| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:05.14 | Kristina Feller | And Dan, Andrew did say he was not available for this, so we'll just be clear on that. |
| 00:00:09.28 | Dan Hortert | Thank you. I'll still read his name off when I call the order. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:00:19.71 | Maria | and we have to begin recording. |
| 00:00:23.89 | Kristina Feller | Terrific, thank you, Maria. Welcome everybody, welcome this evening to a special planning commission meeting for Wednesday, June 29th. This is a special meeting specific to Southern Marin Fire District. And with that, I'd like to call this meeting to order and ask our interim director for CDD, Dan Hortert, to please orientate everybody to the public advisory as well as take a roll call, please. |
| 00:00:50.22 | Dan Hortert | Thank you, good evening Chair Feller, members of the Planning Commission. This meeting is being held pursuant to Government Code Section 54953, Subsection E, and in light of the declared state of emergency, the regular meeting, the special regular meeting of the Planning Commission on June 29th, 2022, will be conducted telephonically through Zoom and broadcast live on the city's website. With that, would you like me to call to order? |
| 00:00:59.82 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you. |
| 00:01:19.26 | Nastassya Saad | Please. |
| 00:01:19.70 | Dan Hortert | Thank you. Commissioner Saad. |
| 00:01:22.47 | Nastassya Saad | here? |
| 00:01:23.50 | Dan Hortert | Commissioner Graff here. Commissioner Luxembourg? Here. Thank you. Vice Chair Junius. Absent. Chair Feller. |
| 00:01:32.27 | Kristina Feller | Here. |
| 00:01:33.01 | Dan Hortert | We have a forum. |
| 00:01:34.73 | Kristina Feller | Terrific, thank you very much. The next item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. Do I have any comments on the agenda or a motion to approve? |
| 00:01:45.52 | Richard Graef | to approve. |
| 00:01:46.97 | Kristina Feller | Second. Thank you. Dan, could you call the roll please? Thank you. |
| 00:01:50.28 | Dan Hortert | as man. CHRISTIE WOODWARD- Commissioner Saad? |
| 00:01:51.74 | Kristina Feller | COMMISSIONER SAUGH. |
| 00:01:53.68 | Dan Hortert | Commissioner McGrath? Commissioner Luxembourg? Yes. Vice Chair Junius? Thank you, Chair Feller. |
| 00:02:01.61 | Kristina Feller | Yes. |
| 00:02:02.46 | Dan Hortert | Motion carries. |
| 00:02:03.62 | Kristina Feller | Great, thank you very much. The next item on our agenda is new business. And this is, again, a special meeting and presentation specific to the Southern Marin Fire District and I'm very pleased to welcome Division Chief Fred Hilliard, as well as fire prevention specialist, McKenna Romero. We are delighted you could join us this evening. This is a very important topic to our town here in Sausalito. And with that, I'd like to welcome you for presentation to our community here. |
| 00:02:36.60 | Chief Hilliard | Thank you so much, Chair Feller and the rest of the commissioners. I really appreciate you making the time in your busy schedules to allow us to come and speak to you tonight. Obviously, As we move into the fire season, which unfortunately we're already there, we were there about two weeks ago, we're starting to see significant fire threat throughout the state. You've already seen some fires, including one that just happened a few days ago on the 101 corridor between Novato and the county line. which intensified very quickly, but luckily because of the highway and the proximity of where it was, which was near the dump, we were able to put a stop on that rag rather quickly. We were able to dispatch multiple air units, multiple ground units. Everybody was very prepared for something and the access was perfect. UNFORTUNATELY, All the things were perfect for that fire. Or fortunately, I should say, unfortunately, as you know, in our particular jurisdiction in Sausalito, Tam Valley, Homestead Valley, and the parts of Tiburon, the city of Mill Valley, our access isn't as great. We're gonna talk tonight about a couple of things that are very important to note. And with that, I'm gonna have McKenna Romero, and the vegetation. management for vegetation specialists, sorry. our fire prevention specialist, share her screen, which has the PowerPoint. Sorry, McKenna. |
| 00:04:16.99 | Chief Hilliard | Okay, I'm gonna put it into slide, into presentation mode and then we can move forward. |
| 00:04:25.85 | Chief Hilliard | Awesome, okay, so again, we're gonna talk about preparing for wildfires and this is a presentation that we have also given throughout the district. So again, thank you for having us. Next slide, please. |
| 00:04:47.31 | Chief Hilliard | Okay, so tonight we're specifically gonna be talking about being prepared. being ready. our current conditions and understanding some wildfire behavior evacuations and then preparing your home for wildfire and also for what you can do to provide defensible space and what kind of different building materials would be applicable for securing your home during a wildfire. |
| 00:05:21.52 | Chief Hilliard | So unfortunately, current conditions aren't getting better. As we talked about earlier, we just had a fire and we've had several fires throughout the state that are fairly significant. The dry conditions, because we only had several big rains, but then a big dry spell and we haven't really seen significant rains, is leading us to significant longer fire seasons. With that, most of our fire seasons are between 60, 90 days longer than we've been expected in the last five to 10 years. Red flag days, which is by the National Weather Service, when we have high winds and we have offshore winds that bring the hot air from the Central Valley into our community, increases our red flag days. Our resources are less available for the most part, meaning that the resources that we rely on throughout the state in the big conflagration are not as available as they have been in the past because they're fighting these very large fires. Luckily the state has put quite a bit of money towards additional crews for this fire season, as far as Cal Fire is concerned. So we're seeing, hopefully we'll see those resources available if we have a big fire or if we have a big fire. Fires are consuming millions of acres. AND, They're not slowing. They're increasing in volume and they're getting into the communities more than we've seen. You know, fire is natural for the forest. The forest needs to have fire in order to survive. Lots of species of plants rely on fire to reproduce. But we have put our homes and its different structures and whatnot and communities into these forested areas. And now they're volatile because of the fact that we don't have the wet weather and it's dry and there's lots of burnable fuel. |
| 00:07:32.58 | Chief Hilliard | Next slide, please. So how fires move, we're gonna talk really quickly about fire behavior. So basically there's several different ways that fire moves. One of the most prevalent ways that fire moves in a wildfire situation is through ember broadcasting. That's when you have plant material that's burning and it's floating through the air and it's basically catching what's in front of the fire what's in front of the fire, it starts burning. And the other part of that is that we are not sure exactly, dependent on wind, we could make forecasts on how far these embers travel, but dependent on wind conditions, dependent on the humidity level, it could broadcast between a quarter mile and several miles is what embers flow. Now when embers hit the ground in dry grass and light flashy fuels, they ignite. And so embers are one of the reasons that we see such devastation from these big wildfires. Another way that fire is transmitted is basically through radiant heat. So you may have vegetation outside of your structure on fire and the radiant heat from that material burning as you would see in a campfire where you put your hands up to the fire, that's radiant heat. transfers and materials that are like plastics or deck material or even curtains in a window combust. And that's where we see structures lost due to radiant heat. So with that, it's important that we understand that there is a chance that we could have this fire, we can have these situations in our community. We're doing what we can through vegetation, fire fuel reduction, public awareness. We have NRG coordinator on staff now. We're trying to do what we can to get the community to understand what the situation is. But when it all fails and we have to get out, we have to talk about evacuation. |
| 00:09:47.23 | Chief Hilliard | SO, There's several different types of notices that I wanna talk about because this seems to be really confusing for a lot of people. When we talk about evacuation, well, what does it mean? Because you've heard evacuation warning, you've heard evacuation orders, you even heard about the severe weather event that precedes the possibility of a big fire and evacuation. So what does this mean? Well, we like to say, ready, set, go, pretty simple. The get ready is the severe weather alert. That would be the news telling you that there's a high likelihood of fire weather approaching, or it might be that the National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning. There's many ways to get that information, including our website. And we also push a ton of information out through social media, which you can sign up for from our website. you may hear about an evacuation warning. that's the get set part. So that would mean that there is a fire in the area that's burning. It's a possibility that you're going to be in that area, and you need to get set to go. And then, of course, evacuation order means go. And that would mean it's time to leave. You have to go. |
