LAKEPORT >> Despite a need made clear by the devastating fires of 2015 and 2016, the Lake County Board of Supervisors has found that establishing a Hazard Abatement Ordinance takes time.
“I think it’s very important in light of the Valley Fires, the Clayton Fire, the Rocky Fire — we’ve had so many fires I think we could have made a little bit better stand and not had the devastating losses that we had,” said Northshore Fire Protection District Chief Jay Beristianos, expressing his support for an enforceable plan.
There are Hazard Abatement Ordinances in effect in neighboring counties. And these have served as a guide as the discussion developed over the past several months. Essentially the goal is to increase safety near and around residential areas through weed and brush abatement. The program would have the strength of inspection and enforcement.But to enforce an ordinance costs money, both toward resources and personnel. District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown said they have been looking for different funding sources. These include CalFire, other state sources and potential legislation.
“As we all know sometimes legislation moves pretty slow so I’m not so sure that it’ll come about any time within the next couple of years, but it is on the radar largely because of the fires we had,” Brown said.
“It (the ordinance) looked like it was really comprehensive,” District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith said, referring to one of the plans studied by the board. “The biggest thing for the County was that it was the County working all through it so we need to make a partnership or something, somehow.”
Beristianos said he would want the County to create a working group on trying to establish an ordinance that would work for everyone but also create more safety.
The next step is going to get a working group together and bring it up to the Board work on putting the ordinance in place and having funds to allow staff to enforce it.
