And we'll now have a um we'll have a roll call again, I believe.

According to the agenda.

Okay.

All right, I'm gonna start with council.

Councilmember Johnson.

Here.

Councilmember Nagengast.

Here.

Councilmember Penrose?

Here.

Vice Mayor Reddick?

Here.

Mayor Brownstone.

Here.

Commissioner Del Nagro.

Commissioner Rems.

Here.

Commissioner Hernandez.

I am present.

And Chair Reddick.

I'm here.

We have a quorum.

Great.

Thanks everyone.

Welcome Planning Commission.

It's been a while since we had a joint session, so nice to see folks again.

We're going to start with um, this is a special study session, and in a moment, staff will um tell you about what's going on and how much we'll be covering today.

And um again, this is just a beginning to um talk about fire hazards and our safety element.

This will be a continuing conversation.

Um we'll start with um item 2A, local responsibility and area fire hazard severity zone maps.

And we'll receive a report about fire hazard severity zone maps and implications to the Half Moon Bay community associated with the maps and defensive space zones.

Uh good evening, Mr.

Mayor, uh Vice Mayor Ruddick, council members, Commissioner Ruddick, and planning commission members.

Uh my name is Todd Seely.

I'm the interim public works director, and it is a pleasure to be here with you this evening.

Uh, this evening I'm joined uh by Calfire Unit Chief Jed Wilson.

Um he is here to support the public works department and kind of uh give us a little bit of information on the fire mapping and and how it could potentially affect the city.

Um see here, is this running through a little bit of technical issues.

There we go.

Um our recommendation for you this evening is to receive a report about fire hazard severity zone maps and the implications to the Half Moon Bay community associated with the maps and the defensible space zones.

A little bit of background on this item.

On February 24th, 2025, the coastide fire protection district received the updated fire hazard severity zone maps from the state fire marshal's office.

I've provided all of you here this evening with a copy of uh the current map, and there are copies available for the public at the uh front counter as well if anyone's interested in taking a look at them.

Uh these maps were developed pursuant to government code section 51178, which mandates the identification and classification of areas in California based on their relative fire hazard severity.

Uh fire hazard severity zone maps arose from major destructive fires, prompting the recognition of these areas and strategies to reduce wildfire risks.

Uh the fire hazard severity zone maps evaluate hazard, not risk.

So that's an important uh thing to take into consideration when we're looking at this.

Hazard is based on the physical conditions that create a likelihood and an expected fire behavior over a 30 to 50 year period without considering mitigation efforts.

Uh risk is the potential damage a fire can cause the area under existing conditions, not account are accounting for any modifications such as fuel reduction projects or defensible space.

Uh some discussion we'd like to have this evening is since the publication of these maps.

There has been much discussion about them amongst both city staff and concerned members of the uh coastside community.

Uh the maps are in addition to assembly bill 3074, which mandated the creation of ember resistance zones, which are commonly referred to as zone zero.

We hear that term bandied about quite a bit.

Uh there's a lot of concern that in in my capacity that I've heard from from residents of this town, like what are we gonna do about zone zero and how do we protect ourselves or what are the what are the long-term implications for my my property for my community, stuff like that.

So the the maps are designed to reduce risk to homes and structures, and its implementation could lead to multiple issues for residents of the coast side.

Um we're not a hundred percent sure when exactly implementation is gonna take place.

Chief Wilson can touch on that in in the QA section of this, but we expect it or he expects it to take place maybe by the end of this year, early next year, sometime around then.

So the implementation is coming soon, sooner rather than later, possibly within the next eight weeks or so.

Uh and as I'm as we just mentioned, implementation enforcement has been a moving target.

Potential liabilities.

This is probably where city staff and specifically public works are going to have the most input downtown being a potential liability.

Part of the downtown core falls in the very high severity area.

Tree removals and building modifications, such as awnings or any structures attached to the site of the building may be necessary for compliance.

Insurance, both city facilities and private properties could be affected by the cancellation of insurance policies.

So it's a huge liability for us that we need to seriously consider and plan for moving forward in the downtown core and in the rest of the town as well.

Staff have heard of some additional requirements being proposed on property owners and prop other policies being canceled.

There is a resource.

Since we're not sure what enforcement and implementation is going to look like, we have to plan for all of these potential areas.

In Frenchman's Creek, because of the topography over there and the fact that we would have to do most of the work with cranes, that's probably $30,000 a tree.

Just to get it all out of there to dispose of it properly, to get everything done above board.

And I think there's about 70 trees in the Frenchman's Creek Park area at $30,000 a pop.

It's uh it's a very daunting number.

Um we do have some help with this in that uh Governor Newsom did declare a state of emergency recently.

The state of emergency only really impacts the environmental entitlements that we would need to get to remove trees if we have to go that route.

Um it's a first step for sure.

But with that, even with reducing those entitlement costs, there's still currently no grant funding really available to do any large-scale removal of any trees or anything like that.

So with that, I did a really brief PowerPoint because I think for this presentation that the QA is more appropriate, especially since we have Chief Wilson here with us to answer a lot of the technical questions that city staff just aren't um trained to answer.

So with that, I'd like to turn it over to Mayor Brownstone and see if there's any questions.

Uh before I get to the public, um questions from council.

When you talk about trees, uh all trees, particular trees.

Well, excuse me.

Well, the question well, every every kind of tree, a eucalyptus tree, a maiden tree, a no.

No, that is correct.

And then when I'm talking about trees, I'm just talking about in the specific areas where we have large urban forests that fall in the very high fire zones.

So in the very high fire zone, if there's a single tree, is that a risk?

Probably not.

That would probably be a more of a technical question.

A single tree, probably not.

I think the real issues they're worried about trees in a forested type area that could, you know, combust and spread spread fire and amber more quickly than a singular tree could.

Thanks.

I I have several questions.

I didn't know how you want you want to format the.

Yeah, why don't you just go ahead and questions here?

Okay.

Because, you know, and I and I uh mapping to me are lines on a piece of paper.

And it's always interesting why somebody's red, why somebody's brown, why somebody's yellow?

Because if I go to my house, it's yellow.

But I go next door and it's not.

You know, and I these are the kind of questions that just come up.

Why my house and not my neighbor's house when we're the exact same block, exact same everything.

You know, I know you're trying to explain it's a hazard, but why isn't my simple question?

Why isn't my neighbor's house a hazard?

Yeah, so for the map.

For the very high, high and moderate.

Could you get close to the mic so they could be picked up?

Uh so they take in account fuels, topography, weather, and historically, those maps that were in the SRA, and there was only in very high previously, um, they were not as refined as they are now.

So they can take those models and they looked and added embercast as well into these modeling.

So uh we all experienced some form the palisades or eaten fire in January last year.

That had a lot to do with Embercast.

That was ignition from structure to structure that was no longer a wildland fire, became a conflagration.

So they take those into account.

So while your neighbor's house next door might seem exactly the same, there's one of those contributing factors that changes the model to have it a larger hazard than your house.

And you'll notice that the maps are not parcel-based.

They are actually congruent with that modeling.

So if there is a parcel that is split within the city or coastside fire protection district, that the higher value is going to be associated with that parcel.

So, so we're eliminating that hazard as much as possible.

So the ordinance is written in that form.

It's still hard to explain that to somebody why my house, not your.

Um, the state fire marshal who created these maps, um, I know that they went through very rigorous for the SRA which were adopted the year before.

We went through very rigorous public meetings over and over, and they kept refining the model, and that same model was used for the LRA, so it was kind of uh validated prior.

Okay.

And unfortunately, uh representative from the insurance industry couldn't be here tonight.

But I assume they're the ones that uh insure against risk.

Is that what the insurance?

So, and their maps, and I've been told are can be totally different than this map.

The the risk can be different than hazard.

Council member Negagas unfortunately we were not able to get anyone from the insurance industry.

They we reached out to seven different sources, including some that were nonprofit-based that do this kind of work, and none of them express any interest in coming to speak with us tonight.

I think it's obviously a hot topic issue, and they didn't want to be on public record probably talking about it.

So unfortunately, we weren't able to get anyone here, but we did.

I want to assure you that we did try to get someone from the insurance industry here to speak to us to speak to your questions.

I know.

And I will just corroborate what you're saying.

We've heard from a lot of reputable sources that the risk maps can be very different than these.

Um, much more stringent than these as well.

So um I think there's a lot still to be learned on that, and we'll continue to pursue that and and hopefully be able to schedule something.

In the future.

So our residents can get a better understanding of how that works.

And then just another quick, so let's say I was going to get a building permit.

Well, there'll be different standards and very high severity versus high versus moderate.

So I'll go back to my neighbor's house.

So if we both do the same thing for a building permit, will his permit have different conditions related to fire because he's in a high or I'm, you know, a different zone than I'm in.

Yeah, so for the three.

Sorry, for the really close here.

For the uh three zones, so for very high in the LRA, um, there is um defensible space inspections are required by the agency.

So Coastside Fire Protection District starting next year, will start enforcing, and what I shouldn't say enforcing, they will start inspecting homes in the very high.

And for the city of Half Moon Bay, you have sixteen hundred and eighty-four homes that we need to inspect.

We'll probably do that over the course of a three-year period and phase that in because we need to add additional staffing to be able to support those inspections.

Um hazard disclosures will be um for the very high, which is when you go to sell your home, it's currently required in the SRA, an inspection is done to show that it is fire safe or not, and that way that is disclosed at purchase.

The subdivision review, which planning could talk more specifically on, that is overlaid in the very high.

Sequa is required within the very high for projects.

The safety element is required in very high, the California fire safe regulations are applied in very high, and chapter seven A of the building code is applied for very high.

So a lot of stuff is happening in the very high.

So if you're very high, all those things apply to you.

We go to your neighbor next door, and we're gonna say that he's or she is sitting in the high, they have uh a disclosure requirement if they go to sell their home, and chapter 7A of the building code applies.

They are not getting an inspection.

We hope that in a coastside fire protection district, as our inspections become more robust, we're gonna try to not just go to the very high, but to high and moderate homes.

I think we have 3,813 homes within or inspectable properties in the city of Half Moon Bay, um, to make sure that everybody is being afforded the opportunity to be fire safe.

And then if you're in moderate, you do not have any uh requirements put on you.

That was a lot to digest and I'm hearing a lot of this.

Right, to just be blunt.

Very high, you're gonna be more stringent.

High will be less stringent, moderate is less.

And when you said uh you inspect if we don't do anything, is there penalties?

Or it's there could be, but penalties usually don't work, right?

So hopefully we do have a weed abatement program that we do in Coastside Fire Protection District to mitigate weeds on vacant lots, but these are occupied structures.

We will keep coming out and inspecting and hopefully gain compliance.

Um I personally, as the fire chief of coastside, don't feel that a heavy hammer is gonna solve the problem.

You might get a little bit more bees with with money.

Okay, that that's enough for right now.

Oh, excuse me.

Council Member Nangan guessed if I can just follow up on that.

I just wanted to add one more thing.

Um, this is a kind of a sheet that's pulled from from the CERT website.

So again, we're talking about cert and the good thing they do to the community.

They have some compliance timelines on there.

Um January 1 of 2026 is when zone zero is gonna be required for all new constructions, and 26 to 28 is when they're going to start uh doing their their stuff on existing homes and working on compliance with that.

So again, just another plug for CERT.

They're they're doing good things for the community and and publishing all this information on their website.

Yeah, I was just gonna say um I think this is great.

Instead of penalizing folks, we're trying to incentivize behavior that will save entire neighborhoods.

Because if you're if the moderate home is next to the high risk, that high risk goes up and you've got embers going everywhere, you're gonna be caught up easily in a windstorm as anyone else, and I think that we know that insurance companies were flying um drones and taking pictures of people's houses and adjusting their rates again, and frankly, often it is insurance companies when it's which incentivize behaviors, but it's also very controversial.

We know the attorney general is looking at insurance rates, etc.

I mean, there's a lot of pieces to this, but you know, there's been a lot of information out there about how to harden your home for quite a bit, and you know, some of us take it more serious than others.

You know, you go into the areas and other parts north here, you know, and they go into communities that had big fires.

Wow, you drive through them now, people have cut down trees near that.

You could really see where they've um made a difference.

I think um having the inspections will actually be really helpful, and uh people will be much more proactive once they really know what to do and how to do it.

So um so I see this as good.

It's overwhelming right now to figure this all out, but I think it's headed in a really good direction that we're getting uh the right experts in place to really um explain to people.

And as you start doing inspections, it'll be proactive.

People aren't gonna wait two years to get their you know, they're gonna be learning from it and passing the good word and the cert information.

So I think that's terrific.

Any other um questions or comments at this point from staff before I take public questions and comments?

Oh, sorry, planning commission.

Sorry about that.

What was I thinking?

Sorry, Steve.

Go ahead.

Yeah, don't forget us.

Thank you for having us.

Um Chief Wilson, do I understand the difference between risk and hazard correctly?

