FEMA recently designated 483 ‘Community Disaster Resilience Zones’ (CDRZ) across the country that will open up these areas to expanded opportunities for federal infrastructure and hazard mitigation funding.
Community Disaster Resilience Zones will build disaster resilience across the nation by driving federal, public and private resources to the most at-risk and in-need jurisdictions. Infrastructure system resilience and nature-based solutions to natural hazards are prioritized through this program. Follow this link to see if areas in your region have been selected to participate in this program.
Benefits of the zone designations:
- Increases the federal cost share eligibility to 90% for FEMA building resilient infrastructure in communities or BRIC program.
- Communities in these census tracks/designated zones will also be prioritized to receive BRIC direct technical assistance and help them apply for BRIC funding. The technical assistance is designed to provide tailored support to communities and Tribal Nations that may not have the resources to begin planning and project solutions on their own.
- In this next BRIC cycle, the application period which is open now, communities interested in submitting a request for assistance can do so through February 29th of 2024.
- Requirements for BCA as a condition to apply has been removed for communities that support CDRZ designations. Communities will only need to submit a narrative if the project is over 1 million dollars. If it’s under 1 million, even the narrative is not required.
- FEMA is also publishing a new form to streamline and simplify the request submission process. When communities are eventually ready to apply for the projects, under either the disaster mitigation grant competition for BRIC or flood mitigation assistance, projects located in CDRZ will receive additional points in scoring.
