Resiliency Plan

Community Resilience Plan

The Tallahassee Community Resilience Plan is an ambitious plan, the first of its kind for our community, and positions Tallahassee at the forefront of innovation and inclusiveness as we proactively address the various pressures that threaten our quality of life. Through the Plan, we address underlying chronic stresses that affect our community, such as job, food, and housing insecurity, as well as acute shocks that include flooding, extreme temperatures, and significant storm events, especially as they intensify with our changing climate. The Community Resilience Plan takes a bold step towards our collective sustainable future, guided by the ideal that everyone in our community can have the opportunity to thrive, even as we face down new challenges.

As a capital city in one of the fastest growing states, a regional health and educational hub, and a diverse city with a storied past, Tallahassee is in a unique position to lead in urban resilience. In the aftermath of Hurricane Hermine (2016), the City leadership held a series of listening sessions throughout the community where residents expressed the need to better prepare for hurricanes and other hazards that present an increasing threat to life, property, and our environment. In collaboration with various agencies and partners, the City of Tallahassee is developing its first ever Community Resilience Plan. The plan will be a comprehensive assessment of threats to social, economic, and environmental features and characteristics, which influence the community's ability to be resilient and recover from a range of acute shocks and chronic stresses.

Planning Schedule

In 2017, the City commissioned the Community Resilience Plan, hired its first ever Chief Resilience Officer, and solicited technical consultation to develop a plan. In January 2018, the resilience planning project formally kicked off with the convening of key stakeholders and technical experts. The development of this plan followed the process identified in the US Climate Resilience Toolkit, which integrates community engagement with a data driven approach to assessing and addressing vulnerabilities.

Through an extensive public and stakeholder engagement process, we identified physical assets (buildings and spaces) that provides critical services and that the community values as part of the fabric of Tallahassee. The process also identified and prioritized various threats to the quality of life in the City, such as extreme weather events, crime, and affordability. The assessment framework then mapped out how each asset was exposed and vulnerable to each asset in order to paint a better picture of our community risk profile. Following a year of broad stakeholder engagement, extensive risk and vulnerability analysis, and focused working group sessions, the Plan has identified immediate and long-term strategies to secure a safer and more resilient future for Tallahassee.

Stakeholder Input

The Tallahassee Community Resilience Plan was developed with extensive stakeholder engagement and community outreach. The planning team set out with a goal of getting input from a broad range of people. As such, engagement involved interacting with residents and visitors at a variety of community events, ranging from neighborhood meetings to nonprofit roundtables. This outreach strategy leveraged previously planned activities while also incorporating new, targeted meetings, workshops, and events. Those who were engaged included business and public agency leaders, college students and professors, youth at a summer camp, neighborhood associations, City employees, and many others. Through the overall engagement process, stakeholders helped identify the different types of threats that the community is concerned about while also identifying approaches to move Tallahassee toward greater resiliency. A common theme across all stakeholder groups was the recommendation to strengthen households and neighborhoods to be self-sufficient. While the plan includes opportunities for infrastructure and policy action, many residents expressed that community resilience requires a bottom-up, grassroots approach to reflect the value our community places on its people and neighborhoods.

Planning stakeholders list

Recommendations

The Community Resilience Plan is a call for our entire community to partner together to make our city stronger for the benefit of all residents, so we can be better equipped to address current and future challenges. Four overarching goals represent the pillars of a resilient Tallahassee, each with six strategies that point towards intentional ways to solve complex problems. Each strategy connects our specific urban challenges with unique opportunities to strengthen our community and offers initial actions that are achievable, measurable, and impact-driven.

Next Steps

The Community Resilience Plan contains strategies with immediate and long-term actions that draw on the collective strength of our community. The plan is intended to be a living document that relies on City leadership and community partnerships to be successful. With plan adoption, staff will implement the strategies, beginning with the Commission’s priorities, and pursue specific actions with measurable targets that can be accomplished or initiated within the next 5 years, aligning with the timeline of our 2024 Strategic Plan. Progress reports on the strategies will be provided as actions are achieved. Because the plan development included an extensive, parcel level assessment of our community risks and vulnerability, progress towards resilience can be quantifiable measured as we take action and can be a powerful, shared decision-making tool.