I'm I'm thinking that you could have an open stretch of grassland with no structures on it that maybe be.

Steve, I'm not sure your mic's working.

I can hear you because I'm close, but that sounds good.

Maybe get a little closer, move it up to your mouth.

Is this any better?

Yes.

Thank you.

I was uh started to say if I can uh am I correct that uh hypothetical open stretch of grassland might be high hazard zone, but low risk because there's no structures to be at risk on it.

Correct.

And secondly, is the state fire marshal's data transparent?

Like if I knew what I was doing, could I go in and see the data that these rankings are based on and and play around with the historic wind velocities for a neighborhood and see how that changed?

I believe the data is available.

I don't believe you could play with the data though to adjust it.

Thank you.

It is a hot topic.

I can tell you're a dad.

Um the risk maps, um, can we does this you know state fire marshal have the risk maps from the insurance industry?

Because hazards are nice, but I've worked with the insurance industry on maps, and their maps are very different in how they model risk.

Do we have visibility to those as a state?

Uh the hazard and risk maps are separate.

We do not take insurance risk maps into the hazard map, and it should not go vice versa.

Can we get access to the insurance industry's risk maps?

Because as homeowners, like that's what I believe that they're proprietary to the carrier.

Okay.

Yes.

So does the state have a risk model that we as homeowners can take into account?

No, these hazard maps are what we utilize.

Okay.

Um if we got rid of all of the overground overground power lines.

How would that affect the red and the orange on this?

Because what we're talking about is forcing homeowners to remove stuff around their homes, remove trees, but the risk is like the cost is pushed on to the community.

How does removing overhead power lines affect these risk maps?

And is there a way for us to remove that like model to Steve's point to help see how that would impact the hazard to our community?

So the power lines are not included in the maps because they're not utilized.

It's not creating uh ignition sources.

It's as if an issue and source started anywhere, how that fire could be.

So power lines are not a delineating factor in the mapping.

But if a r if it's a major risk factor for fire, we're confusing there's a hazard map, which is the state farm marshal, you're you're talking more risk.

But one thing to loop back on is there's been talk about cutting down trees and trees, uh keep being brought up.

This is defensible space around a structure.

So zone zero, which should be adopted before December 31st of 2025 by the Board of Forestry.

Once those rules are out, they'll have a three-year implementation for anything existing, and anything new will need to adhere to those.

Then you have a 30-foot and it, you know, zone one, zone two, all the way out to 100 feet.

That's where you should be doing reduction.

It doesn't mean that you have to cut down every single tree and have short grass.

You need to be can creating a reduction zone.

So if your home catches fire, it doesn't go out, or if a fire comes in, it doesn't go to your home.

I was gonna follow up on that point because um I'm under the impression that um there might be some wiggle room for zone zero and the coastal zone because it's not necessarily doesn't take into account the types of um habitat we have here, the ability to catch and slow embers to stop winds, in some cases certain types of um greenery, shrubbery trees actually act as a mitigant to fire.

So are we going to be able to look at how the coastal zone might be different up here versus down in San Diego where everything is dry embers?

Once the rules are established, that will help us delineate.

I believe those were some of the challenges where it seemed very clear-cut initially, those rules have been being made longer or not longer, but it's taken longer to come up with the rules.

I think it was there was more tentacles than initially anticipated.

Okay, and and so you you feel like by December of this year we're gonna have policies that take into account the local habitat and its ability to help us suppress fire.

I think that they they should be by December 31st is the deadline that was set by the governor's executive order for the Board of Forestry to have the rule package out.

Okay.

And so taking proactive measures besides like water suppression systems, aerial suppression systems, if those were implemented, would that reduce the hazard in the hazard maps?

Like if we had community swimming pools or water storage tanks that could aerosolize water, are those things that would remove our hazards?

Are there things besides just removing fuel that we can do?

Those items that you speak of are not part of the hazard map creation, so that's technology that is in being uh I'm trying to think of the right word.

It's not realized yet and uh it's validity fully.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh I just have a couple of questions following up on uh could you get a little closer to the mic or pull it towards your mouth so we can hear you?

If you could pull the mic close to your mouth, we can hear you better.

Thanks.

Uh, just wanted to follow up on uh Commissioner Hernandez's uh comment.

Are you saying there's no way to mitigate the high fire zones, either with fire breaks or anything else, that this is a fixed line map?

No, over time you can reduce the hazard by doing fuel mitigation, and unfortunately, climate change probably is affecting that map as well with the predicted fire or predicted weather based on uh historical data.

So, okay, but when they review it the next time, that map should not be identical, right?

It should change because people are doing hazard reduction, we are getting change in climate, so and fuels are changing.

The one thing we have a difficult time is changing topography, unless there's a large earth movement for construction that stays the same.

Do you know how how often they're going to be updated at this point?

I do not, but it's been seems like about a five to eight year cycle from historically.

I see.

And you're saying this model for the very high uh uh fire hazard area is based on a computer model or actual observations of what the vegetation is like and what the terrain is like and so on and so forth?

But both factors, it takes into the fuel weather and topography, historical data based on the fuels that were there, any past fire history, and then any critical weather that has been forecasted within those zones, it combines all of those, and then it added in ember casts as well in this modeling from previous years.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

If um would large scale agricultural practices like planning more artichoke, for example, um around our community, are those things that would reduce the hazard?

I would I'm I'm speaking for myself, thinking the way the model works, yes, that would adjust it because you're changing the fuel type.

Okay.

And if we put in place um like as we build homes or large structures, maybe something like 555 Kelly or other larger structures.

If those are uh effective fire breaks, they're designed to be fire breaks.

If we have those types of things in the borders between, you know, open space and where we live.

Um to having those types of large fire structures that are designed to be uh break up the fire, those things would also impact the hazard map.

Potentially, yes.

Okay, thank you.

Uh first line, uh, data is now 3D, uh, the closing of the yeah, so so the maps were originally uh scheduled to be released in December of 24.

There was some challenges releasing the maps uh to release them for the whole state, so they went into a phase approach.

Then unfortunately, the first week in January we had the Palisades and Eaton fires, so they were delayed in being released.

So the data set is from 2024.

Okay.

Um the second question I had was about um the methodology for tree identification.

I understand the Ember um cast for understanding the ignition sources and wind, but then how do you get the methodology to identify a tree is um part of your uh zone zero requirement?

Um I understand if it's in five feet of a building, it would automatically be zone zero, right?

But if it's further away or it's part of a large grove, what's the methodology for identifying?

So I'm not an expert in mapping, but they use LIDAR, and based on the LIDAR and other mapping techniques, they can tell the species of the tree by the canopy.

So that is what has been used in helping make these maps.

Okay, and is there a criteria available for the consumer to read and understand the criteria that goes in identifying trees that need to be removed?

Uh if you go onto the state fire marshal website under fire hazard severity zone, there's very detailed information on the mapping and how it was delineated in tree canopy is in there.

Okay.

Alright, last question for this topic uh from me at least.

Um so uh I understand that eucalyptus trees are very high-risk um item.

Um, they also function as habitat for protected species.

So are we gonna see something where somebody just comes in and mows down all the eucalyptus, or are we gonna have like a managed transition where we thin them out and then replace other species that support monarch butterflies and other protected species as we go through zone zero?

So that there will be so uh I'm trying to let me gather my response here.

It would be transitional.

Sequo would still apply to any project.

So in that sequa process, those butterflies are going to be identified, and you're not gonna be able to cut down every single one of those trees uh in that project.

Is that so we have to go through an analysis?

Correct.

In the governor's executive order, um, there was some concern that that streamlined sequest so that there would be no protection for those said species.

Um that governor's executive order, you still have to follow best practices, so it's not a uh, you know, get out of jail, go go free and cut.

There's still requirements to make sure that we're looking out for those species in those uh sensitive habitats.

If I could just follow up on that, Commissioner Hernan is so if we did identify areas and we started removing a large amount of trees in that area, we would most certainly look at replanting in a different area.

Obviously, to I mean, there's a couple areas in here that are that are free and clear.

We would look at replanting in those areas.

We would probably not probably would most certainly get a biologist on board to identify species.

If we knew we were going to be impacting the monarch migration, we'd most certainly look at replanting trees in a different area that aren't eucalyptus trees and could be useful as a habitat for the monarchs in their migration as well.

So that would be part of what we would do as the city to make sure that we're staying above board and doing the right thing.

Yeah, council.

Can you go over the zone thing again?

I don't know what you mean by zone zero, zone at 100 feet.

What yeah, so around a structure.

Around a home or a structure.

A structure, you have different zones.

So you have zero to five feet around the home, yeah.

You have a zero fuel zone potentially based on what the rules come out, and there might be uh landscaping that is allowed because it is non-receptive to fire brands.

Um maybe you have uh it's gonna be a big change for all of us for me.

I don't my plants aren't in pots around my house, they're planted in the ground.

Maybe you put them in a pot where it can be moved away from a firefighter, right?

Then you have about 30 feet out from the home.

You have a reduction zone, and then from there out to 100 feet, you have a further reduction zone.

So maybe you have thin trees in that 30 foot zone, and they're trimmed up so that you don't have a ladder fuel, and then you continue that out to a hundred feet from the home.

Most of the homes in the downtown area, don't have a hundred feet.

Don't have a hundred feet, correct.

So they're gonna be in the reduction zone or in the zero zone that you're talking about.

They could be in some of the stuff they were looking at is uh Marin County.

They have a very uh progressive um fuel reduction and zone zero implementation that they've done within the county and changing fence types.

We've done redwood right all these years.

Maybe you're converting that to a non-combustible type material so that you're not if you only have three feet between your house, the fence, and then your neighbor's house, you're really sharing that five foot zone, so having a non-combustible fence.

Got it.

Thank you.

We have to we're gonna we're gonna have to get creative and think outside the box really with where we are these days instead of what we've done all these years in the past.

And then one thing to add, we keep talking about risk, hazard insurance.

I'm here for the hazard, uh, the risk with insurance is a separate topic, which we could go round and round.

But firewise communities are a great option for a community of a certain amount of homes to join a become a fire-wise community.

And once you've done that, you then can for most insurance carriers receive a reduction in your uh policy of a certain percent.

So if there are communities within half moon base city limits that could be meet the qualifications for firewise and they join together, that would be a great opportunity for people to become more aware of fire reduction and how it can benefit their neighborhood.

Maybe gain a little bit more community because they're all gonna have to work together and reducing that and also lower their policy.

Thank you.

Councilmember Penrose, if we just follow up on the zone zero stuff as it relates to downtown, perhaps the biggest concern that I have with all of this.

There's a small portion of downtown that the that is in the very high zone, and we have a high number of street trees down there, and a lot of those street trees, if we had to adhere to the five foot zone, could theoretically have to be removed.

Or would there's really two options?

You can prune the canopy on one side, making it for all intents and purposes a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, or you can remove the tree completely, right?

So there's a lot of trees that that would meet that criteria in the downtown core, and that's not something that we want to touch right now, but it's it's something that could theoretically happen.

Umnings on buildings, I don't know.

I would get Chief Wilson's take on this, but awnings on the side of buildings in the the zone zero could potentially fall under that as well.

Too we could have to as a city go in and or the or the fire district could go in and implement that they have to take all the awnings off the side of their buildings.

The trees for sure is my biggest concern, and awnings is something that we think about, but I don't know.

Do you have any thoughts on that, Chief Wilson?

Yeah, so when this first came out and I saw how impacted downtown was, I thought, wow, if I was the local awning builder, I'm gonna be not happy.

Um we're gonna have a three-year implementation once zone zero is established.

Um like I said, it's not gonna be a hammer that's gonna be coming from the fire district.

We're gonna work collaboratively with the city.

That's a fiscal impact if they're city-owned awnings or if they're owned by the businesses, or even either way, it's an impact fiscally.

So working together that when it needs replaced because it's been in the sun so long and UV's broken it down, maybe we replace it with a non-combustible awning.

And through attrition, we're now being fire safe.

So you could still have awnings, just need to be non-combustible, non-combustible.

And when um this question came up uh a couple of weeks ago, so the issue with awnings is it captures embers, right?

Correct.

And so if the building is stucco versus wood, does that make a difference?

For for the awning itself, or well, in terms of the threat to the building, if the building is stucco, would embers on the awnings be used.

Right, yes.

A lot of times it's not necessarily the exterior construction of the home, it's the the nooks and crannies that aren't uh sealed appropriately, and that's where the ember finds its its bed and then establishes itself and grows from there.

So if it's a stucco wood frame structure and the ember gets caught in say an eve that's not sealed appropriately, it works its way in, and it's not really uh caring about the exterior material at that time.

So that's now if it's direct impingement from embers cast is beating on the side of it, the stucco would be more resistant over time.

Yes.

Thank you.

Another quick question here, which since we're talking uh, you know, downtown, but even if you have very narrow setbacks, you know, side-to-side buildings type of fences, we talk about this, but ultimately though, it's the insurance industry that's gonna make the decisions because what we do impacts us financially, right?

