LAKE COUNTY — The County of Lake plans to tighten up its enforcement of hazardous vegetation abatement requirements in preparation for fire season despite ongoing restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The board of supervisors on Tuesday decided Tuesday to develop a potential countywide ordinance that would reduce the timeframe property owners have to abate hazardous vegetation that has been deemed non-compliant with county regulations. The 30-day window could be reduced to 15 days, the discussion indicated, but the ordinance has yet to be written and will likely be considered by the board next week.
At the same time, several abatements are ready to be performed in Lake County, according to Code Enforcement Manager Andy Williams.
“We are ready to move forward on the first 20 abatements,” Williams said, noting that the bidding process is complete and that contractors are all but hired to do the work. “We’ll be writing the contracts this week,” he added.
Within a group of benefit zones in the Rivieras area near Kelseyville—a portion of Lake County that has been noted for its high fire risk—every property that was identified as a danger by code enforcement officers has had more than 30 days since notification to abate, Williams said.
Williams recommended reducing that timeframe to 15 days in the future.
“My recommendation would be that we change it from 30 days to the 15 day mark, and do that countywide.”
The board appeared to be in unanimous agreement that more abatements need to happen soon, with fire season approaching.
“I think we need to not forget that there is a future, and we need to be prepared for it,” District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier said.
“We just need to make sure the public is aware that they are able to, and they can hire contractors—they can hire people to come in and do their landscaping, their vegetation control, and that type of stuff,” said District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown.
In a press release issued Monday, Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace wrote that fire hazard abatement is now explicitly protected as essential work.
“In the interest of limiting wildfire risk to Lake County, Essential Workers now explicitly include landscapers and tree trimmers that are working on wildfire abatement, to include Vegetation Services, Tree Maintenance, Landscapers, Gardeners and Property Managers,” he wrote.
