HomeMy WebLinkAboutAGENDA REPORT 2004 0602 CC REG ITEM 10GTO:
FROM:
DATE:
MOORPARK CITY COUNCIL
AGENDA REPORT
Honorable City Council
iTEM ID•G.
Kim C. Chudoba, Senior Management Analyst ke%'
May 21, 2004 (CC Meeting of 6/2/04)
SUBJECT: Consider Resolution Supporting a Policy Statement on
"Wildland Urban Interface Fires: A Collaborative Plan
to Decrease Impacts on Public Health and Safety"
BACKGROUND
In October 2003, Southern California experienced the worst
wildfires in California's history. Fourteen fires in five
counties burned 739,597 acres, destroyed 3,631 homes, injured
246 people, and ended 24 lives (including one firefighter). A
combination of warm temperatures, low humidity, gusty winds, dry
brush, rapid population growth, and residential development in
wildland areas makes California prone to catastrophic wildfires.
DISCUSSION
The League of California Cities (League) and the California
State Association of Counties (CSAC) have adopted a Policy
Statement on "Wildland Urban Interface Fires: A Collaborative
Plan to Decrease Impacts on Public Health and Safety." This
call to action urges the League and CSAC to work with all levels
of government to promote multi - agency and multi - jurisdictional
communication, coordination, and collaboration to standardize
and improve wildfire prevention, mitigation, and response.
The League and CSAC have asked cities, counties, fire districts,
environmental groups, and other stakeholders to endorse this
policy statement, which is consistent with the Governor's Blue
Ribbon Fire Commission recommendations.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Adopt Resolution No. 2004-
Attachment 1: Resolution No. 2004 -
Attachment 2: Policy Statement on Wildland Urban Interface Fires
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ATTACHMENT
RESOLUTION NO. 2004-
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
MOORPARK, CALIFORNIA, SUPPORTING A POLICY
STATEMENT ON "WILDLAND URBAN INTERFACE FIRES: A
COLLABORATIVE PLAN TO DECREASE IMPACTS ON
PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY"
WHEREAS, the City of Moorpark recognizes that the wildland
fire problem is an issue of statewide significance; and
WHEREAS, extreme fire events such as the October 2003
Southern California fires will happen again unless improvements
are made in fuel management, land use policies, and fire safe
building standards to protect lives, structures, infrastructure,
watershed, parklands, and other vital community assets; and
WHEREAS, the executive boards of the League of California
Cities (herein referred to as the "League ") and the California
State Association of Counties (herein referred to as "CSAC ")
have unanimously adopted the attached Policy Statement on
" Wildland Urban Interface Fires: A Collaborative Plan to
Decrease Impacts on Public Health and Safety "; and
WHEREAS, this policy statement is a call to action to
create a stronger defensive strategy for dealing with the
wildland fire threat, involving a collaborative analysis of fuel
management, land use, and building standard concerns associated
with living in and near the wildland; and
WHEREAS, the League and CSAC will identify a team of local
officials to join with state officials to lead a task force of
community planners, environmental agencies, housing and economic
development specialists, fire service representatives, law
enforcement, business, and the insurance industry to implement
this defensive strategy; and
WHEREAS, the League and CSAC have asked cities, counties,
fire districts, environmental groups, and other stakeholders to
support this policy statement, which is consistent with the
Governor's Blue Ribbon Fire Commission recommendations.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF MOORPARK
DOES HEREBY RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS:
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Resolution No. 2004 -
Page 2
SECTION 1. The City of Moorpark supports the Policy
Statement on " Wildland Urban Interface Fires: A Collaborative
Plan to Decrease Impacts on Public Health and Safety" and
encourages the League and CSAC to seek implementation of this
defensive strategy.
SECTION 2. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of
this resolution and shall cause a certified resolution to be
filed in the book of original resolutions.
PASSED AND ADOPTED this 2nd day of June, 2004.
Patrick Hunter, Mayor
ATTEST:
Deborah S. Traffenstedt, City Clerk
Attachment: Policy Statement on Wildland Urban Interface Fires
0002,75
LEAGUE
0 = CAI I F'0 l� N 1. A
C I T.I. E
ATTACHMENT 21
(5A(
League of California Cities California State Association of Counties
1400 K Street, 4`h Floor 1100 K Street, Suite 101
Sacramento, CA 95814 Sacramento, CA 95814
Wildland Urban Interface Fires
A Collaborative Plan to Decrease Impacts on
Public Health and Safety
(Adopted February 2004)
The League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties recognize the need
for multi jurisdictional and multi- agency coordination, collaboration and communication to
standardize and improve pre -fire mitigations, prevention and response to any fire hazard in the forest,
rangeland, watershed, wildland urban interface /intermix and open space in the State of California.
The League and CSAC will aggressively work with all levels of government by: a) acting as a
clearinghouse for local government regarding their experiences in dealing with conflicting
government regulations that have made wildland mitigation efforts difficult or impossible, and to
forward said information to our State legislature so they may begin to understand the problem; b)
consider legislation that will expedite the adoption of state -wide wildland urban interface construction
development standards; and c) co- sponsor public forums to discuss the adoption of future legislation,
such as Oregon's Forestland -Urban Interface Fire Protection Act. The ultimate goal will be a
systemic solution to California wildland fires and to ensure that the devastation created by past fires
will remain a part of California's history, rather than its future.