And this obviously we don't fires were against that, but this our pocketbooks are what's being impacted for insurance purposes.

So they're the ones that are gonna decide, and I don't know if you collaborate at all with them.

It's kind of odd you're two separate entities the way I look at this, but they're the ones that are going to decide whether they first will insure you and then at what cost based on risks, and hopefully by doing you know, changing combustible items to non-combustible, whether you oh I can move you know a plan away from my house, but some of these things we're talking about downtown.

I would assume if we do something, they will notice, and I don't know what triggers we start seeing change in rates or things that are actually happening.

You know, and I don't know if I had a direct question there, but it just seems to me it's just two different entities.

I would hope working together, but you don't see their maps.

They don't share their maps, they're proprietary.

And how do we know what we're doing is the right thing until I guess do we share insurance rates?

I don't expect you to have an answer for that, but that's why it's so hard for us to try and absorb all this and just think about what worst case scenario, what we may do to our downtowns.

We're not the only community talking about this.

I know everybody that has what we call our quaint downtowns, probably drive the insurance industry crazy, or if uh, you know, so um and I don't know the answer to that, but it's just I see why we're we're asking you for answers.

Maybe you don't have.

It's a uh a step by step approach.

We move forward together, right?

And we become more fire wise.

And I like the idea we talk about a fire-wise community.

I think that's you know a great way to approach this, and then hopefully the insurance industry recognizes.

Who's uh state insurance committee commissioners at Bonta Bonta?

Wrong name.

Is that the no, he's the attorney general.

That's the attorney general rant, sorry.

Lara Lara.

And I see a lot of stuff from their office.

I'm wondering if they might have um insurance things.

Well, this is a good wake-up call, and I agree.

I love the idea of a fire-wise community and eventually a fire-wise city, so we can really um, you know, be um able to face our insurance issues and and different insurance companies might also differ.

So it's good to start checking with your homeowner policies and find out what uh they're looking at.

So um okay.

If there's any more comments from here, okay, yeah, great.

Since we have the experts here, um, do you folks know the uh eucalyptus thinning that was done a couple months ago just south of the Seymour Ditch on the Coastside Land Trust property?

Uh was that done under the the govern the governor's emergency program?

I'm gonna make eye contact with Leslie, but that is my understanding.

The work that went on on CLT lands.

Was that done as well?

Under the governor's executive order.

Um, that uh if you could step up to the mic if you can answer, thanks, Leslie.

That was a pre-existing RCD project.

Uh the work that was done under the governor's executive order was done on post land.

Um that land.

You had actually written to me about it, um, Commissioner Nagengast at the end of Magnolia, um, where the haystacks were, and then through that area.

That was all under the governor's.

Um I'm curious the the thinning of that eucalyptus, uh, if that was done in a way that is gonna be required, it was more dramatic that I think than anybody expected.

So if folks wanted to see what it's gonna look like on the coast as we thin more eucalyptus growths, that would be a way to see what it's gonna look like.

So I'm kind of curious, did they go overboard in that, or is that what will be required?

Um yeah, we went out and inspected that, and um it it looked very much like what what they had described in their proposal to the governor.

So I don't think they necessarily went overboard.

Um I was a little surprised too by how much they had cut, but uh it's pretty much what they had described.

And while I'm at the mic, um the reason I missed your question is because I was following up with Cynthia.

Cert is actually gonna start offering classes on developing firewise communities.

So just so you know.

Yeah, so I I'll just repeat so there's a little pilot program there just south of the west dead end of Magnolia, where people can see what what the eucalyptus groves will look like after they're thin, but I don't guess that we required any planting of different types of trees anywhere else for that project, did we?

That project was completed by the RCD, if my memory is correct.

Um, so coastside fire did not have any input on that project.

And we would only require replanting of trees if they were city-owned trees on city property.

Okay, that makes sense.

Thank you.

Chris?

I have two questions.

One is um, of the 250 identified trees that we've been discussing, how many of those are within the zone zero?

How many of those are within the larger zone of 30 feet and beyond that to the hundred foot mark, so that we can understand the prioritization of what obviously would be most important to remove, I would assume would be the zone zero trees.

Do we list that information when we go to do these removals?

No, we have a database that we with that most of our tree inventory is kept in.

Um the majority of the trees that would be that would fall in zone zero would be like our downtown trees.

So there's just going off of memory here.

There's probably 40 or 50 street trees in the downtown area that would fall in zone zero that would that would be in the in the very high zones.

Um as far as the rest of the trees, Frenchman's Creek, there's some trees close to the first little bank of houses right there when you turn on to Rousseau Rousseau Francais.

Um that would probably fall in the the in zone one, so not in zone zero, but they would probably be in zone one.

That would be a little more of aggressive thinning.

Uh another 60 or so trees that would fall in zone two.

So not as much of an aggressive approach that we need to take.

Uh the courtyard property, the majority of all almost all those trees would be in zone two, and there's so many more issues there because of the pillar Citos watershed.

That's where the majority of the trees and the courtyard property are that would that would have to be mitigated would be in the in the Pillar Citos watershed.

Uh Carter Park.

There's probably about 40 or so trees, and that that the majority of those are also in the pillar CEDOS watershed, so that would be problematic as well, close to the stage structure that we just completed as as part of the Carter Park Park project.

I guess my point is can we prioritize obviously focusing on the trees that are the most dangerous first before prioritizing the non-ones, I would assume.

Yeah, I'm guessing based on this conversation, we would look at a thinning approach.

So taking 50% or 60% or whatever the arbitrary numbers that we come up with in conjunction with our biologists consulting with them and what we can and can't do.

Okay, I'm asking this question because my next part of this question has to do with the downtown trees and what's providing as much fuel in the area to push this high s high uh very high zone into downtown.

Um I would assume from the maps that it's really the trees on the Arroyo um uh Leon Arroyo River as well as the fire um fuel located around the cemetery above it, pushing downtown.

If we focused our efforts on that area to pull back the fire um risk or hazard further away from downtown, could we be able to decrease our risk of having downtown be in a very high zone?

I'll let Chief talk to the hazard part of it.

The majority of the property on the other side of Arroyo Leone watershed is not city property.

So that would be a uh a joint effort with the private property owners to try and get some mitigation efforts done over there.

But as far as reducing the hazard, I think that's probably a better question for cheap.

So as we reduce fuels within those very high, high and moderate zones over the course of the next map, that should adjust those.

Okay.

I'm hoping that if you could reduce the amount that's proximal that maybe you can save downtown's trees by just reducing it further afield and drawing the map away from downtown.

Yep.

Okay.

Just one more thing on the watershed areas.

The watershed areas, while possible to do all the biological work and be above board and get all the permits and everything.

That is by far the most expensive mitigation we would have to do.

There's no access points, there's no way to get the trees in and out, there's no way to get the crews in there to actually physically do the work short of cranes or some sort of some sort of miracle to get people in there.

And that's part of, you know, that's part of the discussion is that if we go that route and start mitigating the areas that need that would help reduce the hazard load, it's it's an expensive proposition for sure.

So thinking about uh downtown, um would there be protections available to heritage downtown because it's a historical area?

Could it get you know special attention in terms of um the vegetation like trees and things?

Um I it seems to me I read something that um there are historical district like exceptions.

Are you aware of any of that about it?

I am not aware of any exemptions that would be available for that.

I will certainly look into that.

I think that's a an interesting approach and a good concept to consider for sure, but at this point I am not aware of any exemptions that exist for stuff like that.

Because heritage downtown is really like four blocks.

It seems to me, you know, that maybe we could take a look at that and take a look at the rules around potential historical exemptions.

I think that would be important.

Yeah, no doubt.

Yeah, any more questions from City Council or Planning Commissioners before I move to public for now.

Okay.

We will now go on to public comments.

Um Jimmy Benjamin to be followed by Sarah Sullivan.

Good evening, Jimmy Benjamin, 400 Pillar Citos Avenue and Half Moon Bay.

Uh welcome the public works director and welcome to the fire chief.

It's nice to meet you both.

Um your colleagues on the other side of this dice must be very tired of hearing from me by now.

But they're always gracious, and it's nice to see you all.

Um that was fast three minutes.

Um I just want to say that uh this discussion item two way has been about fire hazards, which is important.

Um it is a responsibility of it's the stated responsibility of the fire districts of Calfire to focus on that hazard.

The city of Hafoon Bay has a much broader set of problems that they need to manage.

And I hesitate to call that awesome responsibility a luxury, but if you appreciate the way I'm thinking about this, they do not have the luxury to focus on fire in the exclusive way that this analysis that I have heard tonight focus on it.

It is not to say that it's not important, it's not to say that I don't want to be supportive, and I'm willing to be supportive.

Um, Stanford gave me some extra letters after my name in risk management.

I'm happy to collaborate if I can.

But I want to show in the two minutes that I'm afforded, and if I get buzzed off early, I'll sit down.

You can shoe me off, and it'll be okay.

Um, I want to show you how unexpected consequences work.

Um, when you thin trees in a riparian corridor in an alluvial fan, and Half Moon Bay's riparian corridors are in fact alluvial fans, you set up a dynamic of erosion that causes bank widening.

And the trees on those banks will follow the banks.

If there are homes close to the bank, the trees will be closer to the homes than they were before you cut the ones that you cut down.

If you cut down all the trees to stop that, the geologic unit that promoted the growth of that riparian corridor is loose, it is liquefiable, it is erodable, it creates a different hazard, a very dangerous hazard.

And I am happy to meet with any of you, colleagues, fellow citizens, members of the commission or the city council, or staff, to help them understand the personal story that I've been dealing with on that very topic.

Thanks for your time.

Thank you, Chair.

Sarah Sullivan next, followed by Colleen Henry.

Hi everyone, I'm not exactly sure how to do this, but my name is Sarah O'Sullivan, and I have to get closer to the mic a little bit, please.

Coast side books on Main Street.

And I'm glad I came tonight.

I did get a lot more information than I had previously.

I just wanted to say a little personal story.

August 18, 2020, we were evacuated from our home in Pescadero, about three weeks due to a fire.

And where did I come where I could still stay close to my community?

I came to my second community.

I came here, I came to Half Moon Bay with my two dogs.

Everything I could get into my car.

I said at the Halfing Bay Lodge, and the reason I did that is because I did feel safe.

And I went to my store, which was another sanctuary.

And so I just want to take into consideration, you know, what Main Street means to the community and to people who come to visit, and what that would be if it came to just raising everything, the trees and the planters and the canopies and everything that makes it unique.

I have nothing but gratitude and respect for Cal Fire.

I mean, I owe them my home.

I'm lucky I get to go back to my home.

But I also want to temper that with you know making sure that our community and where we live is also a beautiful place still, and that we don't get rid of everything over what could potentially happen.

I also worked at Coastside Books when Cunia's burnt down, you know, and we were that close.

There is a parking lot between us and and our building's still there.

So I just think there's more to be looked at to see what could be um to done to preserve, you know, some of what makes our our community in our downtown what it is.

That's all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleen Henry to be followed by Janice Moody.

Good evening, council members, mayor, staff.

Um that was a pretty heavy report there.

Um, obviously removing all the vegetation, benches, awnings, planters, would render our downtown just a desolate wasteland.

And I know that's not what anybody wants.

Um, and obviously we want to be safe.

We want to be protected from fire danger.

Um, I trust that the council will ask all the right questions, uh, the planning commission about how this extreme fire danger designation was rendered and how we can protect our heritage and historic main street shops and restaurants.

Um it's the lifeblood of our community, and many other downtowns across the state are failing, such as State Street in Santa Barbara.

Downtown San Luis Obispo is in a downward spiral, once thriving shopping destinations are almost completely vacant and shuttered.

And I hope we can preserve it so it supports the city, the locals, and all of us.

And I know we all care about those same things.

Thank you, Colleen.

Janice Moody next to be followed by Amber Stowe.

Oh, everyone.

I'm Janice Moody, and I've had a business in downtown Halfoon Bay.

It's called Seascape Succulent Nursery and Garden Design since 2016.

Although I grew up here on the coast as a toddler, I won't give you the date, but I've been here a long time.

And I've seen the town grow and prosper over all those years, and it's remarkably improved over what I recall as a child.

And I thank all of you for planning it correctly and the beautification committee as well.

My point is I'm also a UC Master Gardener for San Mateo and Sam San Francisco counties, and I've given firewise presentations as a master gardener, one to La Dera community a few months ago, and I was shocked to find out that I live in a very high risk zone, whereas LaDera is considered moderate or high, and that really shocked me.

And then I had then I studied for days and days and learned so much.

And now I realize those hills behind me are the fuel that could bring those embers to my uh business in my home, and I understand how that happens now.

So I'm going to replace the grids on my vents to one eighth inch from one quarter to one-eighth, because I know that's primarily the cause of a lot of internal fires, is getting in those crevices, and I'm going to replace that adjoining fence with a metal fence.

That's what on my to-do list.