| 00:10:54.05 | Nastassya Saad | there is. |
| 00:11:13.43 | Chief Hilliard | So how do we get this information? How do we get this information so that we can know, if there's a fire burning, if there's an evacuation happening, any of that information. So it's really important for the community to stay informed. And over the last 10 years, I would say at least the last five years anyway, we have done a really good job of providing that information. We use all the social media networking we possibly can. We use the cellular network for emergency broadcasting. We probably had that in an amber alert or in an actual red alert. But what is really important in our community is to make sure that you're signed up through alertmorin.org. You can sign up from your cell phone. You can sign up online. Essentially, you put the information in, which is of your cell phone number. You can put your relative's phone number so that they can also get the information, and they can give it to you if that's how you communicate through your family. But alertmarin.org is really important for our community to get information regarding any type of disaster, not just fire. Nixle, obviously we use Nixle if you've been on Nixle. That's more of an information network. Nixle could be anything from a wildfire to a police event, some sort of shelter in place, the police are working some event, or it could be the 4th of July parade starting in 10 minutes. So, you know, Nixle is a good network of a lot of communication, but it's been used more sparingly over the last year or so, meaning that they're broadcasting more important information rather than just news in your area. And then Zone Haven, Zone Haven's new to us in our area, but Zone Haven does have a network of information on disaster, sorry, evacuation maps, and networking through the community for evacuation, how to get to and from if you're in certain areas. We also have all that information on our website as well as we have links to all these different organizations as well. And then emergency.marincounty.org That's any emergency that's happening in the county of Marin will be posted on this website. And you have the ability on that website to sign up for alerts as well. And then of course our website, which is smfb.org, we post all kinds of information. So I'm giving all this to you because you should sign up for all of it. because the more that you have, the more connected you are to different resources of information, the better informed you're going to be. Thank you. |
| 00:14:22.02 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:14:22.19 | Chief Hilliard | like. |
| 00:14:22.51 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:14:26.39 | Chief Hilliard | So – When we talk about getting ready for any type of disaster, we're talking about, in this particular case, we're talking about severe weather alerts. So tonight we're specifically talking about wildfire, but you can take this as for earthquakes or any other disaster. So one thing that we really promote is our get ready and go bag. So you should have a bag ready to just literally grab as you're going out the door. In some cases, and myself included, I actually have one in the back of my car It could be simple. It could be just some documents, some cash, a change of clothes, a few items. If you have medicine that you need to take, a spare couple days worth of that medicine in a bag, Something easy, water is important. And there's a whole list, and we have this list on our website that will prepare you for putting a go bag together. During extreme weather events, you wanna make sure that you're prepared and you're prepared for yourself and your home and your pets. for a possibility of an evacuation if a fire were to start. So making sure that your go bag is ready is important. And then take time to ensure your home is ready. And what you can do with that is you can, if you have material, the flammable material that's outside, bring it inside. Push your barbecues away from your house. And close doors. That's really important too, is to keep doors closed. So to keep the air from moving throughout the house, because as you know, air, fuel, and ignition is what brings fire to your house. Next slide. |
| 00:16:26.41 | Chief Hilliard | So you're gonna hear evacuation warnings and an evacuation warning is gonna be an alert. And I can tell you that it's not something that, If you don't practice doing at least having a drill for yourself and your family, if you don't practice evacuation at least once or twice, when you get the evacuation warning, it is pure panic. We train as firefighters all the time for different emergency and disasters, so it becomes second nature at two o'clock in the morning or when the bells come off or ring. But when we talk about an evacuation warning, for the general public, it's very terrifying. So it's important, very important that you take the time to prepare yourself for that by, you know, like we say, Have a drill. Work with your family to have a plan. Have an area where you guys are gonna meet if you have to evacuate and leave your house. An evacuation warning is usually issued if there's time, meaning that you have some time to get ready and you have some time to leave. If you get an evacuation warning, that would be a trigger that it's just time to go. It's better to go down out of the area. Maybe if it's in Sausalito, go north of 101 to Phil's Coffee in Puerto Madera and get yourself a coffee and get out of harm's way. And if you have to get, at that point, if there's information about where an evacuation center might be set up, then that's gonna come over the Alert Marin notification, it's gonna come over Nixle and you're gonna be able to get to an evacuation center if need be. Next slide. So go order. SO, In the case of the fire that was in 2017 up in Sonoma County, there was no warning. It came on in the middle of the night Nobody knew, nobody had any idea the intensity that fire was gonna have. Nobody knew it was gonna jump a four lane highway to get over to the other side and start burning a area that's well, it seemed fire, but it was like 60 years prior and it was never that big. in a community of just standard urban community that people live in, like myself up in Petaluma, we had no idea that there was gonna be a fire like that. So they got a go order, and a go order, evacuation go order means it's time to go right now. That means grab your go bag and leave your house. Get in your car and drive away from the area. On our website, we provide and we've talked to the city of Sausalito and the community. We've had evacuation drills. We're having some more evacuation drills we have set up to actually practice these evacuations. And the maps actually show the main artery paths from everywhere in the community. it shows areas where if you're leaving your home or you're leaving the area and you have no alternative, you cannot get out, what the community refuge areas would be, which means those are areas where you could safely go and you could basically live through a burn over, which means that the fire is gonna burn through, you're gonna be in a safe spot. A lot of those areas are bigger fields, large parking lot areas. Yeah, it's gonna be hot. You may get some ember burns, not on you, but just embers floating around, but you're gonna live through it. So on our maps, we have those areas. They're called community refuge areas. So don't delay if you get a go order, just leave your home. and follow any directions that are given either by the police or the fire department as we're patrolling around saying to evacuate. Next slide. Really important is to know two ways out. So, you know, the first way is the way that you go to the grocery store. I mean, if you know how to get to the grocery store, that's down the hill, then that's your first evacuation route. That's typically what we promote, what we tell people is if your primary way, you know your primary way. It's what you use every day to get from your home to wherever you go. So that's the primary way. But know another way, an alternate way, to get out of your home in case when the primary way is where the fire's coming from, because you don't want to drive into the fire. So know an alternate way out. So for Sausalito, your primary way may be going down the hill, |
| 00:21:26.12 | Nastassya Saad | at home. |
| 00:21:42.76 | Chief Hilliard | but your alternate way might be going up the hill to 101 and getting on 101 and going down 101. So no two ways, two ways out. Hand slide. So this is a slide that is one of our evacuation maps. These are available on our website. You can see they're colored, they have different colors. These are colors for our zones. These are areas where if we have a fire, we know we're gonna evacuate these particular areas. They're clumped out. So if we get a fire in Sausalito, depending on how fast the fire is moving, we may not evacuate the entire city of Sausalito. We may be able to just evacuate a section of Sausalito. So these maps are all broken up into zones and they're color coded. And you can see those little squares and those are community refuge areas. I know this is hard to see on this particular, on Zoom, but they are available on our website and they do have all these areas and you can Zoom into them and see what they look like. So this would be the north of Sausalito. and then the next slide, is the south of Sausalito. And you can see that the areas are marked out and they do have... a path of travel. I'm not sure. that are highlighted and color coded. And so, These would be important to know these areas and also to look at them as far as two ways. One way is your primary and one way is your secondary. |
