Appendix 2: Township of Clark September 2015
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Appendix 2: Township of Clark September 2015 Appendix 2: Township of Clark 1 Planning Process and Participation This appendix is part of the 2015 Union County Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) update, and includes only jurisdiction-specific information about the Township of Clark, which is one of the 20 municipalities within Union County that is participating in the plan update. Union County led the planning process and outreach for this update. For a detailed description of the planning process and the public outreach efforts for this update, see Section 3 of the HMP. The County formed a Steering Committee, which was responsible for key decisions during the plan update. This committee sent a letter to the Mayor of each municipality within the County. The Mayors and local officials selected a single individual to represent the town in the broader process. This person was the point of contact for the plan update, but worked with other municipal employees, consultants, volunteers, and other stakeholders throughout the planning process. This collection of participants, considered the local planning committee, is listed below. The committee was responsible for various decisions that informed the development of this appendix, including: prioritizing the natural hazards that can affect the community, reviewing and prioritizing the mitigation actions that are included in Table 2-1, and informing community leaders about the status of the County mitigation plan update, including this appendix The Clark Township Planning Committee evaluated and identified the hazards of concern, completed the request for information (RFI), reviewed the plan documents and vulnerability assessment, identified local stakeholders for outreach, and worked collectively to update the mitigation strategy. In order to complete the update process, Clark Township attended the kickoff meeting held by Princeton Hydro in May 2014. To further the plan development, the Clark Township Planning Committee met with the Consultant to review the plan documents and revise the mitigation strategy in a workshop format on July 24th, 2014. Table 2-1 Township of Clark Planning Committee Members Name Title Organization Role in Process DraftResponsible for all aspects of John Laezza Twp. Business Administrator Twp. of Clark Twp. Admin. Emergency Management Clark Office Of Emergency Responsible for Twp. Jerry Fewkes Coordinator Management Emergency Management Plans David Testa Engineer Grotto Engineering Twp. Engineering Firm Union County, New Jersey: 2015 Hazard Mitigation Plan Update 2-1 Appendix 2: Township of Clark September 2015 2. Community Profile The Township of Clark has a total area of 4.49 square miles and is located in southern Union County, New Jersey. The Township is crossed by the Rahway River and contains the 150-acre Clark Reservoir on the Johnson’s Branch of the Rahway River. The Clark Reservoir is part of the Union County Parks System.1 As of 2010, the population was estimated at 14,756. This is a 1.09 percent increase from the 2000 population, which was estimated at 14,597. Error! Reference source not found. is a map of the Township of Clark. See Section 2 of the 2015 Plan update for a map of Union County. Clark Township occupies land that was once used as hunting grounds for the Lenape Tribe. Clark was primarily a farming community, however over time larger farms subdivided into smaller farms. Development following WWII resulted in conversion of farmland into housing and commercial areas. The Township of Clark was officially incorporated on March 23rd, 1864. The community had been designated as the 5th Ward of the City of Rahway since 1858, when the City incorporated. In 1864 residents of this district declared their independence from the City and established their own town. The name Clark was chosen for Abraham Clark, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. A publically elected seven-member Township Council and a Mayor govern the Township. Four Council members represent each of the four wards in the Township. These Council members serve four-year terms, concurrently. The Mayor and three Council members represent the Township at-large. These positions serve four-year concurrent terms, and are staggered from the Ward representative elections. 2.1 Land Use and Development Clark is a community of mixed use development, with 80 percent of its 4.45 square miles of land area classified as urban/developed. Ninety (90) percent of the parcels within Clark are classified as residential, based on tax assessment data. Between 2004 and 2012, 178 building permits were issued for residential homes within the Township. This is 2.16 percent of the total building permits issued for Union County during this time period. Just over sixty-four (64.04) percent of these permits were for 1- and 2-family homes. Clark has a population density of 3315 people per square mile. The 2010 census estimates that 7.9 percent of the housing within the Township was renter-occupied, much lower than the County average of 30.5 percent renter-occupied properties. The town reports that there has been some infill development with singleDraft family housing and a few mixed-use commercial projects, but there are regulations in place to minimize future risk to properties from flooding and stormwater. These recent projects are not located in areas with any known risk to hazards. 