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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018.03.21 Wildfire Safety Commission Minutes MINUTES FOR A MEETING OF THE WILDFIRE MITIGATION COMMISSION Wednesday, March 21, 2018 11:OOAM to 1:OOPM Training Room, Ashland Fire Station#1 455 Siskiyou Blvd I. CALL TO ORDER: Doug Kay, Bruce Moats, Tracy Peddicord,Tonya Graham, Tim Bewley, 011ie Bucolo, Stephen Gagne, Alison Lerch, Julie Smitherman, Chris Chambers, Stef Seffinger II. INTRODUCTIONS Brandon Goldman, Senior Planner, City of Ashland Asa Cates, Tree Commissioner Jessica,Water Conservation III.APPROVAL OF MINUTES: February 17, 2018 IV. A.d.4. 2nd line, add the word"to" Stephen motioned to approve the minutes with changes, Bruce seconded, all in favor. IV. PUBLIC FORUM V.ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA Move "B. Commission Business"to the end of the agenda VI.BUSINESS A. Presentation of the Draft Wildfire Lands Ordinance (45 Minutes) a. Brandon presented on the Draft Wildfire Lands Ordinance. b. The Commission made the following comments: i. Change the title of the Prohibited Flammable Plant List to"General Fuel Modification Area Prohibited New Planting List." Adopting Chapter 9 is applicable in the following area. Can the name include"within 30 feet"? ii. What is the difference between shrubs, bushes,plants and trees? iii. Create a native fire-resistant plant companion list iv. Stef-Does the 30 feet involve your next door neighbors? No,you only have control on your own property. Are we talking with individuals in high risk areas of the city?That is a goal of using the Intterra data. v. Memo page 2 bullet number 2. "Is this Firewise?"Is this a voluntary or regulatory? vi. What about the ongoing maintenance? Can we input new construction projects into Emergency Reporting? vii.Does this apply to tiny villages? Creating a cottage house village would trigger a building permit regardless. viii. Asa-When building a new deck,highly flammable plants will not be planted with 30 ft of said deck? Correct. Stephen made a motion that the Wildfire Mitigation Commission endorse the Draft Wildfire Lands Ordinance, Tracy seconded, all in favor. B. Old Business a. Firewise Demonstration Trailer i. Doug sent the quotes to Alison and Chris. They are being processed through city legal department. b. Fire-resistant landscaping i. Station 1-update on timeline,budget and signage 1 • Alison will call 811 to make sure there are no electrical lines. Alison will put a timeline together for the April meeting. ii. North Mountain Park • Alison is meeting with Jason Minica next week to see about the possibility of frewise planting at North Mountain Park. C. New Business a. Strategy for the inventory(resources: video,print brochures,plants, rock etc.) and using the Fire Resistant Demonstration Trailer(30 minutes during the 2nd half of the meeting) i. This is moved to the April meeting. b. Communication Strategy for the Wildfire Mitigation Ordinance (WMO)/Fire Adapted Ashland i. Alison will send out a meeting notice to the WMO working group before the April 9th Alarm Box due date. One of the agenda items for this meeting Does the WMO become a subcommittee of the Wildfire Mitigation Ordinance? ii. Measure 56 Letter: With a land use change, a letter will be sent to all postal patrons in the City that states "This change may devalue your home". This is going to have a big impact on the city and Ashland Fire&Rescue and the Commission need to revisit the cover letter drafted in 2016. New wording should include a couple sentences like this: "This code already exists in the city on the hill."If allowed, a map in addition to the cover letter would help tell the story. "The Wildfire Lands Overlay has been in place since 1994. Many of you currently live in the Wildfire Hazard Zone and have been for the last 24 years." The AF&R and the Commission should identify where the likely opposition will come from. Can AF&R create a separate engagement process recognizing that the people on the hill have already been in the wildfire hazard zone, and the rest of Ashland is more vulnerable than we already thought it was? How do we get in front of the low income housing people before this? iii. Do we need to bring in an insurance company/realtor. iv. ACTION ITEMS: 1. Create a FAQ sheet for the website and Open House in June. Alison will look to see if we have one created from 2014. 