| 00:23:25.14 | Chief Hilliard | So we talk about what a community refuge area, So we use the term CRA, it's just easier, right? So when you look at the map, when you go to our website and you take a look at it, know where your CRAs are. So in your path of travel, of how you're gonna evacuate, identify those areas because again, you may get stuck. You may have to go to a CRA. in order to be safe from an incoming fire. And you may have to wait it out there. Very impossible. wait for the danger to pass. Once the danger is passed, then you'll be notified by the police or fire department that it's clear to move on. And then you go to evacuation center or you go to a relative's house or wherever you plan on going during your evacuation plan. And with that, I'm gonna give it, turn this over to McKenna, who's going to talk about preparing your home for wildfire. |
| 00:24:28.93 | Maria | Thanks, Chase, I appreciate it. So now moving on to, you know, what we are trying to prepare for wildfire season. We're looking at preparing for your structures. through your home. So we talk a lot about defensible space. And what defensible space is and entails is that we're looking at the fuel management around the structure and the vegetation management. So what we have around the structure that can I'm sorry. in ways that we can stop it. So four of the big areas that we look at when we're trying to create a sensible space and when we make our recommendations is that we're looking at the type of meditation that's around the home within, when we talk about the principal space, most of the time we're looking at a 30 foot radius around the house. what type of vegetation we have there. |
| 00:25:22.76 | Maria | Thank you. |
| 00:25:22.78 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:25:23.34 | Maria | We're trying to help people understand that we wanna get rid of fire hazardous characteristics. plants that contain a lot of these characteristics and removing those and replacing them with things that are a little bit more fire resistant and have those qualities. We're also looking into limbing up trees and creating canopy separation from each other, as well as separation from the ground vegetation. Moving downward into our vegetation, we have a lot of bushes and shrubs. And we're looking at there's no continuity between those mature plants. So again, creating the separation between it. So if something does catch, it doesn't spread to the structure or spread all around the property because of the first quarters and the denseness of these budgets of vegetation. |
| 00:26:07.63 | Nastassya Saad | AND THE DENSES. |
| 00:26:10.50 | Maria | And lastly, what we're starting to see and recommend from the past fire history, from the past four years, we're starting to see that the zone zero, or the first five feet around the structure, including decks or anything that comes off of the structure, that first five feet around the structure to make sure that there's no combustibles. and that we're switching out some of the ground coverings and some of the vegetation that's in that realm and replacing it with things that are non-combined. |
| 00:26:36.74 | Nastassya Saad | I'm not sure. |
| 00:26:41.35 | Maria | So when we talk about fire hazardous characteristics within a plant, some of the items that we're talking about or that we look at when we're talking about fire hazardous plants, is that we're looking at invasive species. We're looking at species that have high oil and resin content on them or within the foliage on that plant. We're looking at low moisture content within the plant We're also talking about the dense on these types of education. And one of the biggest things that we look at is vegetation that accumulates a lot of twigs or dead debris or dying debris within the plant themselves. So some examples that we're gonna see on properties, a lot of the times for like those natural, that have been in our area for such a long time, such as scotch broom, you'll see those on hillside. Some things that were used for screening in the past and privacy screening, some of the hedges as we get our junipers and our bamboos which all holds a lot of dead debris and have a high oil content. Some of the trees that you'll see are cypress and acacia. So these are some of the vegetation that we consider to have hazardous qualities to learn. So when moving forward, once those are when people are starting to replace these and remove these, over time we're looking at replacing those in plants that have fire resistant characteristics. So, meaning plants that have slow growth to them, that don't have a lot, that don't accumulate a lot of dead debris or dying debris or sligs within the plant, the petals or leaves or extensions do have a higher moisture content and a low oil content. And then the last thing is what we call low maintenance. Again, it's that slow growth that doesn't involve removing a lot of the dead debris and doesn't involve a lot of work towards maintaining. So some of these examples that we have for a lot of the screening purposes is we get a lot of laurels, boxwoods, and the pinforums. With the correct spacing and separation, these plants tend to not have as much dead debris on the inside and the leaves have a little bit more water content to them. Some of the trees that we see are the maples and the olive trees. Again, it doesn't have a lot of dead debris dropping from them. And we're able to get through the plant to remove some of the stuff that is dead. And then lastly is the wax myrtles, which you'll see as either a tree, a shrub, or sometimes just the small bushes in the yard. All of these, though, contain that fire-resistant cancer that they're looking at. Regardless of species, however, we are looking for plants facing again. As I talked about earlier, we're looking to maintain the spread of fire. And by doing so, we have to be able to separate the vegetation to create that defensible space. So looking at it in two ways, we have vertical separation and we have horizontal separation. So when we're looking at the vertical separation, we're looking at trees being separated not only from the ground, but also from other ground coverings or other vegetation that lays under the trees such as shrubs or bushes. |
| 00:30:07.12 | Nastassya Saad | THE FAMILY IS |
| 00:30:12.04 | Maria | We looked for about a six foot minimum clearance from the ground to the top starting of the canopy. And then once you have a shrub or something that's underneath the tree, you look to limit up three times the height of whatever is underneath it. So if you have a three-foot plant, we're looking at nine feet of separation between starting and canopy and the bush itself. Then when we get into the horizontal separation, we're looking at tree canopy separation, and we're also looking at the shrub separation. As you start to get more slopes, which we have in the city with being on the hillside, we do have some pretty steep slopes. We're looking at further separation for those steeper slopes. So for something that's a little bit flat or mild slope, you're looking at a separation at about two times the size of the plant itself for shrubs. Then for trees, you're looking at a minimum of 10 feet separation between the campings. As we start to go into more of the steeper slope, we are doubling that distance. So we will please separate it more as we know the threat of fire as the way that that ratifier works. We're looking to separate out those plants the health would buy. So why do this? Why is defensible faith important? Why are we looking at creating this? by choosing the right vegetation by looking at the ground coverage and also the building materials and providing that structure with the fence post base we are seeing that this is helping to save structures during these fires so last year i had the opportunity to go up to the caldor fire which is where these pictures actually stem from when we went out and did our observations we were able to see some of the structures that were lost didn't have the defensible faith where neighboring houses such as this one which is about three houses down was safe. What we're looking at here is obviously you can see that the trees were very close to the structure that didn't have the central space. |
| 00:32:11.26 | Nastassya Saad | I'm not. |