And by the way, I just finished my remodel last October, and I'm up to code as of last October.

I planted beautiful sucking garden in front of my place and a rain garden just to keep all of the runoff onto my property, as per code.

So now I have this beautiful grassy rain garden on the side of my house, and I've got beautiful succulent garden in front, and now I'm supposedly out of code because it's within five feet of my place.

So I'm just going to ask that there be waivers made and exceptions made, especially for succulents, which are full of water.

I challenge any fire marshal to come by with their blowtorch and try to catch one of those on fire.

And if you can catch it on fire, then I will move that plant.

But if you can't get a succulent to burn, then I'm there, those plants are there to stay.

Okay.

Yeah, that's my point.

And also the what I learned as a Master Gardener studying for this seminar that I gave is that a well-hydrated garden is your best defense.

And if and limb up your trees and get rid of the dead debris and leaves around.

There's something called composted mulch that you can use now that's very fire retardant.

I recommend it.

So that's the best maintenance you can do, preventative maintenance you can do is a well-hydrated garden and leave your trees as long as they're not touching your roof.

Those are my suggestions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Janice.

I hope you don't mind if I stop by your house for more tips.

Thank you.

Great information.

Amber Stowe, I think we'll be our last speaker.

Thank you.

My name is Amber Stowe, and uh my family owns the paper crane on Main Street.

We have been there for 40 years this year.

Um so I want to say thank you to council to staff and to Planning commission and Calfire for coming out and being so informative on this.

Something that we have noticed is that our awnings are more likely to develop a problem with mold than they ever would be, honestly, to catch an ember.

Um California is home to four of the nine major climatic zones on earth, and for these kinds of guidelines to be prescribed to our area and places like where I grew up in East Ventura County, which is Chaparral semi-arid desert, it just seems strange that these are all applied with the same even touch.

If we end up raising everything in our downtown, getting rid of every plant or every tree, every bench, what we're going to actually end up with, and what they've studied is a massive heat sink and increases in carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide and ozone as cars go through those areas.

Um Europe has seen this exact same thing happen, and they are actually adding trees back to their downtown, and they're experiencing the exact same climate change that we are in California, and they are able to add back those trees because they don't have to worry about an ignition source up on the hill.

And what we are being asked as a city and as private citizens and businesses is to bear the short-sighted greed and avarice of an energy company who is not undergrounded their lines, even as our rates have gone up and up and up year after year.

I realize that there's nothing that anyone sitting at these tables can do about that particular energy company, but at least we can kind of take into account that these ignition sources are coming from a place and coming down to affect us.

I grew up right over the hill from the Pacific Palisades.

And I watched on TV and when I was with my family as a wall of fire at 70 to 100 miles an hour came down and strafed and obliterated that community.

And there isn't a tree or awning that we would be getting rid of that would be able to stop that.

But the very unfortunate thing would be if we were to completely destroy our downtown before a wildfire even got here.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Amber.

I believe we have anybody online.

So that concludes public comment.

Public comments is closed.

I have a question.

So what would you say are the uh most immediate next steps?

What what happens next here?

So the next steps would be for the Board of Forestry to uh adopt the rules package for the zone zero, and then implementation would start after that.

So for Coastide Fire Protection District, our fire marshal is putting together a proposal on how we would start doing inspections.

So in the 26th calendar year, we'd start doing the inspections in the very high, and then we work collaboratively with the city in planning on how we're going to tackle based on what those rules are since we have not seen them specifically yet on how we would apply those to downtown, making sure that we're taking into everybody's comments and concerns effectively.

Um so you're saying you don't know what the rules package is going to look like yet?

No.

Will there be um opportunities for the public to weigh in on the package once it's released?

I believe that the public comment portion's already been concluded on that.

It's been going since the beginning of the year.

And and so, but they won't be able to comment on the final package.

Well, the ruling will be uh ruled or put in place by the Board of Forestry, so then we would enact that as the fire district goes out.

And so there's no draft rule package, per se.

I have not, I personally have not seen a draft rule package.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions from planning commissioner council?

Okay.

Okay, go ahead, Chris.

I'm uh is this on?

Yeah, okay.

I'm curious.

Um these areas that are unincorporated in proximity to our areas, are they also under similar evaluations by uh Cal Fire?

Yes.

So you have in the unincorporated area outside the city limits, when it's not LRA, it's considered SRA, and we have very high, high and moderate identified, and the uh applied restrictions are greater than those that are within the LRA, so within like half moon base city limits.

Okay, so when two different map areas interact with each other with risk with hazard, elevating hazard for one area.

How do you approach which zone first?

Would you approach the unincorporated area to try and mitigate their hazard level to try and reduce the hazard level in an area next to it?

I would have to look at each one specifically, but that's where collaboration would be key.

So I'm really interested in that collaboration because of the question I had earlier about around the royal um uh around the river and around the uh property next to downtown.

If we approach if an interagency or at least inner area approach to reduce that fire risk, we could possibly decrease the fire risk downtown for those property owners and hazards.

Okay.

Yes.

All right, well, just to follow up on that question and uh Vice Mayor Ruddic's question about what the next steps would be as far as the city goes.

The city's plan right now is to wait and see what comes down the pike.

What kind of enforcements are gonna be, what rulings come out, what if there's other jurisdictions that are bordering city city limits or city properties that are gonna have enforcements but on them, see what kind of collaborative efforts we can come up with, see who we can partner with to to try and do the most good with the the least amount of resource of city expenditures, right?

So that's what the city's next steps are in all this.

If I could also just add to that briefly, um, you know, a couple of years ago the council approved and adopted the streetscapes master plan.

And the future of that we don't know.

Um the council's changed since then and we need to weigh in on that.

But uh I pulled it up during this meeting because there were several things that were said about our downtown that kind of struck me, and and one of the the main things that comes out of that plan is wider sidewalks, and part of the way we achieve wider sidewalks is that the trees move from sitting within the sidewalks themselves and into ballbouts that go out into the street that define the parallel parking along Main Street.

And it just makes me think that if we were to pursue that plan further, the next step is really refined designs, especially for heritage downtown, and we could take a very purposeful approach to that design work to incorporate a lot of what we've heard tonight and and maybe be able to tackle through state and federal funding and how these big projects get get moved forward to achieve some of this without losing the character without negatively impacting what makes our downtown so incredible.

So that could be a positive impact of the work that we've already done.

Um there's a lot to explore there, and that's a separate topic, but um I think it's it's approaches like that where we're trying to deal with one thing, and now that we have some additional context, we may be able to accomplish a lot through some of these projects going forward.

So thank you for letting me show that, Mr.

Mayor.

Thanks.

Uh Paul and then Jacob.

Thank you.

And and likewise, if if fire comes downhill, I look all the hills around us as unincorporated.

So what kind of collaboration may be there where we may benefit more than that, you know, than the county, right?

So it's just kind of this is a lot, and it's gonna be a lot for us to absorb.

It's gonna be a lot for us to uh uh to plan out.

And I assume everybody's gonna have to collaborate together.

You know, it's not just you know, jurisdictions next to each other, statewide.

Will the monies be available for all of us to tackle it because in will energy companies help out on this?

You know, I don't know, right?

There's a lot of known.

So I just want to go back to this board of forestry ruling.

Is that's happening the end of December uh this year?

That's the target date is on or before December 31st of 2025.

Right.

And they normally hit meet their deadlines.

I believe so.

The governor has asked for them to meet that deadline.

So I'm I'm assuming they are attempting to do so.

So then we the we th this is uh very fluid.

We'll hear more about this, and we'll obviously let the community know there will be plans discussed, talked about.

I assume we will talk about all this before somebody from the fire district knocks on somebody's door, right?

Wouldn't that wouldn't that be our goal to make sure we've taught you know that we would let the community know what's happening through the fire district, or would the fire district go out and do things on their own?

I assume you're gonna work with us.

Well, the fire district already does inspections within both the city and the district.

Um, so we would just continue as doing that same business, normal business that we would normally do.

Okay, but I mean just with these new this criteria that's coming up, yeah.

Well we'll probably we will do a social media kind of blitz where we'll put out a video on you might see this person in your neighborhood.

Here's what they're here for, here's what they're doing informational, and we can share that with the city if they want to post that on their own.

Well, I think the city should have you know, not everybody's as socially media connected, but I I think it'd be good to have a lot of outreach by us, what's happening when we know it happens, we don't even know what's gonna happen yet.

Yeah.

Oh, I'm sorry.

You guys somebody else?

Okay.

Okay.

Jacob.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I just have a question for Cal Fire.

If they have an experience here in locally, let's say within the last 50 miles of here for fire breaks, do they work, not work?

Are they recommended, not recommended?

You have a comment on that?

For fuel mitigation projects to slow the forward progress of fire.

Yeah, just up in the hills and just fire breaks to strategically placed fire breaks are are effective.

And that'll keep down the ember suppression and fire and contain the fire, and it's usually keeps the fire from going into the canopy of the trees and at a lower intensity rate, so we're able to extinguish it quicker.

So strategically placed fire breaks surrounding our community may have some some impact on what we're talking about here.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thanks.

They have been a recipient and will continue to be a recipient for a fair amount of uh state bond funding, uh, like Prop 4, uh the 10 million dollar 10 billion dollar bond that passed last November.

There's lots of money in there for wildfire and forest management and those sorts of things, and the RCD, you know, is a master of collaboration between public agencies and private landowners, because a lot of this work will have to happen on private land.

So it's good to keep in touch with Kellex Nelson and and the team there because they are they are experts on this issue.

So thank you.

That's great.

Any other thoughts before we take a break here?

I just wanted to summarize what I think I heard.

So we don't have a draft rule set on fire on the new rules that are coming out.

We can't provide any additional comment on proposed rules.

The rules are going into effect in December, and Calfire will start enforcement in January.

Under the new rules.

Inspection.

Under the new rules.

That's not correct.

Okay.

The LRA fire hazard severity zone was adopted by Coeside Fire Protection District in June.

That is in place.

So as of today, we could have folks go out and do inspections.

The zone zero rules, we don't have a published set of draft rules yet.

They're going into effect, basically January.

Correct.

And then you'll start your inspections for any new project for zone zero.

If somebody wants to do a significant remodel, you would do zone zero.

Yeah, new building, just a new building.

So for existing homeowners and existing businesses, are you going to be walking down Main Street saying, get rid of that awning, get rid of that bench, get rid of that plant?

That's the question that I think isn't being asked directly.

Some things that came up were the historical and heritage part.

Maybe that's why it was not so easy to pass, and hopefully that they're looking at those things.

And then over the course of a three-year period, zone zero should be implemented to the sixteen hundred and eighty-four structures within Coastide.

But we live in, I'm I'm a real realistic individual.

Three years, why it seems like a long time is actually a short period of time.

And for some people that could be a major fiscal impact, and changing, you know, getting things approved downtown to to move sidewalks, do those that that doesn't happen at the snap of a finger.

So I think we're gonna work collaboratively for an end goal, but not January first.

We won't be knocking on your door if I could get your address to make sure so we don't have that happen.

I'm in the white zone here.

Well, I think this has been great.

I think it's been uh we're taking it seriously.

We have plans, we have um information, and um we're being proactive, which is great.

So um thank you, Chief, for being here tonight and answering all our questions.

Can I ask one last question?

We have one last question.

When is the next update planned for this map?

I would have to check the cycle.

It's e I believe it's a five-year cycle.

I'd have to don't quote me on that, but that's been about the the rate of them.

It's five years.

You said five years.

Okay, we're good.

We all know where we stand, great.

Thanks again.

Thanks, Tom.

Thanks, everybody.

All right, and we'll take a five-minute break before we move on to 2B.

Okay, everybody, and our two members of the public are still here.

Great.

Thanks for bearing with us.

So we're gonna move on to item 2B, which is the Half Moon-based safety element update.

Which I did read all 56 pages, but it's not exactly you know, top recommended.

I'll wait till the movie comes out also.

Um we're gonna receive a presentation on the progress of the city's safety element update.

Provide for public comment, hold the discussion, provide any direction or recommendations in response.

Um, one thing to keep in mind, this is a general policy document that we're talking about right now.

It's um tons of um details in it.

We will not be able to get through everything.

Um, it is again, it's a live document.

You know, it's open to recommendations and more comments as we move forward, but there's a lot of pieces to it, there's a lot of organizations involved, and it's pretty much got every possible element in pollution as far as solution that might be possible.

Yeah, solution pollution.

We'll figure out um you know which ones we need to prioritize first and which makes sense and how you know how they all interact with each other, especially with these nine different elements.

So why don't we start out uh with a staff report and uh move on from there?

Thank you, all right.

Thank you, Mayor Brownstone.

Good evening, council members and commissioners.

Um you know me, but for the public, I'm Leslie Lako, the community development director.

Um I'm gonna do a quick handoff to um Aaron.

Oh man, I had it.

Fenn and Steel.

Gosh.

