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Placerville council directs staff to evaluate and prioritize removal of locked fire gates after resident concerns
Summary
Council approved staff—s option to prioritize review and potential removal of gated street access points that can block emergency egress or firefighter access. Staff will start with public streets owned by the city and work with private owners where gates sit on private roads.
The Placerville City Council on Aug. 26 voted unanimously to direct staff to prioritize reviewing city and private fire gates that can limit emergency egress and firefighter access, starting with public streets and then addressing private-road gates.
Development Services Director Carol Kendrick presented a preliminary inventory of gates and said the issue was raised originally by resident Sue Rodman and discussed with Placer County fire and Cal Fire guidance. Kendrick told the council her office identified subdivisions — including Coloma, Blairs and Barrett — where gates or locked egress points exist and where past subdivision approvals required gates as part of access controls. She referenced a state requirement for a secondary egress navigable by a 6,000-pound vehicle without locked gates in some circumstances.
Resident Sue Rodman, who brought the issue to the council, described the hazard during a fire: locked gates can delay fire apparatus and impede evacuations. “When you have a fire and your house is on fire … you either have to stop or knock the gate down,” Rodman said during public comment, adding that several recent members of her support group were diagnosed with metastatic cancer — she urged the council to take “life-saving” steps (note: Rodman referred earlier to health-related public comments; the fire-gate matter was raised separately).
Other residents and former planning commissioners recalled the policy history. Several speakers said gates were often installed decades ago after public pressure when new subdivisions were proposed and that current development patterns and wildfire risks have changed since then. Speakers proposed options ranging from quietly opening low-risk gates to detailed traffic and environmental studies for gates that alter circulation.
Kendrick told the council that estimated removal costs range from about $5,000 to $20,000 per gate plus legal fees and that some gates sit on private property, requiring property-owner consent and potentially additional environmental or traffic analysis. Staff recommended prioritizing review and potential removal beginning with city-owned public streets.
The council voted 5–0 to adopt staff’s first option: prioritize review and potential removal of fire gates, begin with gates on public streets, then coordinate with private property owners on private gates, and prepare recommendations and cost estimates for future council action. Chief Cordero confirmed the fire department holds keys to existing gates but emphasized that gates still “inhibit not only our response but evacuation.”
The council directed staff to proceed with the prioritized review and return with implementation options and budget implications.