| 00:32:20.81 | Maria | The picture doesn't show it as well, but the branches were really low. There was a lot of needles on the outside over by the street and around some of the surfaces, meaning that they hadn't cleaned up a lot of the dead debris around the house, which is likely also fell on the roof considering how close the the trees were the structure, and as Sheetal Yard had mentioned earlier, sometimes with the ember casting, it does catch those things on fire, and that's how the structure ignites. Whereas if you can see the house with the defensible space that has the non-professional ground covering, has little vegetation around the house. They did have trees towards the exits of the property. Again, very well maintained, very clean. We also had noticed that they were using a lot of the really compliant materials. So we're looking at materials that are made to withstand a little bit more THE FAMILY. and such as siding, he had the roofing, the decking material, and the windows were also double-teamed. So as you can see, there's also no gutters on this house, so there wasn't any plastics that were near the structure. So the reason that we push this so much is that we have observed that this does help safe structures. So as you're getting out of your house and you're evacuating, we're looking at what can potentially help your house remain. So with that said, Chief Helierd and I would love to open it up for any questions or comments. And thank you guys very much for your time. |
| 00:34:02.38 | Kristina Feller | Thank you both so much, Chief Hilliard and Fire Prevention Specialist McKenna Romero. I really appreciate you. everything that you hit on this evening. If we could go ahead and stop the share screen for just a moment. I wanted to... quickly ask if the commissioners had any questions for a quick clarification. And then I'd like to open this up to public comment. and then come back for any detailed questions that the commission might have. This is for the benefit of the public as well. Obviously, as a commission, we deal a lot with vegetation. And we deal a lot with building, building materials, setbacks and so on. So a lot of this we're very delighted to hear about and would like to get into more detail. but I certainly want to give the public an opportunity to ask them some questions. So commissioners, anything for clarification at this point before we open up to public comment and come back after public comment to detailed commissioner questions? Commissioner Saad, I'll start with you. |
| 00:35:08.90 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you, Chair Feller. I'll save my questions for the next round. Thank you. Nothing for clarification. Thank you. |
| 00:35:15.67 | Kristina Feller | Commissioner Luxenberg. |
| 00:35:17.44 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Thank you, Chair Feller. No specific questions or qualifications at this time, but only to thank them for an excellent presentation. Thank you, guys. It's very helpful if you've done that. |
| 00:35:27.77 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. Commissioner Brown. |
| 00:35:29.28 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Thank you. |
| 00:35:29.32 | Richard Graef | Thank you. Um, no questions? at this point, but Again, thank you for the presentation. Very good information there. All right. |
| 00:35:40.49 | Kristina Feller | I absolutely will. The only point I'd like to make before we open this up to public comment is, Director Hortar, can we make this presentation available posted? on our agenda so the public can view it on their own as well? Would that be possible, Chief Hilliard and Director Horcher? |
| 00:36:02.48 | Dan Hortert | Yeah. You mean the presentation itself or the actual Zoom recording? |
| 00:36:06.76 | Kristina Feller | No, the Zoom recording I know, but the actual presentation make sure that it's available |
| 00:36:11.61 | Dan Hortert | Yeah, McKenna sent it to me today. As long as they're okay with it, I'm okay with it. |
| 00:36:11.66 | Kristina Feller | Yeah. What do you think? |
| 00:36:15.15 | Chief Hilliard | Yes, absolutely. |
| 00:36:17.14 | Kristina Feller | Wonderful, great. Thank you for that. Let's go ahead and open this up to public comment. I think this is important to hear. from the public because we want to get down and dirty and figure out exactly what to do and where to go in the event of a fire. Um, so we're gonna go ahead and open this up to public comment to raise your hand, to make a public comment, please do so in the zoom application. under reactions, you can raise your hand. If you are calling in from a cell phone, please hit star nine. And I will call upon you as I see your hands on my screen. It might look different on yours, but don't worry. I'm going to get to everybody, and we'll allow three minutes for each speaker. So Joan Cox, welcome this evening. You are our first speaker. Thank you. |
| 00:37:07.45 | Joan Cox | Welcome. Thank you so much, Chair Feller, and many thanks to Chief Hilliard and his staff for this presentation to the Planning Commission I completely endorse the chair's suggestion that we make this presentation available online. I have attended many, many of these presentations and many disaster preparedness drills, and I still learned something tonight. So this is an ever evolving, mission that we have to keep ourselves and our neighbors safe. and to protect our properties, create defensible space. I'm proud that my homeowners association was the first fire safe homeowners association in Sausalito. And we are very, to maintain that designation each year, meaning that we focus on creating defensible space. Earlier this year, um, the Southern Marin fire and the Sausalito police responded immediately, but we had a fire right in front of my house. It jumped four lane, a four lane high, more than a four lane, jumped an eight lane highway between Marin city and my part of Sausalito in no time. I watched it start from the, police and fire were there within a couple of minutes and it had already jumped the highway and burned down part of a fence. Thank goodness that fence was a barrier between The hillside and our homes or it would have reached our homes even more quickly. So that's how quickly it can happen conditions weren't even horrible that day so. Again, we cannot do enough to protect ourselves and be ready. And so many thanks to you, Chief, for taking the time of you and your staff to meet with us and with all the other communities in Marin to ensure our safety. We appreciate it. |
| 00:39:07.51 | Kristina Feller | Thank you, Joan. Thank you very much. The next speaker I see is Sandra Bushmaker. Sandra, welcome. No, you're on mute, Sandra. |
| 00:39:18.65 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you very much. I'm really delighted to see, hello, Chief Hilliard. I haven't seen you for a while. And I'm really pleased to hear that we are having this presentation for the Planning Commission. I also think it might be a good thing to have it for the City Council. This is something that actually many more neighbors need to be on a call like this to be able to see these things. I wanted to ask Southern Marin Fire and planning for that matter, Bye. what is the plan for all these 724 new units we're gonna have? And what is the impact on our evacuation routes? And that's not only for Sausalito, but for the 101 corridor. because our numbers are gonna be increasing greatly. So that's something I'd like to see on the radar and something to be addressed. And once again, I think Sausalito can do better on vegetation management. I know the crews came through my street a few months ago And they were great about cutting back the roadside Uh, live vegetation. But frequently under the live vegetation, there's lots of dead vegetation. And there's lots of downed branches which have come down in previous year's storms. And so there's a lot of dead debris along the roadside. I happen to see it. because I walk my dog twice a day up and down the hills of Sausalito. So I get a close up view of that, but it's very concerning to me. I've seen, for example, on South Salida Boulevard, a number of dead trees that are right adjacent to the roadside. dead branches and I think I think I would like to see a better program for vegetation management here in Sausalito. And then with regard to the evacuation routes, I think this is really something that we need to continue to have drills on within the community. maybe put something in the currents, which I know you've already published a lot of maps in the currents, but maybe republish them again for the evacuation routes. because I bet you most of the residents of Sausalito are not aware of this. They don't know where the refuge spots are. And I think, I think we just need to do a little more work in this department. But thank you very much for having this. I think it's really important for the Planning Commission REALIZE AS YOU DELIBERATE, the issues that appear. uh, here in Sausalito. Okay, thank you so much. |
| 00:41:50.09 | Kristina Feller | Thank you, Sandra. Thank you for your comments and for being here. Anybody else from the public who would like to make a comment or have questions? about their particular part of town, what to do, I don't see any more hands, but I'll give you just a moment to find those functions. Again, it's raise your hand in the Zoom application or press star nine for the cell phone. Okay, well seeing none, I'll go ahead and close public comment. And I think chief, you got off a little easy this evening, although here comes the commission. I know we have questions for you and McKenna as well. So appreciate you hanging in there for your time. I see Sybil has raised her hand. If I could, as a point of privilege, reopen public comment and allow Sybil to make her points or questions to you, Chief. Welcome, Sybil. |