Um, anyways, Aaron Aaron is with the county's consultant who is doing this multi-jurisdictional effort, and he'll talk more about that.

But one thing that you should know about him is that he's worked on many safety elements.

He really is sort of the expert in this field.

Um, and so he's he's a great person to direct questions to.

Um he also has a really good sense of what the safety element is and should be and what the state expects it to be.

So I'm gonna pass it off to him.

Sorry, messed up your name.

Thanks, Leslie.

Um good evening, Mayor, council members, commissioners.

My name is Aaron Fannensteel.

Um, I'm part of the placeworks team.

Uh, I actually am a principal at a company called Atlas Planning Solutions.

I'm actually a former placeworks employee, so I um have a long history with all of the team members that have been supporting all of the jurisdictions as part of this prep project.

Let's get into it real quick because it's late.

Uh here's the agenda.

Um, we're basically gonna walk you through what a safety element is, uh, talk to you a little bit about the process that has been ongoing with the safety element update, um, and then we'll focus in on Half Moon Bay.

So, let's talk a little bit about the introduction.

So, this is part of what's called the PrEP project.

This is the Peninsula Resilience Planning Project.

Um, this is a project where all nine of these communities came together, the county and these eight cities, uh, to essentially pool resources uh so that you could get updates to your safety elements.

Um, there was a community engagement component, and so this was an easy way for us to do community engagement at a countywide scale and to find some of those economies of scale, uh, and in some cases uh for some communities also help with some of the other components to a safety element update, like a climate vulnerability assessment.

That wasn't necessary for Half Moon Bay.

You guys have been doing some work there already, so we relied on that.

So that was not part of this process.

So, real quick, what is the safety element?

This is basically the state's required document that every city and county needs to have to address what are the natural hazards, what are the public safety concerns, and how are you addressing how climate change may add or affect or address the hazards within your community?

So you want to have this document or need to have this document to essentially try to protect the public health safety and welfare of your residents, businesses focused on hazards, focused on natural, mainly natural hazards.

It includes policies, it includes actions, and it also includes some detailed information to give context and some maps to really provide you with an understanding of what are the concerns within your community.

So why are we updating the safety element?

Well, it's not only a required element, but there have been a number of changes that the legislature has put upon cities and counties to make this element more up to date and more in line with many of the conditions and the concerns that the state has been facing.

There's also the integration of other plans and documents that have been prepared, one of which is the county's multi-jurisdictional hazard mitigation plan, which the city has an annex to this document, and there is an incentive to incorporate or integrate that plan into an updated safety element.

Safety elements are really focused on being a high-level document.

It's a big picture focus, and the issues that are more relevant today than were back when the safety element was originally prepared back in the 90s, are things like climate adaptation resilience, emergency preparedness and response, infrastructure protection and improvement, community equity and accessibility, and a focus on inter-jurisdictional coordination, which is a very key component to risk reduction for a lot of communities.

We focused on making sure you were getting that integration integration with your hazard mitigation plan.

There's a lot of the work around one shoreline and what one shoreline has been doing countywide, and then trying to ensure that there is some a focus on equity as part of the process, as well as what we're putting into your element.

The schedule that we've been following with this prep project, and with your safety element update started earlier this year.

And we've seen some community engagement during the springtime.

Is the kind of finished draft product that we're looking for feedback and thoughts on, not only from you as well as the public, with the intent to start working through the state agency review process.

You saw the fire hazard severity zone maps that you just looked at, not too many minutes ago.

The fact that you have those maps and the fact that you have very high fire hazard severity zones requires that your safety element go through a review of review process with Cal FIRE and be approved by the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection.

So that's one of those layers of agency coordination that we have to do because of the circumstances within the city.

What's in the safety element?

So again, the safety element, it's gonna have information about the background and the and the profiles of potential hazards.

Uh, we're going to, or we've developed some goals and some policies to help you address some of those hazards of concern.

There's implementation actions.

These are things that either the city uh could focus on doing as an organization or expect others to do, like potential applicants, and then there's maps and additional data that's included.

One of the things about the maps that you see here is they are static.

However, if you go to the prep online mapping viewer, you have the ability to create your own maps.

And this is a map that I created for this presentation to highlight the fault zones or the faults, the Alcus Piros, special study fault zones, and the liquefaction hazards for the city.

And there are a number of other layers.

So anybody who is very much interested in where's my house and what are the hazard zones that I want to I'm most concerned about, they'd be able to go on and look at that map viewer and be able to get that information for themselves.

Now, one of the things about general plans that can be a little bit confusing is what is the difference between a goal, a policy, and an implementation action.

So the goal is essentially a broad statement.

This is the future condition that you hope to achieve as a community.

The policies reinforce that goal.

These are things that you want to make sure you are doing or requiring.

These are the tools that Leslie is going to be using when an applicant comes to the counter and is looking to develop a piece of property.

If we don't have certain goals and I'm sorry, certain policies in the element that help ensure protection of the public safety, health, and welfare, then you know that's we're missing a tool that could be at your disposal to make sure your community is better protected.

And then ultimately the implementation actions are those specific steps that help carry out policies.

And these are either steps that the city can do or steps that you would ask potential applicants or property owners to do.

When it came to policy development, we took into account a lot of good information.

So we collected a lot of information from the feedback process and the community engagement process.

We talked to service providers and looked at their needs and experiences, talked to staff.

We looked at what are the requirements that the state's going to expect of you, a jurisdiction of your type, and then we also tried to apply some of the local and the regional best practices that we have been using across the state, and then we collaborated with a group of planners with our team because we know that San Mateo County is not like every other county out there.

We know there are some endemic conditions that we need to be cognizant of as we're putting together policies for your community.

Policy types can come in a variety of shapes and sizes, so they could be programmatic, they could focus on the development of plans or specific regulations, they could be focused on your capital improvement projects, they could have education focus, or they could be evaluative.

So we tend to try to give you the right size of policy types, and so you may not see all of these in your element, but it doesn't mean that that you're missing anything if one of those is missing, it just depends on the community.

The public review or the public engagement process was used to try to make sure we captured as many voices and as much input into this.

We did conduct a meeting here at the library.

This is a picture from that meeting.

We had a decent turnout, and you can see we had a lot of boards around the room and asked for a lot of feedback from attendees.

In addition to that, there were other workshops that were conducted across the county.

We did a community of concern meetings.

We held stakeholder meetings, the map survey tool was used.

The study session, like tonight is being done not only for your jurisdiction but all of the other participating jurisdictions are doing similar activities, and then ultimately this will come back for public hearings, and like I had mentioned before, the pub project website that has been developed for this process that also provides access to that mapping viewer.

Some key things that we heard.

I know it's getting late, so I'm gonna go ahead and just kind of move quickly through all of this.

But essentially, we gathered as much information as we could and provided as many opportunities as we could to get this information so we could infuse it into uh this process and into your uh your your output of your element.

Um and again, that input, it's really helped to inform the the way we looked at the hazards, the way that we are focusing on things like emergency communication and preparedness, infrastructure resilience, um equity, and then of course regional coordination.

So let's talk a little bit about the topics that are addressed.

I have identical slides to what's in the staff report when it comes to the goals, policies, and actions, all of the the text that was in the staff report on these slides.

I'm not gonna go through all those in individually.

What I was thinking at this point is to just stop here.

We've got these topics.

If there's a specific topic you want, I can pull that up onto the slide, but we can open this up now for uh questions and discussion if that is amenable to the council and the commission.

Yeah, we can um we can start to open it up based on the time.

So um I'll go back and forth between council and uh so someone like to start, Councilman Paul.

Thank you.

Just uh couple quick questions.

You caught my attention when you said um mainly natural hazards.

I'm like, oh, there's unnatural hazards.

So I just started thinking a little bit that uh and I'll throw out an example, and I was trying to see in the element itself, you talk about diseases, but let's say hazardous materials like old ages, and so hazardous materials um are not a required hazard under the government code.

So the California government code identifies that a safety element needs to address a variety of hazards, and hazardous materials is not part of that, um so it's not required.

Most of the time we do have some sort of discussion about hazardous materials, especially if it was in a pre in the previous element.

Uh I believe we do have that here under that human cause hazards category, um, but it's not something that the state is requiring it, and expecting at the general plan level.

Okay.

So we wouldn't necessarily go out of our way to find something.

Not necessarily, yeah.

And and for the most part, hazardous materials review is typically done as part of a development review process anyways, right?

And uh one of the things that we've always I've always found with many of the safety elements we've updated is those done in the 90s, they would jump drop in all of this hazardous materials information.

Within a year, that information's dated.

It does no good to have all of this detail in there because the state and the federal hazardous material uh repositories, they have their sites where they're they're identifying where those locations and those change frequently.

And so once I put that into a plan, it's basically stale within a within a year.

Oh, and that kind of leads into my second question.

Sure.

Like the fire hazard map.

Yes.

That's gonna change, especially if we don't do our next update for another 30 years.

But you know, do we make sure it's clear you go to the whoever's responsible, maintain the maps and make sure you know our element is up to date.

But the mapping itself will change as more information is available.

Yes, absolutely.

And and the the you're absolutely right.

Um, this is not the oldest element I've ever updated.

The oldest element I've updated was the first original element for the city that was done in like 1976.

So you guys are a little bit more uh up to date, but the housing element update cycle actually now requires the safety element to be updated.

So as new information becomes available, whether it's you know five years old or one year old, um, when the housing element gets updated, you need to open up the safety element and you need to update any new and relevant information that is.

So we'll be on the same cycle as the housing element.

Technically, yes.

You can update it sooner if you'd like to.

But at least but at least that's with every housing element.

That's when maps and any other information obviously will be updated.

Correct.

Okay.

Thanks.

Right.

Yeah.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Could you go through your human-caused hazard, please?

Sure.

Let's move on to.

So there are two topics under human-cause hazards that were in the previous element and then we uh brought forward into the new element.

The first one was hazardous materials.

Um we updated the goal.

We left most of the other information generally the same, just updating it uh, you know, for some grammar or some other um minor changes, but for the most part, we left it fairly consistent with what was in the previous element.

Um the second topic under human-cause hazards was airport safety.

And again, both of these are not required under the Gallifor the government code requirements, and so we left it um fairly consistent with what was in the previous element.

How does airport safety affect half Moon Bay?

Uh the Half Moon Bay Airport and the um they have these zones um at the ends of runways that oftentimes when they encroach into city limits, they can um be a concern, and that's one of the reasons why oftentimes you'll see communities that are uh that have an airport within their uh jurisdiction or close enough that they will often put in uh policies regarding airport safety.

Fascinating.

I can give you an example, like as you're coming into landing three zero, you can't there's right before if there's any structures that are there, you can't be living in those structures.

They can correct commercial, but you can't have anybody occupant living there.

So there's those are the kinds of things that they look at.

Yeah, so there's there's land use implications with with regard to airport safety where you can't have um a certain density of people residing or occupying those structures.

Just like uh, I guess where I'm having a problem um the approach zone is generally on the south, right?

For the Appno Bay Airport.

I'm looking at you because you I know you're a pilot.

And the city limits is uh quite a way quite far away.

I mean, it's it's it's down by Sam's, isn't it?

So how is I'm trying to figure out how does the airport have any impact on the city.

Yeah, that so the the airport is in the county's jurisdiction and then um the but the zones that are identified in what's called the airport combat compatibility plan for the county um extend into the city, and so the city has some um role in participating in those compatibility zones that are sort of the zones further out from the airport within the city's jurisdiction.

No matter how uh wide the city's influences at a particular point, because there's this strip that goes all the way up coast highway, that really you know it just and it wraps in a hotel and I think Sam's and that's about it.

So the closest I guess home structure would be would be way, way far away.

So I'm I'm wrestling with that right now.

Um the easiest way to kind of explain this is uh the airport facility itself is obviously not in the city boundary.

Um but it is an operating facility and it's operated by another jurisdiction.

We have a policy in there about working with adjoining jurisdictions uh to coordinate uh and implement a disaster response plan.

So I think the focus here is really about recognizing that the airport facility can be an asset, but it could also be a potential uh risk or or have some consequence.

So having some doing some planning around that and making sure that you're coordinated with the owner-operator and the surrounding jurisdictions so that you can understand what you may need to do if something were to occur, some sort of incident.

So that's really where most of the focus is it's a real about coordinating with that jurisdiction or with those those owner operators.

We often find similar types of issues too when you have a facility outside of your community but there's the potential for that to impact into your community which is kind of what's happening with the airport with these different zones that have been identified with that airport land use uh compatibility is there fiscal impact to all of this uh physical fiscal fiscal uh from a coordination standpoint I would probably look to to Leslie or or the city manager as to whether or not be any fiscal impact.

I'm still wrestling with how out is you know that zone which is clearly miles away from the probably approach zone of the airport affect any residential unit within the that strip of the city.

I mean it's I'm right that's what I'm wrestling with.

Well that it's not um it's not really the the it's not real that's not really what the policies are are aimed at the policies are aimed at working with adjoining jurisdictions to coordinate around a disaster response plan and to mitigate any potential risks and hazards that could be caused by the airport.