1 County of Union, NJ. http://www.ucnj.org/news/2008/0802reservoir.html Retrieved 10/7/14. Union County, New Jersey: 2015 Hazard Mitigation Plan Update 2-2 Appendix 2: Township of Clark September 2015 Table 2-1: Land Use/Land Cover Township of Clar Land Cover Class 2002 2007 Percent Change Percent of Total Land2 Agriculture 17.11 8.67 -49.31% 0.00 Barren Land 15.27 0.01 Forest 238.18 228.50 -4.06% 0.08 Urban 2,279.23 2,282.87 0.16% 0.80 Water 137.33 138.53 0.88% 0.05 Wetlands 177.72 175.73 -1.12% 0.06 Figure 2-1: Land Use/Land Cover Map Township of Clark Table Error! Reference source not found.-2 LandDraft Use/Land Cover Trends (NJDEP GIS, 2007) 2 Uses the 2007 land cover values Union County, New Jersey: 2015 Hazard Mitigation Plan Update 2-3 Appendix 2: Township of Clark September 2015 3. Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment This section of the Clark mitigation plan appendix describes the natural hazards and risks that can affect the community. It should Table 2-3 be noted that only the hazards with aspects that are unique to the Township of Clark Hazard Identification and Prioritization community are included in detail in this appendix. Hazard Priority 3.1 Background and Hazard Rankings Flood High Like all the other jurisdictions in Union County, the Township of Hazmat release – fixed Med Clark is potentially subject to the effects of all the hazards that are site considered in this mitigation plan. However, the majority of these Hazmat release – Med hazards have minimal impacts on the area, and are discussed in transportation detail in the County part of the mitigation plan. FEMA mitigation planning guidance requires that County mitigation plans include a Ice storm Med risk assessment section that “assess[es] each jurisdiction’s risks where there vary from the risks facing the entire planning area” Severe storm – lightning Med (44CFR 201.6 (c) (2) (iii). Because the Union County HMP update includes separate appendices for each jurisdiction, this Severe storm – winter Med requirement is met in the appendices, while risks that affect the weather entire County uniformly are discussed in Section 4. Straight-line winds Med Dam failure Low One of the first steps in developing this appendix was for Clark to review and prioritize the hazards that can affect them. This was Drought Low done based on how often a hazard has occurred, how significant effects have been in the past, the difficulty and cost of recovering Earthquake / Geological Low from such events. Jurisdictions ranked the list of hazards as either high, medium, low, or no concern. Erosion Low Extreme temperature – Table 2-3 shows Clark’s hazard rankings. The level of discussion Low cold and detail about specific hazards in this section are based on these Extreme temperature – Low rankings. Hazards that are ranked high include the most detail, and heat to the extent possible include probabilistic assessments of risk, i.e. Hail Low likely future damages in the community based on the likelihood of occurrence. Hazards that are ranked medium have less detail and High wind – tornado Low may in some cases refer to SectionDraft 4; they usually do not have Landslide (non-seismic) Low probabilistic risk assessments, although potential future losses are Storm surge Low discussed based on best available data. Hazards ranked low and none are not addressed in this appendix, they are discussed Wildfire Low Section 4 and there are no significant differences in risk between *Only the hazards ranked high and the County and the municipality. medium are analyzed in this appendix Union County, New Jersey: 2015 Hazard Mitigation Plan Update 2-4 Appendix 2: Township of Clark September 2015 3.2 Flood Hazard 3.2.1 Type, Location and Extent As shown in Figure 2-2 below, Clark Township has three significant areas of Special Flood Hazard Area (100-year floodplain). One of them is along the Rahway River, meandering along the north-eastern jurisdictional boundary. The other major SFHA zone is the Robinsons Branch, which can be divided into two segments; the lower, regulated reach is the Middlesex reservoir, controlled by dam and spillway on its southeastern end at the jurisdictional boundary. The upper reach of Robinsons Branch flows along Township’s southwester boundary, and exhibits very wide floodplain that Clark shares with neighboring Scotch Plains Township. The fourth SFHA zone is the Pumpkin Patch Brook, a tributary of Robinsons Branch, located in the southwestern corner of the Township and frequently inundated by the backflow from Robinsons Branch.