The Encinitas City Council gave its initial approval last week to new, state-mandated fire hazard maps that will increase the amount of land that falls within the city’s “very high” fire hazard zones.
The new maps, scheduled to receive final council approval June 11, will add nearly 5 percent more land in Encinitas into areas designated as “very high” fire hazard areas, city Fire Chief Josh Gordon said. New additions include parts of Encinitas Ranch and the city’s golf course.
Some city homeowners are already facing issues due to changes in their fire hazard status; insurance companies recently have canceled some policies in the Encinitas Ranch area, council said Wednesday.
Gordon told the council that insurance companies legally aren’t supposed to use the state-mandated, Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps when creating their ratings. However, he said, the cities can’t control the insurance companies, and there are plenty of other factors that the companies could cite when it comes to their views on the likelihood of fires at the moment. In January, several massive fires, including the Palisades Fire, burned vast areas of the Los Angeles region, destroying thousands of structures and killing more than two dozen people.
“Encinitas, like much of coastal Southern California, is experiencing a shift in wildfire exposure,” a city staff report that accompanied the map change proposal states. “The risk is no longer confined to the wildland-urban interface or rural canyons. Climate change, prolonged drought, invasive vegetation growth, and Santa Ana wind events have increased the city’s vulnerability.”
The fire maps that Encinitas currently depends upon when drafting city building codes and setting brush-clearing requirements were adopted in 2009. These maps only highlight areas considered “very high” fire hazards, and a total of 3,250 acres falls within those zones.
Under new state regulations, cities now must list “moderate” and “high” fire hazard zones on their maps, in addition to the “very high” areas, Gordon said. About 18 percent of the city will fall within the “very high” category in the new maps. That’s an increase of about 4.9 percent over the 2009 maps, Gordon said. The “high” and “moderate” zones will each cover about 9 percent of the city, he said.
Each zone is a minimum of 200 acres, and it’s assessed based on burn probability, fire history from 1991 to 2020, vegetation type, ground slope conditions, weather data and other factors, Gordon said. The new maps and other documents can be viewed at https://encinitas.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=7&event_id=5009&meta_id=186711
Mayor Bruce Ehlers told Gordon that he didn’t understand why the golf course area was ending up in a high fire hazard area, saying it’s just lots of grass and a few trees, and thus wasn’t likely to burn.
Councilmember Marco San Antonio, a former Orange County Fire Authority volunteer firefighter, told him that it’s true the golf course won’t burn much, but “everything around it can” and strong winds may toss those flying embers into neighboring housing developments. The brushy habitat surrounding the golf course includes non-native eucalyptus trees, which are known for being highly flammable.