2. Ask Brandon if a Measure 56 letter has to be sent to the current Wildfire Hazard Zone residents. D. Committee Reports: (2 minutes each) a. Wildfire Mitigation Ordinance—See Above. b. WaterWise/Firewise/Planning—No Report c. Wildfire Task Force(Smoke, Evac/Notification/Com,Business Resilience) i. Alison is working on creating a smoke card with air quality links and health information. Chief D'Orazi is working on an awareness effort for evacuation for the community as well as working on places where evacuated citizens can go outside of Ashland. • There is a security issue with evacuation. Who is going to patrol the neighborhoods if they are under a mandatory evacuation? d. Plant List Subcommittee i. There is discussion about creating a native firewise plant list. ii. On the current Firewise Plant List for the Rogue Valley,the red flammable plant list needs to be expanded on the current trifold. The Subcommittee will meet before the April meeting. Alison will contact a local contractor to create a fresh design for the trifold and have it ready before the end of April to be handed out at the City Council Study Session in May. e. Community Wildfire Protection Plan Subcommittee i. The Subcommittee needs to meet before the April meeting to discuss progress and timeline. Chris,Alison and Ricky have been meeting and creating a framework for the risk assessment model. Marty Main is reclassifying the lands adjacent to the city into fuel models. The rest of the plan of already being worked on. How can we incorporate the Intterra parcel risk data? f. Farmer's Market i. We have the okay for the demonstration trailer once/month. We are going to line up with the day the schools attend. We also got the okay for hanging a banner behind the table. The first day is the last week of April. g. FEMA Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant i. Alison is going to Bend to visit with Alison Green from Project Wildfire and Ed Keith with Deschutes County to go through the application process and lessons learned. h. Tree Commission i. Tracy attended the March Tree Commission meeting. A few Tree Commissioners' were concerned that the Wildfire Mitigation Ordinance will wipe out of native conifers within the city. Otherwise they voted to move the ordinance forward. i. Forest Lands Commission i. 011ie attended the March Forest Lands Commission meeting. The main overlap from the meetings deals with the homeless populations. There are 2 SOU students that are going to do an internship with Ashland Fire &Rescue to gain some baseline knowledge and establish a communication structure to this population. 011ie would like to set up a meeting with the people who are managing the warming shelters. They have the ears of the homeless community and have direct insight. The best idea is to let the interns do that outreach. Chris will ask 011ie for a list of people who the interns should outreach to. This is a time sensitive issue and the internship runs until the end of the spring quarter. j. CEAP Ad Hoc Committee i. The initial Action Item focus for the Ad Hoc Committee is reducing emissions. Ashland is more at the adaption phase of LEAP. Tonya will attend the May CEAP meeting. k. Firewise USA Update i. New Community Assessment along Starflower/North Mountain. 1. AFR Update i. Had a successful week burning piles. E. Commission Business a. Discussion on meeting time i. 011ie starts his full time position with the Forest Service next week. This will conflict with Wildfire Mitigation Commission meetings. Staff Liaisons may not be able to attend this meeting if it is in the evening. This commission has more staff than other commissions so it will likely keep the meeting time during working hours. b. Commissioner terms i. Tracy, Bruce and Stephen are staying on the Commission. Tim will step down at the end of his term in April 2018. VII. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS VIII.REVIEW AND SET COMMISSION CALENDAR/NEXT MEETING A. Mayors Brown Bag Lunch: March 23,2018, 12:00pm(CommDev) B. Wildfire Task Force: April 4, 2018, 10:30am(Station 1) C. Next WMC Meeting: April 18, 2018, 11:00am(Station 1) D. WMO City Council Study Session: April 30, 2018, 5:30pm(Council Chambers) E. WMC presentation to City Council: May, Date TBD (Council Chambers) IX. AGENDA ITEMS FOR April 18,2018 A. WMC Presentation to the City Council B. Measure 56 is due out on May 22nd C. Alarm Box on April 9th for the WMO D. City Source for May-Due April 15th E. Presentation of overview of the Tree Commission(Asa, 15 minutes) asacates@yahoo.com X. ADJOURN: 1:06pm In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting,please contact the Public Works Office at 488-5587(TTYphone number 1 800 735 2900). Notification 48 hours prior to the meeting will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to the meeting(28 CFR 35.102-35.104 ADA Title I).