After a little less than a month to review it, Washington’s City Council is scheduled to consider approving the Pamlico Sound Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan.

Hazard mitigation focuses on preventing, or at least minimizing, natural disasters.

The council briefly discussed the plan at its May 11 meeting but decided it needed more time to review the plan and how its strategies would affect the city. The plan has about 350 pages. Some council members said they did not have enough time to study the plan, copies of which they received about five days before the May 11 meeting.

At that meeting, John Rodman, the city’s director of community and cultural services, said the plan’s strategies that apply to the city and Beaufort County “seem reasonable.” Rodman said that by adopting the plan, the council could be helping property owners in the city.

“They also published our Community Rating System (score). Currently, within the municipalities in those counties that I mentioned, we have the second-best Community Rating System (score). Adopting that regional plan will help with that Community Rating System (score) and be able offer cheaper rates on flood insurance to citizens,” Rodman said then.

Rodman recommends the city adopt the plan.

Currently, Washington property owners are receiving a 15-percent discount on their National Flood Insurance Program premiums because the city has one of the best floodplain-management programs in North Carolina. In 2012, Washington was recognized for operating a top-notch floodplain-management program. Washington residents have some of the lowest flood-insurance premiums in North Carolina.

Beaufort County received a request from N.C. Emergency Management to participate in a regional hazard mitigation plan that includes the county and its municipalities, along with Craven, Carteret and Pamlico counties. The plan, which cost the city no money to develop, received preliminary approval by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which recommends all jurisdictions covered by the plan adopt it.

Participation in a certified plan is required for the receipt of annual FEMA grants and public-assistance funding in the aftermath of a declared natural disaster such as a hurricane or tornado.

The plan was prepared with assistance from Holland Consulting Planners, which works with many counties in eastern North Carolina.

Such plans are required to be updated every five years. The change to the regional approach is expected to reduce the cost and burden placed on communities in regard to the update process, according to a memorandum from Rodman to the mayor and City Council.

The council meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Council Chambers in the Municipal Building, 102 E. Second St. To view the council’s agenda for a specific meeting, visit the city’s web­site at www.washingtonnc.gov, click “Government” then “City Council” heading, then click “Meeting Agendas” on the menu to the right. Then click on the date for the appropriate agenda.