A plan to thin brush on land deemed “extremely dangerous” in Nyes and Oro Canyons was stymied last week by an appeal to the California Coastal Commission, even as the city was breathing a collective sigh of relief over a wildfire July 3 contained to a few acres.
That fire “has only strengthened the city’s resolve to get this public safety issue abated,” wrote City Manager John Pietig in a memo.
The appeal came from Laguna Beach resident Marc Wright, who challenged a decision by the city’s Design Review Board in May to approve thinning vegetation in the Arch Beach Heights area canyons. Though a copy of the appeal was unavailable for review, Wright outlined his opposition to the fire department’s proposed fuel modification in a letter submitted for the March 19 hearing on the matter.
After providing a recap of the department’s response to the July 3 blaze at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, fire Chief Jeff LaTendresse expressed his dismay that the Nyes/Oro fuel modification has been delayed at such a critical juncture. He predicted a very difficult fire season in the fourth year of a statewide drought.
The Coastal Commission has tentatively set the hearing to determine whether the appeal has merit during their Aug. 12-14 meeting in Chula Vista. City officials intend to oppose the appeal.
“I for one am going to take a very strong stance with the Coastal Commission,” said Mayor Bob Whalen, who noted that the city has coughed up more than $1 million to fund the project.
Though no actual brush clearance has yet begun, LaTendresse halted the project pending the Coastal Commission’s decision. Council member Toni Iseman suggested moving ahead with it anyway, given the urgency, until ordered otherwise.
Whalen asked Peitig and City Attorney Phil Kohn to evaluate the repercussions of such actions.
With the 20th anniversary of the 1993 firestorm as the backdrop, the City Council voted unanimously in 2013 to step up fire safety by expanding fuel modification zones and upping fines in no smoking areas.
La Tendresse pointed out that such fuel breaks, where vegetation is cut back and brush removed to reduce fuel for fires and lower fire temperature, provide defensible space that can make the difference in their ability to save surrounding homes.
At the time, firefighters identified 12 areas in Laguna that would benefit from such modification and selected the Nyes/Oro Canyon area as the most critical.
Even then Council members felt an urgency to move forward and were frustrated by the slow process outlined by LaTendresse for obtaining approval, including complying with the California Environmental Quality Act, obtaining a coastal development permit, securing Planning Commission approval and completing a detailed biological report that identifies endangered plants or animal habitats and outlines measures to protect them.
In May, firefighters finally obtained approval for a coastal development permit from the Design Review Board to thin vegetation on 21 acres in the Nyes/Oro Canyon area. Non-native and dead or dying material would be removed first, and natives trimmed only if the initial cut didn’t achieve the 50 percent goal.
The City Council in June approved spending the remaining $768,300 to cover the project’s estimated $1.18 million cost.
Emergency Disaster Preparedness Committee chair Matt Lawson pushed for the funding at a May budget workshop. “When you look at that extremely dangerous canyon…how can we not afford to do that and do that as expeditiously as possible?” he asked.
Wright contested approval of a permit for the project on the several grounds, including documents “fraught with errors and inaccuracies,” the project’s submission “by an agency without proper standing,” and its preparation “by personnel without the requisite knowledge or training” as outlined by state and federal law.
