Resident urges planning changes after Monrovia-area fires, warns against unsafe building practices

During the public-input portion of the meeting, resident Wayne Soha urged the Planning Commission to use its regulatory authority to discourage construction practices that increase wildfire risk, citing recent fires in the Monrovia area and a comparison with the Altadena fire damage.

“So if you take the damage map from the Altadena fire and you overlay it on Monrovia, everything on this side of the freeway would be gone if that fire had hit here,” Soha said. He reviewed a brief history of wooden-shingle roofing in Los Angeles-area housing and said such practices persisted until state and local rules changed. “All that time, people on planning commissions knew that wooden shingles were a bad idea, and you all have the power to stop dumb ideas even if the regulations don’t necessarily require it,” Soha said.

Soha identified his home as in a very-high-risk fire area and said he recognizes that some properties may be in places where building is risky. He asked the commission to adopt stronger measures for structures that remain, and to use lessons from recent fires to guide decisions about building materials and standards.

Chair Tahira and other commissioners thanked Soha for his remarks. The commission did not take action based on the public comment at that meeting; the chair noted that matters raised in public input can be referred for future agenda consideration.