| 00:42:48.37 | Sybil | Thank you. I'm zooming in from the Adirondack on solar and satellite wifi. So I might be a, It's a little strange to hear, but normally I'm living in Rotary housing for seniors, not far from MLM. to save the part. but actually some of the residents there, as well as older residents elsewhere in the city, do not have mobility, do not necessarily have cars. And I know we have, you know, been putting together some cluster groups to prepare, get people prepared. And the fire department has been wonderful in helping us, Southern Marin, in helping us to get go bags out to people. But I'm wondering, you know, if, what kind of program besides the police, are you okay program, which isn't as well used as it should be, what other kinds of programs might we have, or might we be able to have? to really keep track of where people are that will need assistance in evacuating. That's my question. |
| 00:44:07.60 | Chief Hilliard | Thank you. So I would, am I allowed to answer? I'm sorry. |
| 00:44:11.60 | Kristina Feller | Absolutely. |
| 00:44:12.53 | Chief Hilliard | Okay. So you bring up a very good point. You know, we have a lot of the community that has mobility issues. And unfortunately with the fire department and the police department, we don't have the resources to go to every single one. So this is where it becomes extremely important of neighbors helping each other. Neighbors helping neighbors really is how people survive wildfires and big disasters. You know, you have to kind of put your conflicts aside if you have conflicts with your neighbors and talk about these things because this is what is really going to get people to be able to survive a disaster. Our FireWise program, which Council Member Cox brought up, is basically a program where you can engage with your community, with your neighbors. You provide wildfire, defensible space. You talk about home hardening, but really what it does is it brings the neighbors together to formulate a plan on how they can help each other. get out during a wildfire. We are sending surveys and we will continue to do that. We send surveys through the mail and we ask mobility issues. We ask those kinds of questions. Do you have relatives that live close by that could alert you? How is the network? Be prepared. But really when it comes down to a disaster, it is the neighbors that help each other and that's where the highest survival rate we see. |
| 00:45:49.27 | Sybil | Thank you. |
| 00:45:51.48 | Kristina Feller | Sybil, did you have any more questions for the chief or his staff? |
| 00:45:56.90 | Sybil | Um... That was basically my... question um i um i know that um we there was there have been some there was an event two evacuation bills that i know of at mlk park which is helpful um but i would really like to see more neighbor-to-neighbor organizing the sassolito village has done a wonderful job of putting together these evacuation clusters and safety clusters but that is only involving a few you know maybe 200 people where we have 3,400 seniors in our town. And certainly many of them are fit and able to evacuate, but also many are not. So I just like to see more programs, you know, being able to work more with developing some programs among other neighbors in the community and... and So it does, and I appreciate you mentioning the Firewise program and we'll look into that more. If there's any other ideas along those lines I know Age Family Sausalito and would be interested in knowing about them. Thank you. |
| 00:47:17.49 | Kristina Feller | Great, thank you so much. Okay, anybody else for any public comment or questions to the chief and Ms. McKenna? Okay, seeing none, we'll go ahead and close public comment and bring it back up here to the commissioners. And just to start out here, Chief, Sandra Bushmaker did mention something about the influx of all this new housing mandated by the state. Of course, that doesn't just impacts Fossilito And I know that as I also chair the housing element, we're still trying to get our head around that and certainly don't have a final solution. But I would offer that the environmental impact report It will be developed here shortly, and I believe that that will address certain conditions and issues, and that is circulated to Southern Moon Fire, and I hope that we will get some very substantive comments back from Southern Rind. |
| 00:48:18.87 | Chief Hilliard | Yes, absolutely. Yeah, we're concerned as well. And we're trying to work through that. It's not easy in our jurisdiction. |
| 00:48:26.77 | Kristina Feller | Yeah. Yeah. So I don't think we, any of us have answers for all of that yet, but |
| 00:48:30.60 | Chief Hilliard | Yeah. |
| 00:48:32.25 | Kristina Feller | but a lot of questions about it. Let me go ahead and open up any questions that the commissioners might have. Commissioner Luxenberg, let's start with you. |
| 00:48:41.41 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Thank you, Chair Fellow. As you know, we get applications that have landscape plans and that type of thing. I know that they're all sent to Southern Northern Fire and I know you have standard conditions regarding smoke detectors and fire suppression and all of that. But I would like to understand a little better the process so that when we review a landscape plan, I know that there's a list of fire resistant plants that they're supposed to use. Do you actually review the landscape plans and then send comments back on that? How does that actually occur? |
| 00:49:25.73 | Chief Hilliard | I'll refer that question to McKenna since she does about 99% of our plan reviews. |
| 00:49:34.99 | Maria | Thank you. I can answer that thank you um so yes to short answer your question is yes we do review it as a preliminary uh any project that is a substantial remodel from the fire's definition which means that 50 percent of the house or structure whether it's additions or remodels is opened up um and any new construction so any detached edu's detached garages or new single family dwelling require a vegetation beginning opened up and any new construction so any detached edu's detached garages or new single-family dwellings require a vegetation management plan on top of of the project and the vnps are where we actually are able to really dig into what's on the property that's where we are looking at a plant safety species what's in each of the zones on the property, whether it's zone zero, one, two, and also our access ways. That's where we also have a lot of our input in what needs to be removed or needs to be trimmed back. and what needs to also be your plan. So, For projects that are smaller than that, or an arm of the sample remodel, some of these like landscape changes that we're seeing and stuff like that, we do review the plans. We do have in our actual ordinance that we adopted, we have some regulations as to how we look at properties that are in the wildland urban interface, and we would stick to those regulations as well. I try to give comments at the planning stage at least |
| 00:50:55.97 | Sybil | Yeah. |
| 00:51:00.95 | Maria | to mention any vegetation that needs to be removed, any vegetation that's not going to be permitted to be on that property, or that we have advised to be switched out for a different species. By the time that it goes to design review, that way that all the, commissioners are aware as well as the planner and the applicant that this moving forward, whether their VMC is fully approved or not will be regulated on the building from the |
| 00:51:25.86 | Nastassya Saad | REGULATED. |
| 00:51:28.24 | Maria | That way the project doesn't get approved for that fiscal registration. |
| 00:51:32.97 | Jeffery Luxenberg | That's good. Thank you. That's very helpful. That's what I have right now. |
| 00:51:38.50 | Kristina Feller | OK, thank you. Commissioner Saad? |
| 00:51:42.97 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you, Chair Feller. Thank you, Chief. Thank you, McKenna. It's very insightful. I was wondering more generally if, to Sybil's point and some of our older residents, are there any other recommendations besides the text-based alerts or the email alerts? They're definitely very helpful just in terms of reaching. I think there was a new program from out of police that they have specific sirens now, the high-low that are helping indicate of a citywide emergency, but is there anything else that we can share with the rest of the community that might not be so technologically based. |
| 00:52:24.67 | Chief Hilliard | Yeah, we have, so the, the, Alert Marine will also call if you have a landline, they'll call you. And then we're also, in the middle of trying to get the long range acoustical device sirens installed in Sausalito. We have two of them right now that we'd love to put up We've had some difficulty in just getting the permits to do that through the city, but that's basically, I think there's been a lot of change and we're trying to work through that process. A I think that's coming up to the city council here in the next week or two, or next month actually, So, We're in the process of getting those sirens up. We have them in the city of Mill Valley. We have them on our two fire stations in Alto Richardson Bay and also in Tam Valley. So we're gonna put two up in Sausalito and there's sirens. BUT THEY ALSO HAVE a voice notification as well. So you'll hear a siren and then after the siren goes off, you'll actually hear instructions on whether to evacuate or what's happening. The plan is we have this, we got this funding through the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority we put in for this specifically for the city of Sausalito. So we're starting out with two locations But I think that looking at the city, we're gonna probably add two more in the next few years. So it is a process, we're getting those up. And then again, Alert Marin will call the landlines at the houses as well as the police using the high-low sirens on their vehicles. |
