Local Mitigation Strategy
Polk County LMS Five-Year Update 2025
Purpose of the LMS
The Local Mitigation Strategy (LMS) develops and implements an ongoing strategy to reduce the community’s vulnerability to identified natural, technological and human-caused hazards. It provides a rational, managed basis for considering and prioritizing hazard-specific mitigation options and for developing and executing cost-effective mitigation projects. It also serves as a foundation for justifying the solicitation and use of local, state, federal and other funding to support hazard mitigation projects and initiatives.
The LMS establishes an ongoing process that makes hazard mitigation part of the daily functions of the entire community, including public and private sectors and residents. It serves as a bridge between local governments’ comprehensive growth management plans, the County Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP), land development regulations, and relevant ordinances and codes, such as floodplain management policies. The LMS integrates mitigation initiatives set forth in various policies, programs and regulations into a single, stand-alone document.
The Polk County LMS is updated every and adopted by the Polk County Board of County Commissioners and each Polk County municipality every five years.
Members of the LMS Working Group include representatives from Polk County government departments, local municipalities, colleges and public schools, nonprofit organizations and the private sector.
What is Mitigation?
Mitigation is the effort to reduce or eliminate loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters. Simply put, the goal of mitigation is to make our community safer, stronger and more resilient.
Polk County protects its people, neighborhoods, businesses, highways and everything in between through mitigation planning and projects, e.g., improving drainage systems to reduce street flooding.
Mitigation planning occurs every day. Polk County’s Emergency Management experts work with guidance from state and federal authorities and study how industries reduce risks and hazards. They then apply the lessons learned to enhance local mitigation efforts.