South Carolina Safeguarding Tomorrow Revolving Loan Fund

SCEMD plans to apply for the new federal Safeguarding Tomorrow Revolving Loan Fund program, which if awarded, will provide funding to establish a revolving loan program to support hazard mitigation projects in South Carolina. This program is a potential low-interest (1%) loan to fund qualifying mitigation projects or non-federal match for eligible mitigation projects. Eligible applicants are local government entities in South Carolina that have adopted a FEMA-approved local hazard mitigation plan.

The due date for a project letter of interest to SCEMD is April 14, 2023.

Eligible project types include:

• Projects that mitigate impacts/risk from natural hazards including drought, extreme heat, severe storms, hurricanes, wildfires, floods, earthquakes, storm surges, and coastal erosion.
• Adoption and enforcement of more recent published editions of relevant building codes, specifications, and standards for the purpose of protecting the health, safety, and general welfare of buildings’ users against disasters and natural hazards.
• Local government implementation of zoning and land use planning changes focused on:
  • Development or improvement of zoning and land use codes that incentivize and encourage low impact development; wildland-urban interface land management; natural infrastructure; green stormwater management; conservation management adjacent to floodplains; implementation of watershed or greenway master plan, or reconnection of floodplains.
  • Creation of land use incentives that reward developers for increasing reliance on low impact development, stormwater management best practices, increased open space and improvement of neighborhood catch basins to mitigate urban flooding, augmenting natural infrastructure adjacent to construction projects, or addressing minimizing wildfire ignition.
  • Study and creation of an erosion response plan that accommodates river, lake, forest, plains, and ocean shoreline retreat or bluff stabilization based on increased flooding and hazard impacts.
  • Study and creation of agricultural risk compensation districts to remove or set back levees protecting developed agricultural land, allowing agricultural producers to be compensated for assuming increased flood risk as part of efforts to mitigate flood impacts on nearby or downstream populations and critical infrastructure.

Additional detail will be provided to entities that submit letters of interest, and a virtual information session will be offered March 16, 2023. After the end of the six-week public notice period and review of proposed projects based on federal and state priority criteria, SCEMD will prepare an Intended Use Plan, with projects to be included, and will make the Intended Use Plan available for public comment from April 19 to April 25. SCEMD will finalize and submit its application to FEMA by April 28. FEMA will review and determine if South Carolina’s application merits award of an initial capitalization grant for the revolving loan fund. Loans will be initiated within two years of start of the loan program.

Email your jurisdiction’s letter of interest and form to mitigation@emd.sc.gov no later than April 14. For more information, to ask questions,  or to register for the webinar, email mitigation@emd.sc.gov.