| 00:54:09.84 | Nastassya Saad | That's great, and thank you for that, and maybe to interim Director. Dan or that we could hopefully get that if it is on a the city council schedule to definitely get in the current. I think that would be a really, good. COMMUNICATION TO GO OUT TO THE PUBLIC, I had another question, I think you just mentioned the Marin the Wildfire Prevention Authority. I thought I saw somewhere that there were grants available for defensible space. Does that have anything to do through Southern Marin Fire? Is that something else that we can talk about and share with the community? |
| 00:54:47.86 | Chief Hilliard | Yeah, sure. This is where it's a little bit of a misconception. So Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority is the 17 fire jurisdictions. The funding that was approved by the members of the county. So every jurisdiction in the county, Les Tiburon, is involved with MWPA. The money and the funding goes directly to the fire jurisdictions. We actually put all of the programs together. We look at our, we're the professionals in the district. We know what are the worst part of the districts are and what needs to be done. So we do have a grant program that's coming up in this, it's actually in two days, right? Because that's the new fiscal year. And individuals will be able to apply for a grant. What'll happen is we're already going out and in the neighborhoods we do vegetation inspections, home inspections, and you'll get a report. And on the report, it'll actually have a link that you could actually apply for some grant funding. So there is matching funding for vegetation fuel reduction Thank you. and on the report, it'll actually have a link that you could actually apply for some grant funding. So there is matching funding for vegetation, fuel reduction, as well as home hardening that you can apply for once your house and property has been inspected. And also if you haven't gotten that and you want an inspection, it's free and we will be happy to come out there and through our website, you can go right on our website and you can sign up for that inspection. And if you're not savvy with the computer, totally fine. Just give us a call and Maria, our administrative assistant will be happy to get you an inspection. |
| 00:56:23.16 | Nastassya Saad | Okay, great. |
| 00:56:23.65 | Maria | Thank you. |
| 00:56:23.77 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you. |
| 00:56:23.87 | Maria | Thank you. |
| 00:56:24.35 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:56:25.14 | Maria | Just to add on to what G. Foyard was saying, if you go to marinwildfire.org, there'll be more information under residence info about that residence grant program, all the guidelines and everything. |
| 00:56:40.12 | Kristina Feller | Excellent. Chief, is it possible to add a slide to what you presented this evening about how members of our community can request a home inspection. So they're empowered to sort of fix their defensible space and work with you or reach out to you either online or by telephone. I think this is the kind of information that's really important to the community. So they feel a little bit more informed about what to do or what the steps are. If you're willing to do that, that would be a huge help, I think. I see. |
| 00:57:19.05 | Chief Hilliard | I see McKenna looking down writing information right now, so I'm sure that there will be a slide provided or several. |
| 00:57:21.89 | Kristina Feller | You can be sure. |
| 00:57:25.94 | Kristina Feller | outstanding. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, Commissioner Graff. |
| 00:57:32.03 | Richard Graef | Thanks, Chair Feller. I don't know. Thank you. She's a scholar than McKenna. I really learned a lot, and I appreciate this. presentation, um, I don't have any... particular questions right now. I live on the waterfront and I was kind of wondering if there are any kind of special considerations that you have given to the situation on the waterfront as opposed to say on the hill. it's a much different environments certainly not much in the way of vegetation really Although, uh, are certainly flammable. And I know that in our community, |
| 00:58:24.99 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you. |
| 00:58:25.04 | Richard Graef | are very conscious of fire danger and And we have a lot of Thank you. equipment on the docks, hoses, fire extinguishers, and we and we do community fire drills from time to time and practice running our Oh, boy. suck water out of the bay. . on anything that's burning. But, um. And that's something that we've done here. But I was kind of wondering if there's any overall overviews of fire danger and prevention on the waterfront. |
| 00:59:12.15 | Chief Hilliard | Yeah, absolutely. Obviously we look at the entire city, we don't know where the embers are gonna broadcast and it's very possible that they'll burn right over Bridgeway and get into the houseboat community. So we look at that as far as our tactics and how we would get people out. But yeah, we have done some evacuations preparedness and drills in the houseboat community and also the floating homes. So absolutely, and we do have that ability to do that. So if you're in an area that you'd like to have a training or drill, we'd love to come out and do that for you for sure. |
| 00:59:55.27 | Richard Graef | Thank you very much. I'll bring that up. to the community because we have had some recent discussions about that very thing here. |
| 01:00:06.96 | Chief Hilliard | Absolutely. Love to help. |
| 01:00:09.22 | Richard Graef | All right. I don't have any other specific questions. I think my concern was expressed also by Sandra Bushmaker. There's a lot of vegetation in Sausalito. Yeah. I think much of it goes It's almost. There's so much, but I don't know how. anyone would ever get it under control. And people love their vegetation, so that's a little bit of a problem. |
| 01:00:41.05 | Kristina Feller | Yeah. Thank you, Commissioner Graff. Chief, I do have a couple questions, and I I'm gonna hop around a little bit, but the first question I have is if if you do actual simulations of fire and what those situations or conditions might be that help inform what those evacuation routes are for people. So for instance, if you're in Hurricane Gulch and it's at the simulation shows it starts at the top of the hill, what do you do if it's at the bottom? what do you do? I mean, are there any simulations that you look at to help inform how to really educate our community on what to do under certain situations. |
| 01:01:25.26 | Chief Hilliard | So yes, the answer is yes. AND NOT TO GET INCREDIBLY TECHNICAL ABOUT THIS, BECAUSE I HAVE A I have a tendency to do that. But, um, But yeah, we do run simulations. It really has to do with, okay, so what we do is we look at what is the worst case scenario? What is our typical wind? What is our typical heat? What is the trend? We look at different fuel, densities, we also look at fuel moisture. You know, what's the current fuel moisture? And that plays a lot to do with the direction and the speed at which fire travels. So we take that into account and we've designed a lot of our evacuation routes and where the CRAs are with the worst in mind. So this is a simulation where it's like, YOU KNOW, THIS IS GOING TO BE THAT ONE WEEK that we say, oh God, if a fire starts this week, it's not gonna be good for the community. And that's what we run the simulation. Funny enough you asked that, because I was actually on the call today meeting with, I'm part of the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authorities Technical Advisory Committee, and we were as part of I THINK I'M GOING TO BE the wildfires funding, they've employed a company called STI and they're actually doing a much higher level computer-based simulation using all kinds of satellite imagery, flare, all kinds of stuff. So we're gonna see a lot more in the next year. That's gonna provide us more information, but to be quite honest with you, the roads are there. We know what's, you know, we know that the fires, how the fire's gonna travel in the worst case scenario. So in our situation, we're kind of limited in the way that we get in and get out. So that's again why it's important to know your primary route and then your secondary route on how to get people out. What it'll do though, is it'll help us with when is a warning and when is a go? That's where those simulations come in. So do people have time or is it just an evacuation order like you need to leave right now? |
| 01:03:46.72 | Kristina Feller | And on the evacuation, routes are sort of what I'll call it when you're referring to this is CRA is where you the I'm assuming that you have also identified for your equipment and for the fire departments and other emergency services, what your primary entrances and exits are as well. whether it's Bridgeway or Spencer or Rodeo or whatever it might be. But I don't think that's on your map. it's really more evacuation for someone in their home |