Ron Loveridge, Mayor, Riverside
President, League of California Cities
Chris McKenzie, Executive Director
League of California Cities
t�-
Paul Stein, Supervisor, Calaveras County
President, California State Association of
Counties
Steven C. Szalay, Executive Director
California State Association of Counties
000276
Supporting Documentation
I. League and CSAC Obiectives
A call to action: Catastrophic wildfires are one of the most significant threats to communities, forests,
and wildlands in California today. To address this threat, we propose the formation of a partnership
between the League of California Cities (League), California State Association of Counties (CSAC),
the State and federal governments to cooperate, collaborate, and communicate in the development of
better land use policies and wildland fuel management programs to resolve issues associated with
wildland urban interface fires. Adoption of this Policy Statement indicates CSAC's and the League's
desire to join a Task Team of City, County and State representatives that will develop strategy and
call for action to create better local ordinances to improve land use regulation and fuels management
policies for wildland fire protection concerns in and around cities and urbanized rural communities.
II. The Problems We Face
Californians are all too familiar with the serious impacts and devastating effects of fire in the forest,
rangeland, watershed and open space in and near urban settings. The recent catastrophic fires that
burned throughout Southern California in October and November 2003 provide a sobering look at the
impacts fires have on public health and safety —jobs are lost, businesses and schools are impacted,
infrastructure and environmental damages occur, and in the wildland intermix /interface (suburbs to
the wildland) areas, lives, property and natural resources are threatened and often destroyed. These
impacts leave citizens and government agencies faced with growing costs and losses from fire in the
intermix and interface (see definitions on last page). Four key factors contribute to this major
problem:
A. Population Growth. California's population growth continues to migrate into highly
flammable (wildland interface or intermix) and high fire hazard zones. Homes are built on
fuel- loaded (trees and vegetation) slopes with minimum defensible space against wild fires.
Local government must ensure that growth is prudent, responsible and limits risk, to an
acceptable level, and that development meets Fire Safe Standards for both residents and the
fire service.
B. Increased Fuels. Continued wildland fuel loading, higher tree density, and dead and dying
trees due to insects and disease make fuel issues massive in scale. According to fire
professionals and land managers, about 4 million acres of private land and 39 million acres of
federal land are at risk and have the potential to burn catastrophically.
C. Vegetation Management. To comply with environmental and regulatory agency
requirements, fire professionals and land managers have increasing difficulty in conducting
vegetation, watershed and forest management activities and programs. A large aspect of this is
the decreased use of mechanical methods and prescribed fires for the removal of wildland
fuels. The fire service and local, state and federal agencies must work together on responsible
and effective vegetation management plans.
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D. Increased Costs Associated with Fire Suppression. Both the increasing frequency of large
damaging catastrophic wildland fires and the ever - increasing suppression costs and damages
caused by these fires can be significantly reduced by: a) local government policies, zoning,
land use controls and building construction methods consistent with the tenets of the
International Urban Wildland Interface Code; and b) with an aggressive vegetation fuels
management program in these high -risk wildland fire areas.
III. Definitions
Catastrophic Fire — A wildland or wildland urban interface fire with a fast moving front, extending
over a large area (300+ acres) and /or highly destructive to lives, property or natural resources.
Defensible Space — That area which lies between a house and an oncoming wildfire where the
vegetation has been modified to reduce the wildfire threat, and in which firefighters can safely
establish themselves to defend a structure.
Fuel — Combustible structures and wildland vegetative materials. Includes dead plants, parts of living
plants, duff, and other accumulations of flammable vegetation.
Fuels Management — The practice of planning and executive manipulation or reduction of fuels to
obtain conditions which permit protection forces to meet fire suppression objectives.
Highly Flammable Fuels — Zones designated by CDF (or other fire agencies) as having specific
characteristics — e.g., fuel loading, slope and topography, fire weather, and other relevant factors — that
would allow a fire to become uncontrollable.
Natural Resources — A necessary or beneficial material source — such as timber, minerals, water, and
grazing area — occurring in nature that has a value in human commerce.
Pre -Fire Mitigation — Prior to wildland fire ignition a systematic application of risk assessment, fire
safety, fire prevention, and fire hazard reduction techniques to reduce wildland fires, damages and
cost of suppression.
Prescribed Fire — a fire with a "prescription," burning within a range of predetermined conditions
(such as fuel moisture content, weather conditions, etc.) that will keep it controllable, at low intensity,
and able to achieve its stated objectives.
Slope-- A piece of ground that is not flat or level, it may rise or fall in percent; where one percent of
slope means a rise or fall of one foot of elevation within a distance of 100 fee, thus 45% would equal
45 feet of rise in 100 feet.
Risk — the likelihood of wildfire ignition normally the result or activities of people.
Wildland — An area in which development is essentially non - existent, except for power lines, roads,
railroads, and similar transportation facilities. Structures, if any, are widely scattered and are
primarily for recreational purposes. Includes large cattle ranches and forests managed for timber
production.
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Wildland Interface — The geographical meeting point of two diverse systems, wildland and structures.
At this interface, structures and vegetation are sufficiently close that a wildland fire could spread to
structures or a structure fire could ignite vegetation.
Wildland Intermix — Interspersing of developed land with wildland, where there are no easily
discernible boundaries between the two systems. Poses more problems in wildland fire management
than interface.
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