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An Open Letter to Governor Schwarzenegger to Save Lives, Property, and Taxpayer Dollars from California’s Fires

By Assemblymember Dave Jones

Subject: AB 2447 – Request for Signature

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:

I write to request your signature on my Assembly Bill 2447, which would amend the Subdivision Map Act so that new subdivisions are approved only if adequate fire suppression services can be provided to the new lots and firefighters and residents have adequate access into and out of the subdivision.

As more and more Californians move into areas of forests and scrub/brush and as climate change brings more droughts, the danger of catastrophic fires is increasing. And while we have made great progress in establishing better defensible space and building materials standards, subdivisions continue to be approved in high risk fire areas without adequate local fire protection. As a result, CAL FIRE has increasingly been called upon to fight these fires at great cost to taxpayers and at great risk to firefighters. Due in part to inadequate local fire protection resources, in FY 2007-08 Cal Fire spent almost $300 million on fire suppression which was over four times the budgeted amount.

Simply put, when a county is considering approving more subdivisions in a high fire hazard area, there needs to be adequate fire protection and that subdivision has to be designed so that firefighting personnel and equipment can reach the sites.

To address the crisis we face, the bill provides that counties may approve new subdivisions if they simply do these three things:

(1) Find that they have followed CAL FIRE’s existing design regulations;
(2) Find that adequate structural fire protection will exist for the new lots;
(3) Find that, with some exceptions, there are two access roads for emergencies.

The bill is crafted so that the counties determine whether there is adequate fire protection, not some other agency. The bill originally asked counties to obtain written confirmation from fire agencies, but when counties raised concerns about losing control of their decisions, I amended the bill so that the county has the sole discretion to determine if there is adequate fire protection. This is a very similar approach used in Senate Bill 5 (Machado, 2007) on flood hazard reform which you signed last year, where counties have to make a finding of a certain level of flood protection before approving subdivisions in a flood plain.

The bill also requires that in most cases there should be more than one access route into a subdivision. This is a common sense measure to save lives and property. Firefighters have lost their lives when they are trapped with no way out. A huge disaster was narrowly averted in the recent fire that struck the town of Paradise in Butte County, when two of the three access routes to hundreds of homes were cut off by fire. Imagine what would have happened if there was only one access road to these homes.

Let me briefly address the opposition’s arguments. First, there have been complaints that the bill is structured so that subdivision maps must be denied if the findings cannot be made. AB 2447 merely follows the existing structure of the Subdivision Map Act that requires denial of maps if certain findings are made (see Government Code Section 66474, and SB 5 has the same structure). The language in my bill is consistent with the language used in the Subdivision Map Act with regard to other conditions that must be met before approving a subdivision.

The Office of Planning and Research’s letter of August 12th reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the bill. OPR claims that the bill would “shift responsibility to counties for the provision of fire protection in the areas specifically designated as under the stewardship of the state [and would] significantly reduce the state’s responsibilities to provide fire protection in vulnerable areas.” AB 2447 does nothing of the sort. It simply makes the counties responsible for determining that some fire agency or combination of fire agencies will be there to fight fires. In those areas where the state is legally responsible, the county can base its finding on the availability of state fire protection.

Lastly, the opposition argues that the bill is unneeded because today’s homes are built with more fire-safe materials and are required to have larger areas cleared around them. Besides it being the case that residential development in high fire hazard areas is never “fire-proof,” this argument misses the point. Having a house built of better material is not going to save you if, when the fire roars through, a fire agency is too far away, or it has inadequate equipment or personnel to fight the fire.

To save lives, property, and state taxpayer dollars, I respectfully request your signature on AB 2447. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.

Sincerely,
DAVE JONES, Assemblymember, 9th District

Posted on September 18, 2008

Comments

Please let me know if your bill AB 2447 would allow demonstration of new methods to control these wildland fires. We use Liquid Nitrogen which should immediately counter the burn with its cryogenically cold temperature and the cloud of pure Nitrogen displacing the Oxygen needed for a fire to burn. We are a for-profit company with the technology. I will e-mail you the related white papers. Or call 937 766-4660.

Posted by: AirWars at September 14, 2009 09:53 AM

Posted by: AirWars at September 14, 2009 09:55 AM

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