required minimum number of votes.
Attachment A - Hydrologic Regions Map
Attachment B - Draft 200-Year Floodplain Map
Attachment C - General Plan Amendment (Redline Version)
Attachment D - Findings