Planning Information Exchange

Project Overview

With a new award agreement granted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the successful Planning Information Exchange (PIE) webinar series has been extended for two additional years, starting October 1, 2022. APA will continue to act as the lead in an agreement with FEMA, with the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) as a partner. The quarterly webinars will continue to revolve around four central themes:

• The information exchange focuses on all hazards.
• The information exchange focuses primarily on mitigation planning but also its connections with recovery planning and preparedness.
• APA and ASFPM act as co-conveners of all planning exchange webinars. This means that both organizations will use their respective web-based meeting platforms to set up, register, drive, facilitate, record, and provide technical support for all webinar meetings.
• Planning exchange hosts select topics and commit to moderating, presenting, and leading the planning exchange webinars.

PIE is launching a three-part series, "Multi-Hazard Mitigation for All," on May 18, 2023. This series will dive deep into how communities can address more than one hazard, starting from a foundation of emerging practices, identifying case examples that took equitable action, and encouraging participants to take steps to mitigate hazards through financing and implementation tools.

Cross-Agency Coordination for Effective Hazard Mitigation and Recovery

December 15, 2023

CM | 1.5

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The third installment of the Planning Information Exchange will focus on how to coordinate hazard mitigation policies and practices across local agencies, with an emphasis on the interplay between emergency management officials and building and planning departments. It will also discuss the role that community planning plays in bringing about the greatest safety measures for a district's constituents when faced with a natural disaster.

Speakers will delve into both specific components of this process — such as building, fire, and land use codes — as well as broader strategies that can be employed. These include coordinating plans across a jurisdiction that pertain to public safety in the context of hazard mitigation and ensuring alignment in these plans to achieve maximum efficacy. While the speakers come from a background of local and regional planning, lessons can be applied to all levels of governance for those who work in hazard mitigation and recovery capacities.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand how government agencies can coordinate with one another to advance hazard mitigation planning.
• Dive into the roles that emergency managers and community planners play in developing effective hazard mitigation strategies.
• Learn about tools that can help facilitate these processes, such as APA and FEMA's Planning, Mitigating, and Advocating for Community Resilience course.

Lori Hodges is the Director of Emergency Management for Larimer County, CO. Eric Fried is Larimer County's Chief Building Official. Lesli Ellis is the Community Development Director of Larimer County. Joseph DeAngelis is a Research Manager at the American Planning Association.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Lori Hodges

Lori Hodges has over twenty years of experience at both the state and local levels in the emergency services and emergency management fields. She currently works as the Director of Emergency Management for Larimer County, Colorado. Lori is a Certified Emergency Manager through the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and the State of Colorado. She is also a graduate of the Executive Leaders Program and the master's program through the Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School. Additional education includes a master's degree in Political Science and Public Policy and a bachelor's degree in Emergency Management and Planning. She received the Emergency Manager of the Year Award from the Colorado Emergency Management Association (CEMA) in 2008 and 2013 and received the CEMA President's Award in 2020.

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Presenter

Eric Fried

Eric Fried has spent over 15 years with Larimer County, serving as its Chief Building Official for the past 11. He previously served as a Combination Inspector for the City of Westminster, Colorado, and held a similar role at the National Inspection Services prior to that. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University.

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Presenter

Lesli Ellis

Lesli has almost 30 years of planning experience and currently serves as Larimer County's Community Development Director. She has planned for local and regional governments in Colorado, New Mexico, and Washington and has consulted with over 40 communities in the U.S. on long range plans and policies, codes, and open lands and conservation programs. Lesli received a Master of Urban Planning and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Washington in Seattle and a Bachelor of Environmental Design from the University of Colorado in Boulder.

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Modderator

Joseph DeAngelis

Joseph DeAngelis, AICP is a planner and Research Manager with the American Planning Association in Chicago. Joseph's primary area of research is in the realm of climate adaptation and community resilience. He currently manages APA's slate of FEMA and NOAA sponsored research projects. Previously, he was a resiliency planner for the New York City Department of City Planning, where he worked on long-term planning and zoning solutions for communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy.

View Past Webinars

View Presentations from Past Webinars

Previous webinars are available to be viewed anytime and anyplace shortly after their debut.

• The Only Constant is Change: Hazard Mitigation Updates (May 18, 2023) CM | 1.5
• Foresight and Scenario Planning for Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation (October 31, 2022) CM | 1
• Lost In Planning: Interdependent Vulnerabilities And Compounding Climate Threats (September 27, 2022) CM | 1
• Equitable Hazard Mitigation: Practice-Informed Recommendations for Change (July 25, 2022) CM | 1
• New Research on State Resilience Planning Practices (May 26, 2022) CM | 1
• The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: A Primer for Planners and Floodplain Managers (December 15, 2021) CM | 1
• Addressing Urban Heat at Regional and Local Scales (October 15, 2021) CM | 1
• The Law's the Limit: Sea Level Rise Adaptation and Local Government (September 3, 2021) CM | 1.5
• Linking Conservation and the FEMA Community Rating System: Tools to Protect Habitat, Enhance Coastal Resilience and Reduce Flood (April 15, 2021) 
• USACE Inundation Mapping (December 18, 2020)
• Planning for Wildfire: From Assessing Risk to Long-Term Mitigation (November 20, 2020) 
• Visualization and Datasets for Flood Loss Reduction (October 27, 2020) 
• Increasing Our Resiliency to Urban Flooding (November 21, 2019) 
• Planning for Drought and Cascading Hazards (August 15, 2019) 
• Go Green with GASB62! (April 25, 2019) 
• Flood Economics (February 13, 2019) 
• Current Research Topics in Disasters, Hazard Mitigation, and Resilience (October 9, 2018)
• Flood Risk Reduction: Putting Planning Into Practice (July 18, 2018)
• The Fire/Flood Dynamic: Linkages, Tools, and Actions (May 15, 2018)
• Flood Hazard Mitigation in Historic Districts (January 31, 2018)
• Planning Integration for Resilience Scorecard (October 4, 2017)
• Naturally Resilient Communities (May 30, 2017)
• Post-Disaster Temporary Housing: Urban Planning Considerations (March 23, 2017)
• Subdivision Design and Flood Hazard Areas (December 2, 2016)
• State Resiliency Initiatives: From Issue to Action! (September 22, 2016)
• Combining Climate Adaptation and Hazard Mitigation Plans (July 7, 2016)
• Know Your Dam Risk! (May 6, 2016)
• Adapting Urban Vacant Land to Mitigate Hazards (February 26, 2016)
• Hazard Mitigation Implementation (December 10, 2015)
• Hazards Planning and Resilience: The Elected Official's Perspective (October 19, 2015)
• Climate Change Adaptation & Resilience (June 30, 2015)
• The Role of Hazard Mitigation in Post-Disaster Recovery (May 6, 2015)