Hazard Mitigation Plan
Consultation has concluded. Thank you for participating!
Why does the City assess natural hazards?
As an Arvada resident, you may be familiar with the natural hazards we face as a community. Floods, winter storms, wildfires, and more are part of life in the Front Range of Colorado. By identifying our hazard risk, assessing our vulnerability, and strategizing actions for addressing these natural hazards, the community will be more resilient to them.
The City of Arvada is preparing for these hazards by participating in the Jefferson County Hazard Mitigation Plan
This plan is a multi-jurisdictional, ongoing effort that is updated every 5 years. In 2021, a multi-departmental team from the City helped create the latest update to the plan.
As part of the process, the team asked for your input on Speak Up. Themes that emerged in our Speak Up survey included the need for flood mitigation along Ralston and Van Bibber Creek, as well as concerns about climate change. To address these concerns, the team included specific actions in the plan to address flood mitigation along Ralston and Van Bibber Creek, and approached climate change as an ever-present concern throughout the plan because of its likelihood to exacerbate many natural hazard events.
The final Jefferson County Hazard Mitigation Plan is now available to the public
The final 2021 Jefferson County Hazard Mitigation Plan, including a section specific to Arvada, has been approved by FEMA. In the plan, you will find a detailed assessment of our City's unique risks as well as our specific mitigation strategy. You can read the plan on Jefferson County's website.
Now that the plan has been updated, the City of Arvada has appointed City team members to an advisory body created by Jefferson County to implement and monitor the strategies outlined in the plan. Thank you to our residents who took the time to provide feedback and help make Arvada a safer and more resilient City!
Public Comments
CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.
Who's Listening
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Community Resilience Coordinator
Email MRyder@arvada.org
We moved to Arvada five years ago and bought a house in a floodplain near Ralston Creek, being told by the owner that insurance would cost $1,000/year, hearing about a flood mitigation plan the city was coordinating with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and knowing that the city had recently done work on Van Bibber Creek. So we believed it would be a short-term situation. Five years later, nothing has moved forward and our insurance costs $2,200/year. Most concerning, climate change will only heighten the risk. It feels like our entire neighborhood has been ignored as other massive projects move forward in the city, so I'm hopeful the city will take action quickly to preserve homes in an area that could soon become a historic neighborhood and that recently has attracted a lot of young families.
Ralston Creek reshaping/widening projects, runoff mitigation/regulation, and other mitigation projects along the Ralston Creek corridor to minimum flooding risks.
Please reconsider an Amazon facility at 68th and Indiana. Residents and access to retail businesses will be negatively affected as well as people who often travel this corridor. Surely there is another location to consider which has the road infrastructure to accommodate multiple large vehicles.
Disaster events will become less and less predictable with climate change. I suggest the city take a harder look at integrating resiliency into the Comprehensive Plan and other guiding documents (including the HMP). A 5-yr timeline for identifying risks and mitigation goals seems pretty short sighted.
Floodplain, riparian corridor, and open space protection are issues of critical concern. New and existing developments adjacent to these sensitive areas should be regulated and monitored so as not to negatively impact these resources.
Stormwater runoff needs to be closely regulated and monitored especially during severe precipitation events. We have experienced flooding beyond “ floodplain limits” in recent past along the Ralston Creek.
Something needs to be done about the homeless camping at I25 and Kipling. Garbage, begging, drugs and general filth left. The police get called but nothing seems to change. We are not a ghetto and I’ve certainly seen this area change in the past 5 years. Does anyone else feel this way?