So that's it's not necessarily aimed at specific dwelling units and housing.

Thank you Mr.

Mayor could could I ask a follow-up question on that could that affect if you're trying to locate housing in a flight path was sound uh whether they're approaching or leaving an airport isn't that what uh why an airport could be a hazard or something's you have to take in consideration if you're trying to house let's say we decided to change the zoning at SAMS and now we're gonna put a not saying this would ever happen but you're gonna put something different there for housing and that happens to be the flight path isn't that what this is supposed to keep us appraised of that that is in fact what the airport land use compatibility plan.

Right because I've seen it I'm on the county airport land use committee and it was interesting because San Bruno is going to do something different at um what's that mall name Tran.

Yeah something t housing is going to go there but it you have the influence of the much different airport but the San Francisco airport so that was a big part of the discussions and the community has to be aware of that.

So I assume that's probably something we would need to look at if we decided put housing somewhere in our jurisdiction that where the airport was identified.

Yeah that's correct we would look at that for sure and and the process for that would be sort of separate from the safety element.

Yeah but yeah you you targeted the right plan.

But I think with the airport through they're calling it out for Coast Guard sea rescue disaster relief because that that that runway we're blessed with that runway.

It's it's a it's widest and longest and that's why you have all these private pilots coming from San Carlos all around the Bay Area coming to our airport right here for that factor that it's so big and so long it's really safe and easy to land on and that's why they're using all these very large airplanes here.

You know we're fortunate to have that so I look at that as a safety plus now what um Paul's talking about is I'm on the airport board where for San Francisco noise and that is one of the factors is the noise factor you take in place.

If you have houses that people are bitching about the noise and the D B's and all this stuff.

San Francisco is always on the radar Oakland's on the radar.

Half on Bay is not but we're getting more and more traffic coming our way and I'm hearing people calling me and texting me and saying hey I'm here I'm seeing more and more commercial.

So I think that's part of what we're trying to look at too or that's not a really safety thing then.

That's that's more of the noise the you have a you have a noise element that's also another one of your required elements that's where you would most likely want to start addressing any particular noise impacts associated with that.

Yeah I think you know we do have eight other goals here.

You know try to be out before eleven.

So I want Steve had a question.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Am I on here?

Hard to tell it doesn't sound like it now you are you're good you're good.

I I I noted in the staff report that Director Lako invites us all to submit our comments there being so many dozens of policies in writing by November 20th and I'll be happy to do that.

How exactly should I send them to you?

Uh you can just email them to me.

And for the benefit of the public that's L L A C K O at half moon bay dot gov.

And the the comments the particular comments that we're most interested in by the 20th are those related to the fire section because we have to get that off to Calfire as soon as possible.

And um we will continue though to take comments throughout this process.

Okay.

I will do that tomorrow.

I do have one question though.

The county is one of the jurisdictions participating in this I gather is it possible to look at their draft of policies and see if they say anything about the landfill south of Poplar Beach.

I I commend us for having a policy in our plan to encourage the county to clean it up but it'd be nice it sure would be nice to know if they're going to say anything about that.

I believe their element may also be available uh in draft form so you i and if it isn't yet it will most certainly be available shortly so you would be able to look and see the thing about the landfill though is they may also address it in other elements too so uh it may be a little bit of a a search uh and I think Leslie's even going to try to see if we can find it right now.

Great thank you very much.

Um I'll pull it push a topic since we're now in winter.

I think um you know the flooding situation there are so many factors and it seems like you know one of the biggest factors is we are having you know the storm of every 20 years is now happening every three years.

So we're finding out a you know about new creeks that you know didn't even exist or dangerous and ditches and creeks and we um floodplains there's a lot of things built in floodplains and trying to figure out you know how to control that and um I think one thing that's really frustrating is to try you know how to be proactive and we can't get uh preventative permits you know to do a little dredging here and there you gotta wait till an emergency you know it starts flooding and then you can get an emergency permit.

That is just a Kafka-esque way of planning do you know what I mean that you have to not be proactive wait then have your emergency permit um and interacting with the Coastal Commission.

And I understand all the reasons you know to not create certain precedents etc.

But um you know how can we deal with it in a more organized way um I was just joking with our vice mayor.

I mean, there's a lot of you know, a lot of times I just feel like I'm kind of like hoping for some more drought just because I'm so anxious about these storms and where they're gonna run in a community and how they come down and folks' houses and creeks and rivers.

And that's really not the way I'm on it.

So I love it.

A community where flooding is goal is a community where flooding is no longer impacts residents and businesses.

It seems almost impossible.

But I know we have um, but what are some of your when you think about what are the priorities and what's most you know doable, attainable that people feel that they can um have some control where they can have some control.

So that's where the safety element is is not really designed to be a prioritization document, right?

Um, but what it is intended to do is really intended to make sure that you have as many tools in your in your toolbox, right?

And so one of the things we always try to do is we want to make sure that Leslie has the ability when somebody comes in with an application to do some sort of development that they can push back and say, how are you addressing issue X, Y, and Z.

You know, we have an issue with flooding, you're in an area that constantly floods.

What are you doing to basically make sure that your property isn't going to flood, nor is it going to exacerbate flooding impacts in surrounding properties, right?

So we want to make sure we've got those types of policies in place.

Then from there, it's a matter of also understanding what are some of the actions that you want to take as a city.

That's where the implementation actions can play a key role.

Because it can also start to define the things that you're willing to either expect on others or put uh into your own action plans, whether it be uh city council priorities, whether it be in your capital improvements program, whether it be in uh drainage master plan, and those are the kinds of documents where you can start to drill down on the details and start to understand what is it that you want to do and how are you going to prioritize that?

Because ultimately everything is going to cost money, and the only people that have the ability to say we're gonna spend money are the five of you up there.

And so you want to make sure that staff have the ability to come to you with here's the process and the methodology, here's what we've done.

Um the general plan sets that up, but it's really those subsequent plans, those action oriented plans that are gonna basically be the bowling ball that's gonna start knocking those pins down for you.

And so we want to make sure we've given you as many hooks to hang your hats on to start to identify all of those action-oriented plans that you want to start undertaking, or that you may already have, right?

So we want to make sure we're connecting to the existing ones and then identifying any new ones that you think you are necessary to make sure you're addressing the next 20 years worth of problems that you anticipate.

So um we have a grant to begin the um implementing zoning ordinances for our updated LCP.

So I'm guessing that's going to be a place where um some of the policies will be implemented, uh safety element policies.

Um yes, we can incorporate them into the implementation plan, and and we also have um a really good foundation in our environmental hazard section of our LUP.

So there's a lot of overlap in the safety element and the LUP.

Um, and and we did check as we were going through to make sure there weren't any incongruities there, but um uh the LUP is very much more regular regulatory-based already.

It's a little bit of an easier leap to the implementation plan.

And then I think um I had a conversation with Commissioner Hernandez earlier this week, and I I think just taking a look at some of the way these policies are organized so that they can be grouped um uh with where policies sort of overlap or are similar to each other, um, will help us as we look through here and we try to prioritize and figure out uh what goes into the implementation plan, what is already enough for us in terms of guidance, policy guidance.

So I think I think there's a little bit of work here to do in terms of organization that will help us as we move forward with prioritization.

And you mentioned to me that uh there looks like there's some possibility to do some um uh work to protect downtown against fire hazards.

Looks like there might be some language, some latitude for us to um pursue um different policies.

And um is that something that we can also build into the safety element?

You know, some mention of um historic downtown and policies relating to protecting it.

Does that belong here?

Is that another document or yeah, I think it's perfectly legitimate to put an action in that we um we explore possible exemptions to you know for historic areas in zone zero and different ways to mitigate for those exemptions or something to that effect.

Yeah, rather than sending it by email, I would like to request that we you know look at potential language to be included.

Thank you, thank you.

We have some language in there.

I mean, some of it like on what is it policy SCP 71.

We're talking about awnings today, improved awnings and shadings and shade trees and other green infrastructure help residents connect, or for well, actually it's it's for shading, and here we were talking earlier with the fire, you know, we were having issues with the awnings and trees, but here we're actually saying we want those.

Can you can you show me where that or tell me where that is so I can find it?

Uh policy SCP 7-1.

So I know that there's it may seem like we have an inconsistency there.

Um we're looking at policies that are trying to help address um urban heat island extreme heat uh concerns, right?

And so that's where shading uh and tree placement.

The thing about shading and tree placement is that when it's done wrong, it's a fire hazard.

When it's done right, it's not.

And when you're using the wrong species, it's a fire hazard.

When you're using the right species, it's not you're you're you have the ability to use certain species and increase your risk or reduce your risk, depending on what you're doing.

Um and there are certain tree species that are very good and and fire adapted, um, and those would be the ones you would want to promote for those types of things.

But shading doesn't necessarily mean you have to plant trees.

Like shading can be you're creating shade structures, you're doing other strategies or techniques to increase shade.

And it could be um the way you do design, the way that you're um doing some sort of street treatments.

There's a lot of ways we can increase shading.

So um I think that's one of the things that I always try to remember is that when we talk about shading, I can't always default to oh, I want to put more trees in.

So uh, but yeah, I and if we need to also uh wordsmith some of these policies to address that concern, that's very easy to do.

That's part of why we wanted to have this conversation.

And then get policy uh SCP 73 preserve and expand the urban tree canopy to lessen the impacts of extreme heat, right?

And so that would again be understanding where extreme heat concerns are.

We can look at maps that show where you have um heat island effects, you know, intensity.

Like uh we have some mapping that shows uh greater intensity of of heat uh in parts of a of your community, those would be the areas where you would want to focus increasing shape.

Um, and if you already have trees there, there it might be that you want to preserve those trees if it's possible.

Of course, we have to look at those zone zero ramifications, right?

The other piece to this as well is that um uh as uh I heard um your public works director indicate, you'll be working with a biologist, right?

The um trees in your community um will increase or decrease risk based on health.

The biologist is going to be a key component of identifying where those healthy trees are versus those unhealthy trees, and that's part of what I think we're also trying to get at too with that preservation aspect is we want to make sure you're preserving those kinds of trees that actually don't increase your risk uh to uh these types of conditions.

Then I think this uh policy here SCP 67 would fall into what Mr.

Benjamin brought up ensure that new landscaping does not exacerbate wildfire or flood risks in a line with vegetation and stormwater management standards.

Right.

And the other one is SCP 66, which was required drought tolerant landscaping, which is what was brought up earlier today from the lady that's growing the uh cichlets in new private and municipal development in accordance with applicable state and local laws.

I got that question.

Could you just do a hierarchy if there's a conflict in all in any of the elements?

Or do you have to be wordsmith everything correctly in this?

When you say hierarchy, you're referring to one element trumping another, yeah.

Um usually our goal and our intent and and what's required by state law is that there is no inconsistency.

So if we are finding inconsistencies, we want to make sure we address that so that we don't even have a need for a hierarchy, that all elements are basically working together.

But it sounds like fire is challenging.

I mean, it always is.

Yes.

Yeah, okay.

You know, on those on those same areas uh that Patrick was just pointing out, using drought tower landscaping.

Um, when I walk around most neighborhoods, I just see a lot of wood chip mulch everywhere.

And that's almost like an ember carnival.

I mean, even when everything's fine.

That's the few blow on it, it's like an ember already.

So and then when it's when we have drought, we have less water for irrigation.

It's we're penalized for over-irrigating.

Someone earlier was talking, oh, yeah, I just gotta really overwater everything too.

So it's really frustrating when you put people in those double binds.

Is it easier to integrate some of this and say, Yeah, we prohibit anything but uh drought resistant mulch, or don't sell it in our local stores, you know.

So it gets people to really reduce this incredible fuel that's just sitting there all the time everywhere.

And it's all right, so he's next to right next to the house.

So um it just seems like um very visible and something that can maybe be ameliorated sooner than later if we really looked at it.

But what's your thoughts on?

It's okay.

Oh, if you want to answer that, I mean I um yeah, so that is the ordinance that we could pass, right?

Um it doesn't it's it's not necessarily a policy that you would put in the safety element.

Um and again, we can always add action items that direct us to explore that kind of an ordinance.

I prefer because this is a document that's supposed to last for eight years, I prefer not to put that kind of an action item in there because then it's it's it's just sort of laying around for the next eight years.

But um, but um but we could certainly make that something, an ordinance that we pass at any time, and I think that there's enough policy guidance here that we could do that.

Chris would like to tell you, yeah.

And not to put words in your fire chief's mouth, but I would potentially ask them when the new zone zero requirements come into play, what their inspection protocol is gonna look like and how they may treat uh wood chips uh adjacent to a structure like that.

Because that may be one of the criteria that they may already be looking at, so you may have a regulation either in place or some sort of mechanism uh that may come into place.

So it's one of those questions, probably worth asking.

Thanks.

Yep, Rick.

It's a great document.

