Working to prevent flames

The flames of October have damped down, but concerns about wildfires still burn brightly in Laguna.

City officials took action at the Nov. 6 City Council meeting to meet the challenge of fires and to cope with the emergency if disaster strikes. Steps included a study of Laguna’s trees, approval of amended building and fire codes, and a proposal to upgrade the city’s reverse 911 system used to notify residents by a recorded phone message of imminent danger.

“Unfortunately, the system is one of the earliest versions and it has limitations, partly because of the equipment and partly because of the number of lines which the city has coming into City Hall,” said Mayor Toni Iseman, who sponsored the request for options to upgrade the system.

Newer equipment is available with more capacity than the city’s current system, which is designed primarily for individual neighborhoods, according to Iseman. She asked for upgrading options to be reported back to the council before the adoption of the budget for the next fiscal year.

“Our system was one of the first ones out, and it is totally antiquated,” City Manager Ken Frank said. “L.A. has the same problem, and they are getting 50 new lines,” he said.

Frank knows of one company that does 911 systems for cities and they have the line capacity.

“I am totally supportive of the council’s concerns,” Frank said.

The council also voted to adopt stricter building codes, and to require maintenance or removal of overgrown or dead trees that create a fire hazard.

“During the last fire storm, I received a lot of phone calls from residents who were concerned about their safety because of the large, overgrown, un-maintained eucalyptus trees that exist throughout town,” said Councilman Kelly Boyd, who put the proposal on the agenda.

Oakland, which had a disastrous fire prior to the 1993 conflagration in Laguna, was contacted and Boyd learned the Northern California city had removed 1,200 eucalypti.

“That is not my purpose,” Boyd said. “My purpose is to have people maintain their eucalyptus trees and other trees that are also Roman candles. We need to do as much preventative maintenance as we can. Think of doing it like we do weed abatement. You do it or we do it and put it on your tax bill.”

Each year, the city surveys properties and notifies the owners that the overgrown or untended parcels constitute a public nuisance that must be rectified, mandated in a city ordinance.

The ordinance identifies weeds as any plant that bears seeds of a downy or “wingy” nature; sagebrush, chaparral or any other brush or weeds that are grown so large as to become, when dry, a fire menace to an adjacent, improved property; plants that are otherwise noxious or dangerous; poison oak or ivy when the growth menaces public health, and dry grass, stubble brush, litter or other flammable material that endangers the public safety by creating a fire hazard.

Property owners may protest the order to abate at a public hearing before the council.

If the protest is denied and the property is not cleared, the city has the work done and puts the cost on the property owner’s tax bill.

Landscape architect Bob Borthwick opposed Boyd’s proposal to direct the city manager to develop a program to remove the large, bushy eucalyptus trees on private and public property. Borthwick said the proposal was extreme although he supported Boyd’s position on maintenance.

“It is a bit of broad brush to say that all eucalyptus are a fire problem,” said Borthwick, a consultant on the city’s Landscape Resource Document and a member of the Beautification Council.

Blue Gums that were planted by early homesteaders, who were required by law to plant trees to qualify their property rights, are not fire prone, Borthwick said.

The city’s official tree is the eucalyptus citriodora, a native of the central and northern coasts of Queensland, Australia.

Longtime critic of view-blocking trees Dave Connell has lobbied for regulated tree heights and maintenance, which he said pose a fire hazard if sparks fly.

“We are sitting on a powder keg, waiting for some idiot or a bird to hit a power pole,” Connell said.

South Laguna resident Chris Toy said all trees that pose a fire threat should be removed.

“Pine trees and the dry fronds of palm trees are more dangerous than eucalyptus,” Toy said.

Toy and Curt Bartsch recommended a year-round fuel modification program that includes tree trimming and using goats to crop lower-growing vegetation.

“We should look at all vegetation and not just in October,” Toy said.

Most city-maintained trees (those on city property or in the public right of way), are trimmed by a contractor on a four-year cycle or more frequently if needed, according to Frank.

Occasionally the contractor is called in during the year to trim some park trees or for a special request, but most of the work is done in a two-month period

The annual program began in the latter half of September and continued through October and is expected to conclude in mid-November.

South Coast Highway, North Coast Highway, parts of downtown and the North Laguna area are the areas to be trimmed this year.