NCIRL Position on Planning Alternatives for Preventing Wildfires, November, 2007
Recently, major wildfires have been occuring every five to ten years, but historically, major fires occur every ten to thirty years. This is substantiated by the biological fact that many native California plant species have adapted their lifecycles to respond to this burn cycle by either resprouting from underground roots or by producing seedlings after a fire. The chaparral vegetation community that dominates most of southern California produces significant amounts of plant biomass in the time between the cyclical wildfires, and the resulting abundant fuel produces the intense burns when the inevitable fires occur.
When this cyclical fuel production process is combined with the urban sprawling development patterns of economic growth, the resulting combination of communities encroaching on or situated in the path of heavily-fueled burn corridors produces the major disasters that we have experienced in recent years.
In each of these recent disasters, the successive cost of response and recovery has run higher and higher, into the hundreds of millions of dollars. If a fraction of the response and recovery money was spent on prevention, the savings would be considerable. An incredible amount of money is being thrown away, not to mention the danger and disruption that we face, by being reactive rather than proactive.
However, the solution to this deadly, devastating problem is already built into the State General Plan as part of the Public Safety requirements, but needs to be enforced and expanded at the local level to include the development of effective major buffer zones through zoning and land use designations. Buffer zones normally consist of recreation areas (parks, golf courses) and agricultural uses (pastures, irrigated tree farms) strategically located to provide buffers between development and wildlands.
In November, 2003, the California Governor's Office of Planning and Research released a General Plan Technical Advice document titled "Fire Hazard Planning" as a supplement to the California General Plan Guidelines. The intent of the advisory was to assist city and county planners in developing effective policies in the General Plan that can be carried through to specific plans, zoning ordinances and other local planning documents. According to the document, wildfire hazard is too often underplayed in the General Plan, and the expansion of development creates more urban-wildland interface issues with a corresponding risk of economic loss caused by wildfires.
There are seven elements in the state General Plan, one of which is Public Safety, and no one element is more or less important than the others. Over the last thirty years there have been numerous studies done and numerous groups formed to address the issue of wildfire prevention, but in the end we are still being devastated by major fires that destroy homes and lives. As our inland North County region develops, the effects of wildfires if left unchecked will continue to cost billions of dollars and harm thousands of people. The money that is being spent on ramping up the system of response needs to be spent on prevention. For thousand of years, the Kumeyaay were wise enough to control the environment by periodically burning the chaparral. Why aren't we, as the current stakeholders, following the same path?
-Terry Van Koughnett, NCIRL Public Safety
NCIRL Review - RTA/CalTrans SR-76 East Corridor Study, March, 2007
In March, 2007, the Reservation Transportation Authority (RTA), with funding provided by the California Department of Transportation (CALTRANS), completed a study of current traffic operations and identified achievable proposed Operational and Near Term Improvements for the State Route 76 corridor. In addition, the study identified the approximate projected cumulative traffic effects of proposed development along the corridor.
The NCIRL strongly supports the findings of the SR-76 East Corridor Study, namely that there are present and growing transportation infrastructures deficiencies along the SR-76 corridor east of the I-15. Further, there are some cost effective short-term solutions. Our inland North County region is growing and developing rapidly, and is facing especially strong development prospects that will bring sweeping changes and economic prosperity. We applaud the efforts of the Reservation Transportation Authority in conjunction with CALTRANS to develop and promote transportation solutions to SR-76.
Our region needs synergistic solutions which blend resources from the State, County, and Federal sources and allow SANDAG's Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) to address both rural and urban needs. In recent years, an exponentially growing percentage of the ADT's are generated by non-local residents which makes old funding algorithms inadequate to address key regional circulation components in an effective RTP. The minor improvements, i.e., "operational improvements", about six projects and approximately $800,000, are needed now. The non-major "near-term" improvements, about ten projects and approximately $10 million, will save many lives.
Once again, thanks to the RTA for bringing these SR-76 deficiencies into focus, for opening this study to public inspection , and inviting comment at the early stage in the funding cycle. We wish to express our sincere support in these endeavors.
- Larry Glavinic, NCIRL Transportation
Economic
Development
- creating tourism, gaming, commercial development
on tribal lands Regional
Planning
- long-range and short-range goals, agreement
between community planning groups and tribes,
funding needs Transportation
- traffic, public transportation, SR-76 East
Corridor Public
Safety
- fire, medical, urgent care, law
enforcement
© Copyright 2010 North County Inland Regional Leadership. All rights reserved.
NCIRL Economic Development
Tourism, gaming and commercial development, both on and off the reservations, are the current challenges and opportunities for economic development.
NCIRL Regional Planning
An overall assessment of the region's projected growth in the areas of agriculture and open space, residential and commercial development patterns, and transportation needs.
NCIRL Transportation
Facing increasing traffic due to growth in tourism and commercial and residential development, the needs of the region must be aligned with planned county activities and matched with available funding.
NCIRL Public Safety
Measuring the needs of our community against historic data and growth projections to determine the resources required to deliver appropriate services in the areas of law enforcement, fire protection, and urgent care.