Several residents told the Lake Forest City Council the city should act now to reduce wildfire risk tied to large eucalyptus stands and other overgrown vegetation, and to improve coordination with homeowners associations and insurance companies.

“ We urge you to prevent another problem in our community,” Dorena Tan told council members, saying she submitted a petition signed by 63 residents calling for thinning and replacement of eucalyptus in the lower portion of Serrano Creek Park adjacent to Serrano Road.

Tan referenced recent high-profile wildfire incidents and said residents have experienced rising insurance costs and denials. “Once one of those trees goes off, that's going to go in a trail clear through the city of Lake Forest,” she said, urging preemptive work.

Earlier in public comment an unnamed resident described overlapping and sometimes conflicting fire-hazard maps, the role of local HOAs in managing green spaces and urged the city to consider an urban forest manager to coordinate plant palettes, integrated pest management, defensible space practices and insurance reform efforts. That commenter urged the council to include HOAs and businesses in coordination and recommended the city hire “a good coach to organize this.”

Jessica Lort, another resident who said she has lived in Lake Forest three years, criticized perceived council inaction on the Serrano Park cleanup and said vegetation is “a haven for delinquency” and a fire hazard. She asked how residents can get the issue placed on a council agenda and said prior notices from the county had not led to visible action.

Council members did not take formal action at the meeting on the Serrano Park requests. A number of councilmembers and staff acknowledged recent presentations from outside agencies referenced by commenters — including the California Department of Insurance, Southern California Edison, the Orange County Fire Authority and University of California Cooperative Extension (UC ANR) — and noted that Cal Fire released updated hazard maps earlier in the year, which complicate how insurance providers separately assess risk.

One public commenter recommended the city consider mechanisms to reform state insurance guidelines so that community fire mitigation practices could be aligned with insurer hazard assessments, but no formal direction or staff assignment on that point was recorded in the meeting minutes.