San Marcos Seeks Public Input To Help Prioritize $24 Million HUD Mitigation Funds

The City of San Marcos was awarded $24,012,000 in Community Development Block Grant Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) funding earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to help prepare for future disasters.

On Aug. 30, HUD released the allocation guidelines for the grant, which has allowed the City to begin creating a Mitigation Action Plan to determine how the grant funding will be used.

Unlike previous funds allotted for post-disaster relief, mitigation grants are specifically allotted to actions taken to proactively prevent or reduce damages resulting from disaster events.

“We have identified six priority actions which were established by a data-informed process by the City’s Office of Emergency Management in the 2018 San Marcos Hazard Mitigation Plan,” said Community Initiatives Program Administrator Aaron Harris. “Our goal is to start our planning analysis with the issues from this list that are the most important to the community.”

The six priority actions are:

• Establishing evacuation plans and improving routes;
• Disaster shelter improvements;
• Preservation of land in strategic upland and floodplain areas;
• Drainage improvements to properties that have been flooded multiple times;
• Improvements to flood and hazard warning systems; and
• Increasing the number of warning signs and barricades at low water crossings.

The City has created a community survey to ensure that the Action Plan is an inclusive process. The survey asks participants to rank the six priority actions by importance to determine public priority. The results of this survey will be reported to the City Council, who will ultimately determine the allocation of the funding in December.

The survey is available through Oct. 31. Surveys can be completed online at www.sanmarcostx.gov/MAPsurvey. Paper surveys will be available at the front desks of the San Marcos Public Library, 625 E. Hopkins, and Activity Center, 501 E. Hopkins. All surveys are in English and Spanish.

For more information on the CDBG-MIT, visit http://www.smtxfloodrecovery.com/mitigation or contact Harris at aharris@sanmarcostx.gov.