It's a great starting point for the conversation.

Um I've um you know, January 2024, uh we witnessed pretty severe flooding here.

And um I don't see um, I mean, there's language that talks about Pillar Sidos Dam, and what I understand is Pillar Sidos Dam needs to be retrofitted.

Um but the core of downtown along Pillar CEDOS would be um underwater, including Commissioner Reims' house, um, which is unfortunate, right?

But there's no, I mean, maybe this is stupid, but there's no mitigation for this, you know, there's no emergency, you know, damming or things that we can do and take action on if we know that the dam is gonna break, if if it's above a certain level.

So I'd love to see something where we have clear communication to the city about what the status of Pillar Sidos Dam is and what mitigations we can take if and when that dam fails.

Because maybe there's nothing we can do but run away, right?

But I think maybe there are I mean we have clever people in our community.

There may be things we can do and we can plan for.

We have a concrete factory, like in the inundation zone, right?

We have materials and supplies.

I don't know how one deals with things like this.

But I'd like us to have a clear policy that gives us something we can do in the event that the dam collapses.

What can we do where we know it's gonna collapse?

How can we take action and get better visibility?

Um I don't see anything calling for the clear undergrounding of utilities and prioritizing that in our policies.

I mean, it's the number one fire hazard, so we should figure out how to prioritize it.

And I think we should really work closely with the county on this because I mean they're not just ugly, um, it's it's insane how much activity happens on the streets all the time, and um, you know, it just seems like we'd all be better off longer term to figure out how we can work to get those undergrounded.

It's it's it's it's really important.

Um going back to the comment that was made in the last item by um our friend with the fancy letters after his name who does risk management.

Um there there seems to be a lack of a holistic approach to these policies.

And so I understand they all need to work together, but like when we talk about fire mitigation, we're talking about removing trees, right?

But then it affects what we do or how do we create safe places for people?

Because now we've lost all the shade when it's hot.

You know, we're increasing runoff, we're increasing, you know, the risk of flooding.

Uh if we, you know, so I think we need to maybe step back and just think about, especially since Cal Fire is asking us to start being more aggressive with how we police our trees.

I think we need to have more thoughtful policies.

I think we need to prioritize a few things.

One of them is um the landscaping materials that we recommend specific species.

We just did uh the park across the street from um City Hall.

We planted New Zealand box trees.

Great trees.

Guess what?

Big fire risk.

Okay.

I looked it up.

I was like, oh my gosh.

So, like, we should start looking at replacing trees with um olive is what we were talking about, or willow, um, that are appropriate for our community because they prevent flooding, they prevent fire, they provide shade, and they're high tolerant trees.

So we need a policy around those sort of A-grade trees for fire resistance.

And Janice Moody's comment about succulents and landscaping.

I mean, they're non-native species, it's a separate issue, but like for decorations and things, they can act as a fire break.

I think there's certainly benefits to looking at things like that.

But especially around trees, because trees are really bad for fires, but they're really good for almost everything else, including the value of your property.

So it'd be great for us to just kind of maybe prioritize what we're doing from a landscaping perspective.

Um we do not have any clear, strongly worded policies around fire breaks.

We heard testimony from our fire chief today, fire breaks are effective.

There's plenty of evidence that we can put fire breaks in certain places, and we need to think about them strategically, especially if we're doing large-scale public housing projects or if we're doing any new infrastructure.

Those types of things can be designed in ways that function as fire breaks.

And I'm happy to, you know, I've I've put this offer out before, bring in people who've done rebuild LA, they're working on Santa Cruz.

We can get industry experts to talk about how you can incorporate fire breaks into new structures.

We're doing this.

So in January 2025, my family suffered the loss of you know, family home in the Pacific Palisades.

And as we rebuild, we've gone and learned about how you use fire resistant structures, and there's a lot of things we can do.

In my opinion, we should prioritize the elimination of highly risky structures like stick frame housing.

Now we should look at it.

In three years, we shouldn't be doing anything.

One could argue, we shouldn't be using any stick frame housing in Half Moon Bay or anywhere in California, because it's it's it's gonna go up in flames and it's gonna be uninsurable.

There's nothing you can do with a stick frame house.

And putting screens on helps, but when we have a severe fire like the Palisades, they won't last.

It doesn't matter what you do.

So those are sort of, I mean I want our little town to not float away, get washed away, or burn to a crisp.

And when we look at these policies, we need to have some prioritization around what we're gonna focus on.

We need to go address the highest risk areas, and fire from utilities is not addressed in this document.

And we need a backup plan for if the pillar citos, god forbid, ever fails.

We need something to figure out what we're gonna do there, and I don't see those things addressed.

Um the other thing that um there's a lot of generalized language that uh was written in committee and is it applies to the county.

Our number one risk strategy in Half Moon Bay, if an event happens is run away.

Okay, that's literally the first thing we need to do is run away.

And the last time we tried to run away when we had a tsunami warning, we didn't do it very well.

Like nobody knew where to go, we didn't have a safe way to get out.

We need prioritization on where we run away, how we run away, what the best way to do it is, can we use both sides of highway 92 in the event of an emergency?

Like we need a much better job for how we run away.

And there's a lot of language about evacuation, but there's no clear prioritization.

There's some requirements that we do things, but like every year we have to have a clear, there should be a policy, so every year we have a clear evaluation of our evacuation plans and whether or not they are sufficient in the event of all five of these major categories of disaster that we face.

And we need to have a clear communication plan to the community on where they go.

So those are those are the things I think we need to focus on.

But I think this is a great start and really appreciate it.

And I really do think we need to put some policies in place in the near term so that Calfire and the city are aligned.

We understand we want to mitigate fire.

Nobody wants to allow fire, and I do think if I understand what I what I've recently read about Vice Mayor uh Ruddock's point about historic districts, there are special rules that California can apply around historic districts.

So we should probably do that right away.

Like just start looking at that very quickly so that you know we don't start telling people, you know, they got to cut down their trees and remove their awnings.

I mean, we need to get rid of the fire risk, but we need to do it in a way that also protects the vitality of downtown and addresses the other major areas of uh a risk in a holistic way.

So but thank you.

Thank you for uh for those comments.

Really well thought out comments, thank you.

I think a lot of the things that Rick's bringing up was like policy SE uh P2-1, policy SEP 2-3, which need more details in it on those on the dam and the flooding, and then what Rick was bringing up on the fire breaks.

The only thing is it's on section 304-1-3-3, it says that it will be determined by the coastside fire protection district.

So they're the ones that would determine on the fire breaks, but I'm not sure.

Is that something we're gonna determine or are they gonna determine?

May I tag team on what uh uh Commissioner Hernandez uh just said uh one is uh the fire breaks, I think you're you're talking about fire breaks inside the city limits, but I think we ought to include those outside the city limits up in the hills and work with the county to work with the respective property owners to allow fire breaks in strategic areas where Cal Fire thinks will be beneficial to our community, otherwise, you know, we can have all the fire breaks we run around our houses, but you know if the embers are still coming down, it's not gonna it's gonna do much.

I 100% agree with that.

Secondly, on uh a component that I don't I don't I don't think it was inadvertent.

I think if you read between the lines, Commissioner Hernandez was saying, in addition to all of the other policies that we should do, a critical policy is maintenance of a lot of these items because if you don't maintain them, then they become a very serious hazard.

And I could give you an example right now because I live right next to it that Pillow Critus Pillow Pillar Cedar's Creek.

It's got heavy metals in it, it's got tree trunks, it's got branches, it's got silt, it backs up to where we had eight feet in January of 2024.

We had a uh 10 foot from from the deck to the floor joist, and we're on we're on piles, and we had eight feet of water going under the the balcony, literally.

It was all it was all over the place.

And so at a commission meeting not too long ago measured in several months, there was a staff member that talked about cleaning up Pilasitos Creek from the oceans, starting with the ocean and moving inland.

I haven't heard anything about that, but it desperately needs cleaning and mucking out.

And then I would recommend that if it hasn't been done already, and I think it may have been done already, but Pillar Pillowsetus Creek, it runs constantly.

That would be a wonderful amenity to the city.

Clean it up, put it in its natural state, maybe put some walks in there and and some other, you know, nice things where you can walk from coast highway all the way to the ocean.

And back if you wanted to.

I think that would be a wonderful amenity for the city.

It would it would um not only be great for the community, but other people coming to visit would come and walk that, spend their money in the shops.

They'd be tired from walking, you know, they'd want something to eat and so on.

So those are just by a couple of observations based on tag teaming on uh Commissioner Hernandez.

Thank you.

I'm just gonna follow up on Jacob and then go to Chris.

Um yeah I think that's a great idea.

Clean up Pillar Cito's Creek.

My only question is how long does it take to get a coastal commission permit to do something like that.

No, I don't mean that as a joke but like that's the first question in my head is that take two years or you know what's it's a coastal commission permit, um San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board, Army Corps of Engineers, Fish and Wildlife.

You added one counselor, we've got an alternation agreement Yeah.

There you go.

So yeah it's a lot of permits um and it would it would take years yeah yeah.

But you can get a maintenance permit.

And so it's you know it's it's still a good idea.

Okay remember those tours maintenance permit and see how far we can get with those.

I just wanted to go back to just the point that um Commissioner Reams was making if I might.

Hey Rick sorry uh Chris was waiting a while so I just wrong and then come back to you.

Chris um at that same meeting that we had um on the Planning Commission, one of the points made by our Caltrans um crew member that was here was part of the problem is the amount of debris and trash from uh living encampments that are down in Pillar Citos Creek.

That's something we can take an action item sooner rather than later and work harder to mitigate that.

And that seems like one of the things that we could do that's not going to require as many permits is just enforce more of uh mitigation against those encampments.

But um in my comments I actually had four things on action items I saw I felt like we're missing in in alignment with our policies.

One was the Pillar Citas Creek and the enforcement I just mentioned.

Second was on the Arbor plan um for the trees we talk about having an available arbor player at least tree identification that would meet our requirements but I have had a hard time finding any resource on a city website or locally that identifies trees I would want to plant in my yard or locally um for businesses.

Is this an action item or do we have an arbor plan in place yet that I'm unaware of I've been looking and I have a lot of questions from community members around me on what trees to plant their yard after they've just torn out other ones a third one was um the tsunami signage I know I've seen a tsunami sign somewhere I don't see them very often or at least they don't stand out very much and one of the policies we have was making sure that out of towners know which way to go or how to to get out of town.

I don't see a lot of signage that seems like an action item that'd be very simple to add on is to increase signage.

And the first the fourth one was um noticing on evacuation plans that you know we are also increasing our living situations where we have um lower levels of auto drivers and increased public transportation units and we talk about a policy to make sure that there's evacuation plans for people who are in environments where they have less access to vehicles convalescent homes as well as 555 Kelly um we need to have an action plan to make sure that evacuation plans for those individuals who may be more restricted physically but not having automotive or uh the ability to drive are in place.

So those are the four action items I saw missing and then I have two topics of questions um related to policies more.

One was um in a lot of the policies I see a lack of clarity on language I'm struggling to understand the policy applies to a house build a larger subdivision or a development sometimes those words get a little mucked up for me and I have our time following which one's which and the reason I that that I bring that up is that some of these I look at the balance of a requirement or a policy towards a homeowner building a house, that cost is very high sometimes for a single home development.

You could spread it out over multi-units for a large complex, but if we are requiring a lot of burdened regulatory on those housing, we're driving up housing costs.

And the balance of that's always a concern.

How many of these policies of action items can we reduce from being applied to single family homeowners?

Say, for example, some of the earthquake, I mean, you live right next door to another house that just recently did an earthquake.

Why is it that each individual house would have to do an earthquake report independently?

I'm particularly talking about uh SEA 1.3.

Um does this apply to individual homes?

Um that's just one example of where I'm trying to figure out how much regulatory burden are we putting on these small developments of a single house.

A 1.3 qualifying subdivision.

Yeah.

Um, this is actually just implementing what's already required by the state.

Okay, so the general statements already in every house when it's built or sold.

Well, this particular uh study was not an effect prior to 1976.

So the Alcoas Pillow Special Study Zone Act was basically the state's response to uh-oh, we built a bunch of stuff that people were living on on top of active earthquake faults.

Sure.

So this is trying to prevent that from ever happening again.

That's why we have those AP zones.

Those AP zones identify those areas where you have to do that special study.

So what cities also and counties also have the ability to do is that they have other faults in their community that don't have those zones, they could apply that standard if they chose to.

You as a city have not done that.

You're basically only applying what the state minimum the minimum state requirement is.

So the onus is only on for those properties where the development is proposed in that zone, they would be required to meet that action.

Okay.

I'm just very conscious of not just that example is one example I pulled out, but where we put blanket requirements of large study of a study on a small single family unit build and the burden that has on our housing costs, especially in a time where cost of housing is so high for build, and we are struggling to fill our housing demands and needs.

But we focus mostly on landslide risks, which don't seem very broad in half-moving area, but the liquefication zones are very big.

