The Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact’s Staff Steering Committee hosted the Regional Climate Action Plan (RCAP) Implementation Workshop on Post-Disaster Redevelopment Planning on Friday, July 13 at the Broward County Commission Chambers in Fort Lauderdale. This one-day workshop addressed the critical need for Southeast Florida to plan redevelopment and recovery strategies prior to experiencing the shocks and stressors of extreme weather events.

Professionals working in emergency management, urban planning, sustainability, and resilience learned about and discussed ways to strengthen the region’s resilience by improving the post-disaster redevelopment planning process. The workshop also focused on how climate resilience efforts can be integrated into and inform emergency management efforts.

Workshop participants left this workshop with:

• Tools to advance community disaster and resilience planning
• Perspectives from the business community on emergency response coordination with the private sector
• Greater understanding of how to more fully integrate equity considerations into the post-disaster redevelopment planning process
• New cross-sector connections within counties to improve post-disaster redevelopment planning at scale
• Best practices and lessons learned from Palm Beach County’s post-disaster redevelopment planning processes

Whitney Gray, Administrator of Florida Resilient Coastlines at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, presented on the statewide PDRP planning initiative and the most recent resources for practitioners. In June 2018, the second edition of the addendum to the statewide guide to post-disaster redevelopment planning related to adaptation was released, which includes more resources and new information about the 2015 “Peril of Flood” statute.

Palm Beach County Director of the Division of Emergency Management Bill Johnson shared the lessons Palm Beach County learned when developing one of the first post-disaster redevelopment plans in the state of Florida. In 2012, the county revised their plan to integrate sea level rise through a planning grant from Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. To produce the PDRP plan, Palm Beach County relied on an executive committee and technical advisory committee that brought expertise in a broad range of topics, from infrastructure and housing to health and public outreach. Additionally, a panel of economic development and private sector leaders reflected on the challenges of starting up local commerce after disaster.

In keeping with the Compact’s efforts to support local government in equitable planning, policy-making, and investment decisions, Sarita Turner, the Institute for Sustainable Communities’ Director of Inclusive Communities, provided a primer on practicing equity-focused resilience planning and tools for a data-advised process for rebuilding after a disaster.

Finally, participants received information related to the $616 million in funding provided to the State of Florida by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to support long-term recovery efforts following Hurricane Irma through the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program (CDBG-DR). It is expected that the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity will begin the Housing Repair and Replacement Program this fall, providing $273 million to rehabilitate or replace single family and rental housing for low- and moderate-income families effected by Hurricane Irma. View the complete timeline related to the CDBG-DR Program.

This workshop continued the Compact’s series of workshops designed to advance the implementation of the Regional Climate Action Plan, and is the first event based on the recently launched RCAP 2.0