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Home My WebLink About03-06-2012 ac johnson hines ph12AGENDA DATE : March 5, 2012 CORRESPONDENC E TO :City Council Date ?J W/it .item# ?l+l VIA : Katie Lichtig, City Manage r FROM : Derek Johnson, Community Development Directo r Charlie Hines, Fire Chief BY : Phil Dunsmore, Senior Planne r SUBJECT: Safety Element Fire Hazards Chapter update ; Questions from Andrew Carter regarding the Safety Element update/Building Code revision s This correspondence responds to the following questions with answers listed below : 1.You said that there are 22 lots in the proposed Very High zone . Please provide that numbe r divided up by area and how many of those lots currently have a building and how many don't. What is the number of lots directly bordering the proposed Very High zones ? There are 22 private lots within residential zoning in the VHFHSZ as illustrated in the tabl e below . Residential Lots «ithin et-3, high Fire hazard Se~erit~ Zon e City Street Developed Vacan t Isabella Way 3 4 San Luis Drive 1 14 Some of the vacant parcels in the proposed VHFHSZ have other constraints (i .e ., slope, etc .) that make development challenging . Approximately 34 properties border the VHFHSZ . However, these properties that border the zone are only subject to the same standards as any other propert y within the City since there is no proposed Wildiand Urban Interface (WUI) zone . 2.You said that Chief Callahan and Fire Marshall Maggio had input into the state map .A constituent has told me that CalFire didn't originally identib, any areas in the City as Very High and the City asked specifically that the areas in question be added . Is this correct? Why was ou r estimation of Hazard different from CalFire's? I note that on Bishop Peak and on the Johnso n Avenue ridge, the adjoining land in the County is marked High, not Very High . On Cerro San Luis and Islay Hill, the adjoining land in the County is marked Moderate . It's only in the Irish Hills that the adjoining County land is marked Very High . Council correspondence 3-05-12 (2) Agenda Correspondenc e Safety Element Fire Hazards Page 2 Cal Fire's mapping effort included input from each jurisdiction, however their mapping wa s based upon a Cal Fire mapping model . During Cal Fire's implementation of the statewide maps, City GIS and Fire staff provided comments on the draft maps,in some cases these comment s resulted in changes to the maps including changes to the VHFHSZ within our jurisdiction . Before Cal Fire made any changes, they were required to substantiate the addition of VHFHSZ wit h evidence to support expanded area . In the case of San Luis Obispo, this was done by providin g more detailed vegetation information than was available by the state . This information wa s coupled with slope data that when combined, yielded a more severe hazard designation than what the state originally proposed . The draft Cal Fire maps did include VHFHSZ's within the Cit y prior to local input, but these areas were modified and expanded based on City input which wa s supported by substantial evidence . The attached map illustrates the draft map from Cal Fire along with areas that were changed due to comments (Attachment #1 ) 3.In the Red File responding to Jan Marx's questions, Phil Dunsmore writes that no other cities i n the County have incorporated the state Fire Hazard Maps into their General Plans . Do we kno w whether the other cities have Safety Elements? If so, do we know whether those Safety Element s have pre-existing maps like we do ? The Safety Element is one of the seven required elements under California Planning and Zonin g Laws . Every community is slightly different in how they choose to implement hazard maps . Most communities implement their hazard maps (flood, fire, seismic etc .) into their Municipa l Code where they are reflected on a zoning map as an overlay zone . Pismo Beach, Morro Bay , Arroyo Grande and the County use this approach ; however they have also not updated thei r hazard maps to reflect the recent state mandates . Instead these communities currently "reference " the state map when determining fire hazard zones . Just like San Luis Obispo, Atascadero implements safety maps into their General Plan, however they have not updated their Genera l Plan map for state consistency . 4.On page 2 of that Red File appears this sentence, "The state strongly encourages loca l jurisdictions to reflect the current maps in their General Plan ." But the first sentence of th e Report in Brief (PHI-I) reads "Gov't Code s)51179 requires local agencies to adopt the State's Fire Hazard Maps...." Which is it? What is our legal requirement ? The Government Code Sections §§51175-51,189 describe the responsibilities of local jurisdiction s to adopt the fire hazard maps . Sections 51179 describes that "a local agency shall designate, by ordinance, very high fire hazard severity zones in its jurisdiction within 120 days of receivin g recommendations from the director pursuant to subdivisions (b) and (c) of section 51178 ."Sinc e the City of San Luis Obispo adopts hazard maps into the General Plan and not into the Municipa l Code, the proposed approached based on the City's General Plan framework is to implement thi s requirement by adopting the building code by ordinance while referencing the map in the General Plan. Furthermore, Government Code §65302 .5 requires that local jurisdictions that includ e VHFHSZ's submit the Safety Element of the General Plan to the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection in this case, the City's Fire Department . The Dept . of Forestry and City Fir e Department review the element to determine if the policies within the VHFHSZ will protect life , property, and natural resources from unreasonable risks associated with Wiidiand fires, moreover , they look at the methods and strategies for Wildland fire risk reduction and prevention withi n VHFHSZ . In accordance with the Government Code, the City's Safety element is due by Jun e 30,2015,these agencies have already reviewed and provided comments on the safety element . Agenda Correspondenc e Safety Element Fire Hazards Page 3 Attachment 1 San Luis Obisp o High Fire Hazard Severity Zones in LRA GNi Cf8env..,