So a reason why we kind of mention the big risk of that liquefication and then focus on the landslides instead in our policies.

One of the main tools that a city or any jurisdiction in California has is the actual uniform building code.

So the building code actually does most of the mitigation for liquefaction.

Um, the reasons why there's not a lot of policy really have to add.

Whereas you have existing homes, may already be built on a landslide or maybe right next to a landslide.

And so we're trying to try to capture some, you know, what I do in planning when I deal with hazards, I'm basically trying to help fix the problems of the past.

30, 40, 50 years ago, decisions were made, none of you were sitting behind the dais, none of you made those decisions, and now you're stuck with them and you have to live with them.

So we're trying to basically help provide some of those tools to try to address some of those concerns.

And oftentimes for communities, it's it's things like landslides, it's things like um uh, you know, putting homes in a flood zone, you know, and those homes are still there or they're too close to to areas that frequently flood.

Um, and and unless you, you know, as a community decide that you want to have some sort of project to mitigate it, we've got to give you as many tools as possible to try to help with these conditions that you've basically been stuck with.

And my last um discussion point of my interest is in the evacuation planning.

Um, you know, I might my family lived in a little town in Southern California, they had the Thomas fire.

Um, and they also have flooding problems down there too, and we had a tremendous amount of people driving through fire trying to escape because they're stuck in community that are behind a single access road.

And obviously, this is a huge problem here.

I looked up down our map, and there's just so many areas where we are stuck with a single in, single out.

Yep.

Um sometimes it's by our own doing.

Look at Silver Avenue.

We've closed it down for that community, so we won't cut in at the same time.

Do we have a way of opening that up in case there's an emergency?

Besides somebody trying to just drive through the gate.

Um, and then Stony Brook, you know, is there a way in and out of Stony Brook?

That's a community that's now isolated in a single back corner.

There's one way in, way and one way out.

There should be a second evacuation route for those people if something does happen.

Um I'm more concerned about that than anything else on this entire mitigation plan.

Yeah, and and you're not alone in that concern.

Um that's one of the reasons why the state has adopted some of the legislation that it that we have to apply to the safety element update.

Uh Senate Bill 99 looks at that single ingress egress concern.

Uh AB 747 is focusing on evacuation assessments.

These, unfortunately, um, because you're part of this big project, the county um is in charge and they're the ones working on doing that analysis.

Uh so we're waiting on the county uh to get the results of those.

Um, did we did we get the results?

Oh, so we must have just gotten those recently.

Okay.

Is there in the document?

In the document there's maps about showing ingress and egress.

Yeah, the single ingress egress.

The evacuation assessment is still, I think, in process.

So, question what action plans can we do as a city to try and at least start getting the process rolling on fixing that.

So, one of the things about evacuation is that the the general plan has only so much runway.

I'll just use that analogy to help with evacuation because ultimately evacuation comes down to your emergency management function as an organization.

And that's where your emergency operations plan comes into play.

That's where you have an annex, which we call an evacuation annex that you would deploy when you're in an incident and you need to start doing evacuation.

Um, and that that falls under whoever is in charge of emergency management within your organization.

So oftentimes the safety element is trying to at least provide some um assistance uh to not only the planning department as well as other departments, but for whoever ultimately provides the emergency management function and whoever is ultimately calling for evacuations.

Uh 99% of the time that's going to be your share for your your police function that's going to be calling for evacuations.

Should I guess so?

Should we not have an action that says we should at least come up with a plan on how to in the future modify our road designs or increase interest and exits?

We tried to add, yeah, we did add some policy and actions around that, but if it doesn't feel like it meets your needs, that's where we want to get some of that that feedback because all of this is really good and and I mean I'm taking copious notes because we want to make sure that we fine-tune these so that it fits half moon bay better for for your future needs for sure.

I just want to leave a that's my most absolutely scary piece of this entire thing, is getting people in and out.

I just want to follow up on that.

I agree with you.

Um we've been waiting for you know an emergency evacuation plan now for a few years because of um coordination with the county and all that sort of thing.

But I think we should also consider um where we might shelter in place uh safely or as safely as possible and identify those locations and the community that might function as a place to shelter in place because depending on the event, you know, we might not be able to evacuate everybody as quickly as we need to, and I think we need to identify safe places to to shelter in place to hunker down until things pass and make sure that we have you know effective communications um capabilities and that sort of thing.

So I would add that identify places for um sheltering in place, um and then one more thing.

So we we mentioned in the the plan, which I'm grateful for that we coordinate with one shoreline in the county on um flood early warning systems, but I would like something specific.

I know we're working on it, but some direction to coordinate specifically on the installation of a um a stream gauge on Pillar Cedos Creek to provide early warning for like dam inundation and excessive rainfall or release of excessive water from behind the dams.

So I'm just trying to call out that thing that we're working on so that it's actually embodied in a document.

And Matthew can provide more information, but we're trying to.

We haven't had much luck, but we're trying to um find a place to install a stream gauge, um so that we can do some flood early warning.

We just uh one shoreline just completed installation of a repeater up on top of Skylawn Cemetery, so that we could locate a stream gauge on Pillar Cedos Creek.

A couple of people we've addressed, nothing to do with it.

We're working on a couple of other properties, but I think if we had an official document, it would be easier to talk about with people.

So I wonder um I never hear anybody talking about using the ocean as a means of evacuation.

I mean, talk about our airport having having airportability, but we've got an ocean, oceans have boats.

Boats can carry folks.

I don't know.

I don't know why that's not considered.

We have a harbor, we have a harbor.

Oops.

So there was one Dave Cosgrove's uh mention, I don't know, it was kind of joking, but he was kind of serious on the on the cert training.

If there's a fire in the hills, go to the beach.

It's pretty it was you know, bring your camp here, go to the beach.

That was one that he brought out, which makes sense.

Where I'm living, it's you know, literally five-minute walk, but it doesn't make it for the people on the mountain, but not driving, just walk to the beach.

I'm gonna take a moment here because we have someone from the public who's been patiently sitting here, Jimmy Benjamin, who'd like to make a comment.

So sorry to keep you waiting, Jimmy.

No, this is you saved me some time.

So thank you for that.

Nobody nuggets like the other fancy Stanford degree guy, Rick.

So my hat's off to you.

You're much better at this than I am.

Go Cal.

Go Cal.

So go where.

Um, so on that list, I had um, I you know, I have five or six items.

First, I want to begin by thanking uh council member Johnson for giving me a heads up about the uh safety element conversation that took place in the spring, following up comments I made to him earlier about the need for a more nuanced emergency warning system that doesn't direct everybody with a broad brush siren that blasts across the entire town, but instead targets the evacuation message to the people that need to evacuate so that we make better use of the highway resources that are completely inundated by this uh non-specific warning system that we have.

And uh I apologize for not reading the document, been a little busy, but if that has been addressed in the document, a policy that develops a more nuanced uh system that can warn neighborhoods that need it, not warn neighborhoods that don't need it, so that we're making good use of the resources, that would be very helpful.

Um I also appreciated the comments uh from Commissioner Reim asking about the airport plan, in addition to the urgency that might be associated with a plane falling out of the sky before it gets near the runway.

There's also the issue of safety planning for uh Haiphoon Bay airport as a diverting airport for SFO, which in fact uh it was.

I believe it still is.

We could land 747s here, and so part of emergency planning is not the problem that we have initiated here, but a demand for services as a result of a problem that initiates elsewhere.

Um looking at that list of things on the uh on the slide.

I see flooding and inundation that's kind of adjacent to erosion and sedimentation and liquefaction.

I heard liquefaction, but I actually haven't heard anything about erosion, and I haven't heard anything about sedimentation.

Those are not sudden acute things that happen, they're things that gradually happen until suddenly you have a building falling down a stream.

And I waited, I hope you'll bear with me.

I have a list that you haven't covered, so it's not too redundant, and I'm not keeping anybody else up but us.

Um I'm glad that we're paying attention to Pillar Citos Creek.

Uh, there is a USGS stream gauge at the outfall of the dam.

And of course, there's a gauge at Stone Creek and a gauge at Highway One that are in various states of repair.

But a strategy that helps us understand a little better would be worthwhile, and I applaud you for thinking about that.

Um, our risk of uh inundation is not limited to the Pillar City Stam.

There are three impoundments at the east end of the city, two of them are in the city, one of them is not.

Any of them can cause significant damage to our residential and commercial areas if those inundate, as far as I know, there are no warning systems to address that, there's no safety planning for it, and the state laws that protect us against dam inundation do not apply because these are smaller than dams.

So we could really use some help dealing with those impoundments.

If you ask the people in Frenchman's Creek, they'll tell you that the dam above Pacific Ridge is a big deal, and a lot of people don't even know about the other impoundments.

Um let's see, uh liquefaction, just uh to clarify.

Um almost all of Half Moon Bay is on an alluvial plane.

Uh it is an alluvial fan.

It is almost all subject to liquefaction.

That's well documented in the Half Moon Bay Local Coastal Plan, although its distinction between areas that are high and very high is incorrect.

The CaliOS uh maps for uh based on soils should be showing a different map, and we should be updating it.

Um we've been building on this for years.

So, with respect to uh our uh consultant's comment this evening about trying to correct the problems for debris flows, I'll just say the problem is even more severe in Half Moon Bay for alluvial fans.

We are largely built on alluvial fans that are subject to liquefaction, and where we haven't trained water in a liquefiable soil, we get incredible accelerated erosion, which is why it is such a hazard.

I'm going to stop now.

I have more.

When you are ready, I will speak.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jimmy.

Um, you know, Aaron, I know you said earlier, you know, we don't do prioritizations.

I know you're taking, I really appreciate you taking all the notes, but um it does sound like there's some things that have been mentioned, you know, that people want to prioritize and if nothing else, you know, we have this huge plan, but for the public to get involved around each goal, you know, people want to know.

Well, what can I do now?

And we had some, like Chris mentioned, where the heck do I get the plants that are trees that are proper?

I mean, wow, that's pretty basic, you know.

And um what can I do about storm drains in my neighborhood or the last time we had a lot of storms, the storm drains, you know, all these tree things started getting caught at the front of the storm drain.

And it's like this little ski slope.

Just took the water right over it, you know, it didn't go into the drain.

So um luckily I had some knee-high boots, you know.

I just started walking around and other people noticed that and um, you know, more people did that, but people want to know, yeah.

What can what three things can I do?

Start the more again, when you start talking about emergencies and fires and floods.

It can be really overwhelming.

And the more you can give people a sense of control.

We've talked about cert, we've talked about, yeah, where can you get good information?

You'll have people in your neighborhood, you'll have people with walkie-toxies.

You're gonna have to evacuate.

Well, there'll be some there'll be coordination, but it might not be on your phone.

Maybe how hard is it to create an app to get information by zones, right?

You know, you know the neighborhoods you live in.

So have our emergency response communications go on to that app and say, okay, if you're in this area, this area, this area, this is where you could be going.

I mean, it shouldn't be that hard.

The county already has that.

I'll just I'll just share the county already has that.

Yeah, and it's uh very um descripted by each where you live and okay.

Do we all know about it?

Clearly no.

Is that an app?

Yeah, it used to be called Zonehaven.

I can't remember the current.

Yeah, yeah, okay.

Genesis, yeah.

With a G.

And and you know, it of course the challenge on the coast side is that is an effective tool right up until telecommunications goes out, which is pretty common.

So I think to Chris's point, not only do we need to be able to get communication out in specific areas, we've got to have multiple ways of doing it.

Yeah.

So, okay.

Well, it's about 11.

Everyone getting a little tired, we could keep going, or do we uh think we're ready?

We're eight quality tonight.

Can we can we ask Leslie at the top of this?

We mentioned that we needed to prioritize our discussion around fire because that's got to get to the fire district.

Have we addressed that sufficiently for what we need to finish uh finish this draft to get to fire?

Yeah, I don't think we've missed anything.

Doug, I heard a November 20th date.

You were trying to get comments in it.

It well, yeah.

For for the section on fire, especially having comments by the twentieth would be really helpful so we can move this forward to Cal Fire for their first review.

Um, we will continue to take comments uh, you know, throughout this whole cycle.

Okay, but uh it'd be great to have to have your comments on the fire section.

Well, I'm hearing if we have any of us or the community has comments on fire, get them to you by November 20th.

And then if people have comments in general and any of our other uh items in the element, submit them to you.

I heard one of our speakers say he still had a list, so by all means he should be submitting it to you.

Yep, okay.

Yeah, exactly.

Thank you.

Okay.

Well, thank you everybody for staying up, staying away.

Thanks for being patient as we went back and forth.

The more we got into it, I know the more questions we had.

And it was is a 56-page document, so now we might go back and have a second look.

And thank you so much, Aaron, for joining us today.

Really informative, really helpful, and um thanks for all your note taking.

And uh look forward to working with you as we move along.

Me too.

Thank you.

All right, thanks everybody.

This meeting is adjourned.

All right.