Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Mitigation

• NCORR and the State Disaster Recovery Task Force’s Housing Recovery Support Function Group have established a CDBG Mitigation Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC). The purpose of this committee is to serve as an ongoing public forum for comments and input regarding NCORR’s CDBG Mitigation projects and programs. Upcoming CAC meeting information will be posted to this webpage.

North Carolina pays for mitigation activities with Community Development Block Grant – Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) funds, which have been allocated to the state by the U.S. Congress and approved for use by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD made $168 million in CDBG-MIT funds available to North Carolina for mitigation activities in 2019 and $34.6 million in 2021 for a total of $202 million.

Under federal guidelines, CDBG-MIT funds must be used for projects that reduce future losses. Additionally, North Carolina must:

• Spend at least 50% of the funds to benefit counties that HUD designated as being “most impacted and distressed” by Hurricanes Matthew and Hurricane Florence.
• Use at least 50% of the funds for activities that benefit low- and moderate-income residents.

Resilience planning and technical assistance activities that are already underway or completed include:

• NC Resilient Coastal Communities Program (RCCP)
  • Partner Organization: NC Department of Environmental Quality (NC DEQ), Division of Coastal Management
  • Activity Summary: This state, local and private partnership provides technical and financial assistance to help local communities overcome barriers in coastal resilience and adaptation planning, and to boost local government capacity in the state’s 20 coastal counties. NCORR provided partial funding for this program, funding 14 Resilience Strategies for coastal communities created using the RCCP Planning Handbook.

• Regions Innovating for Strong Economies and Environment (RISE) Regional Resilience Portfolio Program
  • Partner Organizations: AECOM, Kleinfelder, and Tetra Tech
  • Activity Summary: RISE aims to support resilience primarily in the storm-impacted regions of North Carolina by providing technical assistance to partners to support vulnerability assessments, identify priority risk reduction actions and enhance resilience; developing the NC Resilience Communities Guide; and hosting regional leadership training workshops that emphasize resilience as a tool for community economic development. RISE activities are being partly funded by CDBG-MIT Planning funds in RISE Regions representing COG regions J, L, M, N, O, P and Q.

• Eastern NC Community Floodprints: Accelerating Rural Recovery and Resilience
  • Partner Organization: Coastal Dynamics Design Lab
  • Activity Summary: The Coastal Dynamics Design Lab (CDDL) is developing local community floodprints in partnership with NCORR. A floodprint is a landscape planning approach developed by CDDL to address land and water relationships. Floodprints are an important tool for building future community resilience, and the development process incorporates issues such as flooding, recovery and equity into the planning process. The first CDDL/NCORR community floodprint for the City of Whiteville is over 50% done. In 2022, the City of Goldsboro voted to become the second community to benefit from a CDDL/NCORR floodprint.

• Statewide Probable Maximum Precipitation Study for North Carolina
  • Partner Organization: NC DEQ, Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources
  • Activity Summary: NC DEQ is supporting a study of the probable maximum amount of precipitation at a location for a given duration that is meteorologically possible (the “worst case” scenario for rain or snow). This updated data will support watershed and resilience planning by helping government and non-government entities plan for design, location and relocation of water infrastructure—such as dams, culverts and drainage networks—and ensure safety and functionality.
     
• Low Flow Statistics Re-Evaluation and Public Water Supply Boundary Area Assessmen
  • Partner Organization: NC DEQ, Division of Water Resources (DWR)
  • Activity Summary: NCORR is funding two DWR programs: a low flow (drought) study and a public water supply boundary area assessment. Low flow statistics help decision-makers understand how much water is available for drinking and other uses, including diluting pollution.  Effective stormwater management, wastewater permitting and water supply and availability assessments require up-to-date low flow statistics. The public water supply boundary area assessment will update the geographic boundary dataset for North Carolina’s public water supply and assist the state in resilience planning efforts.

• Development of the Natural Infrastructure Flood Mitigation Program and Modeling of Nature-Based Solutions for Flooding
  • Partner Organization: NC DEQ, Division of Mitigation Services (DMS)
  • Activity Summary: NCORR is funding the development of the DMS Natural Infrastructure Flood Mitigation Program (NIFMP), including formation of an advisory board; establishing program goals, objectives and performance metrics; creating a watershed planning strategy to integrate projects into current DMS watershed planning activities; integrating NIFMP development into current flood mitigation practices within North Carolina; and modeling to quantify effectiveness of various nature-based solution restoration practices.

• Update to NOAA’s Atlas 14 Rainfall Statistics
  • Partner Organization: NC Department of Transportation (NC DOT)
  • Activity Summary: NC DOT is using NCORR funds to support the Transportation Pooled Study, which will update the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) “Atlas 14” precipitation intensity, duration and frequency estimates. This data is used by the public and private sectors to design everything from drainage for public highways and bridges to stormwater infrastructure for residential development.
     
• Digital Resilience Clearinghouse
  • Partner Organization: N/A (NCORR staff only)
  • Activity Summary: The Digital Resilience Clearinghouse will be a shared online resource for data, case studies, guidance, and funding resources. The target audience is local leaders, and the intention is to put information about flooding and other risks into the hands of people in a position to use it in their community.

The resilience team is currently developing additional mitigation activities that may include creation of model ordinance language, as well as analyses and white papers to support mitigation technical assistance and planning activities. Additional details will be published on this website as they are developed. 

The initial Action Plan was developed in 2019, in response to the release of the first Federal Register notice that specified the requirements for the mitigation funds on August 30, 2019. Based on risk assessment data, the State Hazard Mitigation Plan, and feedback from local government and community input, the state developed its Draft Action Plan, which outlined how the money will be used. After a 45-day public comment period, NCORR submitted the Draft Action Plan and the required Citizen Participation Plan to HUD for approval, which was granted on March 13, 2020.

Since the submission of the initial Action Plan, additional amendments have been made. HUD approved the CDBG-MIT Substantial Action Plan Amendment 1 on March 9, 2021. 

In January 2021, HUD allocated an additional $34.6 Million to NCORR under the Federal Register Notice. The plans for these additional funds were included in CDBG-MIT Substantial Action Plan Amendment 2. A virtual public hearing was held on June 22, 2021 as part of a public comment period. A video recording and transcriptions of the hearing can be found below.
Public Hearing Recording
English Presentation  Spanish Presentation
Transcript in English  Transcript in Spanish   

CDBG-MIT Substantial Action Plan Amendment 2 was approved by HUD on August 30, 2021. On February 8, 2022 HUD approved CDBG-MIT Substantial Action Plan Amendment 3.

View past versions as well as the current CDBG-MIT Action Plan and the Citizen Participation Plan.