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Council delays Community Wildfire Risk Assessment survey release, asks staff and consultants to refine questions with Fire Safe Council input
Summary
After public comment from the Goodyear Hills Fire Safe Council and discussion among councilmembers, the council agreed to continue work on the CWRA community survey and asked staff and consultant Jensen Hughes to rework the questions with input from the Fire Safe Council and subcommittees before releasing the survey.
The Agoura Hills City Council on Jan. 22 agreed to pause and further refine the draft community survey linked to the city’s Community Wildfire Risk Assessment (CWRA) after members of the Goodyear Hills Fire Safe Council urged additional, locally focused questions and councilmembers requested committee review.
Deputy City Manager Louis Solea and consultant Jensen Hughes presented the draft online survey, intended to gather resident input to help prioritize fuel‑reduction and wildfire‑risk measures. Jensen Hughes proposed using SurveyMonkey for outreach and recommended a minimum one‑month survey period. The consultant also described broader stakeholder outreach, including HOAs and other local groups, later in the CWRA process.
Goodyear Hills Fire Safe Council President Peter Feller and resident Jay Crutcher urged the council to incorporate locally specific questions and to avoid “boilerplate” language. They supplied written comments on Dec. 17 and asked to be treated as collaborative partners. Among the Fire Safe Council’s priorities were questions that measure residents’ evacuation capabilities for large animals, who conducts yard maintenance (homeowner, gardener or HOA), and whether residents know their property’s fire‑hazard severity designation — items they argued should guide targeted outreach and response planning.
Councilmembers expressed concern about survey length and "survey fatigue," and noted much had changed since the draft was prepared, given recent fires in the region. Councilmember Klein Lopez asked that prior local lighting and hazard research be incorporated where relevant and recommended moving demographic questions to the end to reduce early drop‑outs. Councilmembers and staff agreed it would be productive to reconvene the subcommittee and to incorporate the Fire Safe Council’s input into a revised survey draft.
Deputy City Manager Solea said the consultant and staff will schedule a subcommittee meeting (already planned) to refine questions and outreach strategy; he confirmed outreach will include social media, local newsletters and direct engagement with HOAs, fire safe groups and other stakeholders. The council did not take a formal vote to adopt the draft survey; instead it directed staff and Jensen Hughes to rework the draft in consultation with the Fire Safe Council and the city’s subcommittees before releasing it to the public.
Next steps: staff and Jensen Hughes will reconvene with the subcommittee and the Fire Safe Council to revise the survey, incorporate operationally useful questions (evacuation of animals, who does landscaping, awareness of hazard zones) and then re-present the refined survey for final council direction before release.
