HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/7/2025 Item 8a, Cooper (2)
Allan Cooper <
To:CityClerk; E-mail Council Website
Subject:Letter To The SLO City Council
Attachments:110_05_25...lettertocouncil.pdf
Dear City Clerk -
Would you kindly forward the letter attached below to the SLO City Council?
This letter pertains to the Council's October 7, 2025 Study Session New
Property Safety Standards.
We would also like this letter to be placed in the City's Correspondence File.
Thank you!
- Allan Cooper
1
To: ````San Luis Obispo City Council
Re: ````October 7, 2025 Meeting: Study Session New Property Safety Standards
From: Allan Cooper
Date: `October 5, 2025
Honorable Mayor and Council Members -
Please do not choose a complaint-based or “reactive” approach to violations of defensible
space. Under this approach, inspections could proceed under the existing administrative
procedures of Chapter 1.24 and/or the Fire Code). The Fire Department would have the
discretion to notify the property owner of the violation and educate them of the defensible space
requirements or to escalate enforcement if necessary.
Having been on the receiving end of a complaint based/reactive inspection program for hedges
exceeding three feet in height, I would urge the City Council to consider instead a voluntary/self-
refer inspection program. Why? Because the complaint based approach borders on a kind of
vigilantism, sometimes driven by neighbors who presumably have a desire for revenge. After I
had lowered my hedges to 3 feet in height I discovered that eleven other hedges bordering the
sidewalk within my immediate neighborhood were significantly higher than 6 feet including City-
owned property at the corner of Nipomo and Monterey Street. Two years have passed and none
of these hedges have been reduced in height. Because of this I believe that this type of
enforcement policy is discriminatory.
Staff have identified a Supplemental Fire Inspection fee (currently $282.34) as an applicable
existing fee that can cover the staffing resources required for a Voluntary Inspection Program.
The question remains whether a complaint based approach would also involve this same
inspection fee which would make an already discriminatory approach even more punitive.
As it stands fire insurance companies rely on their own WUI inspections and risk assessments to
determine the likelihood of a property damaged by a wildfire. This should suffice as a substitute
for the City’s own imposed WUI inspections. Thank you!