| 01:04:26.89 | Chief Hilliard | Right. |
| 01:04:27.63 | Kristina Feller | So it's also important for us to know what to stay away from as much as where to go. |
| 01:04:33.06 | Chief Hilliard | So we would say that, you know, staying on, first of all, let's just put, kind of set the stage, right? You're in a wildfire, there's a wildfire, the wind is blowing, the smoke literally banks down to your knees. So it's very difficult to see, it's very, it's difficult to breathe in some cases. So we always say you need to stay on the road. So I know a lot of people are like, oh, we can use a fire road, we can use a stair lane, a path, something like that. Well, if you have time and the smoke's not in your face, possibly. But the best way to get out is to literally stay on the asphalt because you can't go wrong with staying on the street because, you know, the street's gonna lead either up or down. You know which way you're gonna go. So that plays a lot to do with, you know, how to evacuate and why we really want people to stay on the streets. Plus we can come by, you know, if we have the possibility, if there is a possibility, with the police department anyway, not so much fire, but we can get people, you know. You know, my chief, one of my chiefs, Chief Welch, I don't know, some of you know Chief Welch, he's our operations chief, he was the chief of the Mill Valley and he lost his home in the Coffee Park fire. He saved a lot of people's lives. And, you know, unfortunately, he couldn't get everybody. But the people that were on the street, he packed into his car and got him out. So that's what we say, stay on the road. |
| 01:06:06.79 | Kristina Feller | That's good to know. Switching gears a little bit, one of the interesting or unique things about Sausalito is we're also surrounded by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and other other Caltrans land and so on. So we're almost as an island here. in some ways, and a lot of areas bordering Sausalito, but not in Sausalito, have a lot of those very old mature eucalyptus trees and a lot of brush that is just sitting on the side of 101 or the road. A little bit concerning because as Sausalitoans, there's nothing we can do about it except bring it up in hearings like this or. complain to city council or supervisors. How much are you coordinating with those other jurisdictions, and what can you do to help us mitigate some of that? |
| 01:07:08.77 | Chief Hilliard | So we are putting every possible effort into that, including we have one dedicated individual that works with numerous companies and Caltrans and the National Park Service. We have a great relationship. We're working with them to get the vegetation. Unfortunately, it takes a lot. It's gonna take some time to do it. And it's not just about us going and cutting it out. but it's us setting up the program. Because once we cut it, we need to maintain it. Because what we've done in the past, and it's no fault to any, we just didn't have the budget, is we go clear an area, and then we would be right back five years later and it'd be the same problem. So what we're trying to do is we're trying to clear the areas, we're trying to do the highest risk possible. We're working with Caltrans, we're working with the National Park Service. We're actually seeing really good progress, Yeah, there is a ton of vegetation. We're starting with the low hanging fruit, which is the light flashy fuels, the broom. We're trying to clean up underneath eucalyptus trees and where we can, we're trying to thin, but the money goes only so far and eucalyptus tree to remove some of those heritage trees is literally tens of thousands of dollars to get one single tree out. So we're trying to get the understory cleared out. We're trying to look at, you know, Where can we do this so that it benefits the community? We're trying to put a fuel break around. We're actually working on this next project is literally if we're gonna put And we're doing this. correctly we're not just clearing land and making it a moonscape we're thinning and clearing we we're working with the environmentalists we're working with the naturalists we're working with everybody we need to do that to do it correctly but we're gonna we're gonna have a fuel break that is gonna be around the homes just all across through the entire city of Sausalito and all the way into Cam Valley through Mill Valley up to where it would connect with the Ross Valley fuel break which they're they're working on there too so we've been at this for quite a while we're just getting the money and we're just getting the resources this next year as well through MWPA. I have funding for two more positions. We'll have a vegetation management specialist that'll work with Jesse Fagoni, our current vegetation management specialist. We're also gonna have a vegetation management project coordinator. and that person is also gonna work with us. They're also gonna work with the entire Southern area. We're ramping up with people. We have inspectors out there every single day And we have programs, we're clearing as much as we possibly can, but we're doing it ecologically sound, I would say. |
| 01:10:04.64 | Kristina Feller | That's good. That's excellent. That's good to hear. You know, we, as you know, SOSLITA recently completed their general plan update. We are, this planning commission has requested funding from the city council to update a very out of date and very old municipal code, the Salt City Municipal Code and ordinances. some zoning adjustments and so on. And I mention that because it's so critical that there is thought and input to fire evacuation when those things need to be updated. In addition to that, we've asked for funding for a citywide master plan, you know, a comprehensive master plan again, something that is so critical to any city and the very basics for any city and something that the commission whether it's Sausalito or elsewhere, that's part of the legislative mandate that we have So there are initiatives that we have here on the commission that I mentioned here to you because those are future initiatives, hopefully in the short, that they will come to fruition WHERE WE WILL NEED TO CONTINUE TO WORK TOGETHER TO MAKE SURE THAT that we have comprehensive solutions that are thoughtful and that are responsive to the environment that's unique to Sausalito to keep our citizens safe and to keep Sausalito as fabulous as it is. So that's really just a statement to give you a heads up, but what is coming? The other thing I would ask is maybe if you could help us coordinate with community development department, and Dan, I would ask for your help with this. any time there are any Thank you. evacuation. I THINK WE HAVE SOME SIMULATIONS HERE WITH DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COMMUNITY THAT I KNOW THAT, scheduled with different parts and different neighborhoods. I really think it's important to get that in the Sausalito Currents, which is Sausalito's maybe official newsletter or way to communicate. Because I also think it's important for the rest of the community to look out for what's happening in other parts of town and to keep an eye out for when it's coming to their part or their neighborhood, their part of town, So I would just ask if we can maybe bolster some of the communication through soft-sweet occurrence that will help you with your mission as well and certainly help our community stay safer. I think that would be really helpful. |
| 01:12:50.06 | Chief Hilliard | Yes, absolutely. We actually, anytime we have a drill, a training, anything, we definitely put it in the currents. We put it in our website. Absolutely would love to coordinate with Dan as well. You know, I think that, I think that there's more coming. You know, we try to work our way around the community in the district and to do these evacuation drills and then also push out information, but it is forthcoming. We're gonna be pushing out some more maps and go information. And like I said, we have a, Neighborhood response. coordinator. and We also, the disaster, what is it, the countywide disaster preparedness coordinator, who also works in our office. A lot of information is gonna be pushed out. And so, yeah, we're looking forward to doing that with the city for sure. |
| 01:13:54.85 | Kristina Feller | Great, thank you for that. And just sort of as we move forward as a commission as well, as we continue to see. FOR REMODELS OR NEW CONSTRUCTION OR DENSITY We really appreciate Southern Wind Fire reviewing those plans before they come to us and working with community development on that. INCREDIBLE. AND I WOULD LIKE TO RECOMMEND THAT even after design review if there are any substantive changes to landscape plans and things of that kind that instead of approving that ministerial, that gets triggered back to Southernland Fire even if the building permit or a demo permit has already been issued, I wanna make sure that we're not inadvertently doing anything that is contrary the recommendations are of Southern Moon Fire And we see you as a partner in the built environment here. So we want to make sure that we're holding up our end of the bargain. I don't know if my fellow commissioners have any thoughts about that, just by a show of hands. Thank you. |
| 01:15:08.80 | Nastassya Saad | No. |
