A draft of the Community Wildfire Protection Plan for neighborhoods along the Highway 154 corridor and the Eastern Goleta Valley mountains was recently released, with recommendations for fire-preparedness and fuel-management strategies.
The 267-page draft of the San Marcos Pass-Eastern Goleta Valley Mountainous Communities Community Wildfire Protection Plan includes the areas of Painted Cave, San Marcos Trout Club, East and West Camino Cielo, Stagecoach and Coldsprings Roads, Paradise Road, Old San Marcos Road, Twin Ridge, and the San Marcos Foothills.
The draft includes site-specific risks and hazards to life safety, structures, critical infrastructure and economic impacts, recreation amenities, water sources, fire protection, land-use and zoning, and cultural and natural resources.
The Santa Barbara County Fire Department is holding a public meeting to review the plan from 7 to 9 p.m. Feb. 7 at the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission Hearing Room at 123 E. Anapamu St. in Santa Barbara.
These CWPPs aim to identify strategies to mitigate wildfire hazards for specific communities, including some generic protection measures like structure hardening, individual defensible space and fuel treatment assessments.
“A fast-moving wildfire within and adjacent to the Planning Area is inevitable; however, we don’t have to accept the loss of life, homes, infrastructure, businesses, and cultural and natural resources,” the Action Plan portion of the CWPP reads.
“Whether wildfires are catastrophic or not depends on the efforts and commitment of all stakeholders. However, the greatest responsibility for the protection of structures in a community rests not on the fire department but with property owners.
“Current land use planning, zoning regulations, and municipal codes adopted by State of California and Santa Barbara County provide the regulatory basis for fire preparedness but these alone will not protect values within the Planning Area.
“Actions taken by property owners can significantly enhance the protection of life safety and greatly influence the survival of homes, schools, churches, infrastructure, and natural and cultural resources within communities during a wildfire event. Preparedness requires participation by all stakeholders, at all levels.”
Some of the suggestions include community preparedness, enhancing structure “survivability,” strategic fuel breaks, and increasing defensible space requirements for property owners within high-hazard communities in the CWPP area.
Possibly implementing parking restrictions during times of elevated fire danger on narrow roadways that serve as primary access and routes into the communities is another recommendation.
There is a high risk of wildfire in the San Marcos Pass area, which burned in the 1990 Painted Cave Fire that killed one person and destroyed more than 600 buildings, and the 2012 Lookout Fire, among other wildfires.
The concept of the CWPP comes from the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, passed by Congress in 2003, County Fire Capt. Dave Zaniboni said, followed by a handbook for wildland-urban interface communities to create wildfire protection plans.
The county Board of Supervisors approved a CWPP development process in 2011.
According to Zaniboni, the purpose of a CWPP is to identify fire hazard reduction strategies for at-risk communities that are in balance with sustainable ecological management and fiscal resources, and to provide educational resources for residents to enhance fire preparedness.
“Fire hazard reduction strategies include identifying and prioritizing areas for hazardous fuel reduction treatments, recommending current best practices as to the types and methods of fuel treatments, and recommending measures to reduce structure ignitability,” Zaniboni said in a statement. “They are collaborative agreements, developed by at-risk communities in consultation with various interested parties and agreed to by the appropriate local government, fire department and the state forester.”
The San Marcos Pass and Eastern Goleta Valley plan has been developed since 2016.
Four CWPPs have been developed in the county, including for the communities of Mission Canyon, Montecito, Goleta and Carpinteria-Summerland.
A town hall meeting is scheduled in Mission Hills on Tuesday to discuss wildfire safety, at 5:30 p.m. at Los Berros Elementary School, 3734 Via Lato.
That meeting is organized by Third District county Supervisor Joan Hartmann’s office, the Mission Hills Community Council, the Vandenberg Village Association and the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
Interim County Fire Chief Mike Dyer, Battalion Chief Rob Hazard and Capt. Fred Tan will give a presentation, and then there will be time for questions, according to Hartmann’s office.
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