| 01:15:10.09 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you. Thank you. I would definitely, Chair Fowler, I think it's a great idea. I think, you know, we've got... |
| 01:15:11.26 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. |
| 01:15:11.27 | Nastassya Saad | Yeah. |
| 01:15:16.44 | Nastassya Saad | A lot of background on this Planning Commission, but there are times where we might inadvertently do something to a landscape plan that might not be in the best interest of safety. So I would wholeheartedly agree if we could do that, definitely have my backing. you |
| 01:15:32.79 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Graff, I saw your hand up as well. |
| 01:15:38.11 | Richard Graef | Yeah, I... Yeah, I support that idea. actually I was glad to learn that. bad the fire district actually pays that much attention. to the landscape plan. I learned something there. I didn't realize how involved. You folks are, and I appreciate that. Thank you. |
| 01:16:03.37 | Kristina Feller | No, couldn't do it without you. So let's consider that as we go forward And sort of just a final thought, and I'm throwing this out here, because there's just so much to consider, and I would hope that maybe this is the kind of discussion or presentation we can do almost on a quarterly basis. It's that important. and certainly happy to do this jointly with city council. So you're not doing multiple PRESENTATIONS OR THE HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION one of our two commissions here in the city But, you know, we, you know, Salsa dos unique because we have all of these stairwells going up and down our hills, which were intended to help work. evacuations and things of that kind. And as important it is, and your point is great, Chief, about staying on the road, because I know I'm in a pickle, I want a ride from somebody who can get me out. But a lot of, how do we, what are your thoughts about those stairs and how we use them? Because many of them are frankly in disrepair. And so I wouldn't want to inadvertently give someone the impression to go to the stairwells to go up or down I mean, I yield to you to give us the best advice you can. |
| 01:17:20.72 | Chief Hilliard | So if it's an established stairway, yes, use it. If it's in good shape. So we have a program in the city of Mill Valley, and it's actually through the municipal tax fund in Mill Valley, not through our efforts, but as the city, they put significant money for stair and slates and pass. And they established new ones or they're maintaining existing ones. the difficulty we have with the stairs that you have existing is in MWPA's ordinance and guidelines. It says that, you know, we can't use it for maintenance of existing established and should be maintained city stairs and access ways. So that it makes it a little bit difficult for us. If there's vegetation surrounding it, that's easy to do, but actually repairing stairs is a little bit difficult. But we can do some vegetation projects that the city had planned to do that we probably had already planned on doing anyway and absorb some of that cost so that maybe the city can take care of some of the stairs. we want those stairs and lanes and paths to be accessible as escape routes. Those are established exit routes. And so that would be totally fine to use. I think I was more referring to like dirt trails and fire roads. |
| 01:18:55.41 | Kristina Feller | Yeah. Yeah, OK. Well, that's good. That's good to know. Yeah, Dan, that's something we can probably make a note of to talk to city council about, or report back to them about the stairs. That would be great. Okay, just by show of hand, commissioners, any other questions or comments for Chief and Ms. McKenna? Yes, Commissioner Saad. |
| 01:19:19.69 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you, Chair Feller. McKenna, this might be more for you, and I don't mean to put you on the spot, but I'm just looking more for your general opinion here. So, like my fellow commissioner said, I definitely didn't know you guys paid that close of attention, so we really do thank you for looking at all those plans. I'm not sure. part of the municipal code specifically on tree removal has uh, an area in it about tree replacement, and we've made a few changes about like an in lieu fund. But what is your Opinion given. how much vegetation we do have in town, Do you think that the concept of a tree replacement makes sense when a tree is removed? GENERALLY, DO YOU THINK IT'S A GOOD IDEA OR SOMETHING THAT WE WANT TO LOOK AT AS A COMMISSION OR A CITY A CHANGE IN THE MUNICIPAL CODE FOR SAFETY. |
| 01:20:18.67 | Maria | Absolutely, that's a great question. And I'll try my best to answer it. If Keith Sealyard wants to jump in too, he is one, don't welcome too. |
| 01:20:25.18 | Nastassya Saad | Uh, |
| 01:20:26.05 | Maria | So there's kind of a couple of different factors that I would give with my opinion towards this and something that we look at very closely. |
| 01:20:30.26 | Nastassya Saad | INVOLVED. |
| 01:20:35.70 | Maria | the replacement of trees is important in certain cases. So as I mentioned earlier, we do live, we do have a hillside community. So when I reviewed these landscape plans, I'm also looking at the hillside stabilization. So we're not trying to alleviate one hazard to create enough. And as she earlier was mentioning about the eucalyptus projects that are going on and what she talks about, being very safe and doing this in the right way. We're also looking at hillside stabilization. So when we ask something to be removed, because we generally think it is a big hazard, and there is times that we ask that the trees do be replaced with a different type of species in order to help stabilize the hillside. So there is reasons that we would want that to go there. There's also reasons that we ask trees to be removed to create the spacing where |
| 01:21:01.92 | Nastassya Saad | THE FAMILY IS |
| 01:21:28.40 | Maria | planting a tree in that place at its full maturity isn't going to work. So it's not necessarily always has to be a tree for a tree. It's kind of what we're looking at now. To serve the same purpose, we had a project recently in our jurisdiction that we used these shrubs and trees instead of replacing another tree, another oak tree that they had removed to tree by canopy spacing. So there is a value in doing that and still have that program and to still have like a tree for a tree. But some of the times when we ask something to be removed or if we're asking for chasing on another tree in that same spot, when it reaches its full maturity, we're going to be at the same problem. Now that doesn't mean that there isn't species that can be maintained to create that to maintain that tree to maintain canopy shaping, but Sometimes we do ask for like, like the white trees to be replaced based on the health, like the oak, sometimes the asset of oak we removed because of the house is replaced with the same and then we're gonna run into the same problem But for hillside and stuff, I wouldn't recommend taking it necessarily out, but maybe modifying it to state when you would want to replace that tree. being kind with another situation. |
| 01:22:47.39 | Maria | Thank you. |
| 01:22:51.10 | Kristina Feller | Great question, Commissioner Saad. Any other questions or? for Chief and McKenna. I see none, okay. Chief, any final comments or concluding remarks that you'd like to make? I want to give you the floor. |
| 01:23:12.26 | Chief Hilliard | I'd just like to thank you again for having us here. This is fantastic that we can talk to you about these important facts. And of course there's many more to talk about. THAT WEREN'T, YOU KNOW, ON THIS PARTICULAR PRESENTATION, BUT working with you and having your support in our challenges with trying to make the community safe adding more people, adding more cars, the vegetation and trying to remove it and create a safer environment for the community and the visitors that we have is really important. So anything that we can do to work with you in the future, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We'll be happy to. anything happening on our part, like we're going through a code cycle this year, this is a code adoption year, we'll reach out to you as well. Thank you very much. |
| 01:24:08.02 | Kristina Feller | Well, the thanks go to you and McKenna. Thank you so much for your time this evening. I've learned a lot. I think we've all learned a lot. I know there's more to learn and we're certainly your partners in keeping our community safe. And so we will absolutely reach out to you as long as you know you can reach out to us as well. So thank you very much. With that, I would like to adjourn this meeting. Everyone in favor. Why? Okay, great. Have a good evening, everybody. Happy Fourth of July. Thank you. Bye bye. Thank you. |
| 01:24:44.03 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you. |
Sandra Bushmaker — Neutral: Raised concerns about the impact of 724 new housing units on evacuation routes, called for better roadside vegetation management and removal of dead debris along streets, urged more evacuation drills, and suggested republishing evacuation maps in the Currents. ▶ 📄
Sybil — Neutral: Asked about programs for seniors and residents without cars or mobility during evacuations, noted that some clusters had been formed but more neighbor-to-neighbor organizing is needed, and requested additional resources for tracking those needing assistance. ▶ 📄