Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Community Wildfire Protection Plan topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Fire safe council presents draft Community Wildfire Protection Plan and seeks resident input
Summary
Fire and community leaders presented the draft Community Wildfire Protection Plan for San Buenaventura and asked residents to prioritize projects such as home-hardening incentives, fuels treatments and evacuation planning to guide the final plan and funding applications.
San Buenaventura — City and fire‑safety officials on Thursday presented the draft Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) for the city and asked residents to identify priorities that will guide mitigation projects and future grant applications.
“The purpose of tonight is we’re introducing the first draft community wildfire protection plan and we’re going to be seeking input from the community,” Brett Reed, Ventura’s fire marshal, told the meeting. Reed thanked the Ventura Regional Fire Safe Council and city staff for collaborating on the draft.
The plan, drafted by the Ventura Regional Fire Safe Council with city input, is intended as a community‑facing, voluntary planning document that complements existing hazard‑mitigation and evacuation plans. “A CWPP is a community‑based document,” said Evie Vermeier, wildfire planning specialist for the Ventura Regional Fire Safe Council, who outlined the document’s purpose, contents and how the public can participate.
Vermeier said the CWPP compiles a community overview (environment, fire history and weather patterns), lists existing mitigation resources and programs, and prioritizes projects in categories such as community engagement and education, structural hardening, defensible space, fuels treatments and evacuation planning. She urged residents to review the draft on the city website and provide comments through an online questionnaire or on posters and suggestion boxes at the meeting.
The draft highlights local programs already available to residents, including home ignition‑zone assessments, the Firewise program, and efforts by Ventura County Office of Emergency Services and the city to publicize evacuation procedures and tools. “Mitigation in advance can really save your structure far better than a fire department is going to realistically be able to do,” Vermeier said, noting research cited in the draft that home‑hardening measures can reduce a structure’s ignitability by up to 40 percent and, combined with fuels reduction, by up to 75 percent.
Andy Ortega, board president of the Ventura Regional Fire Safe Council, recounted his experience as a Thomas Fire survivor and urged individual and neighborhood responsibility: “If we could stop one other house from burning … that’s what we’re here about,” Ortega said, describing the CWPP as a tool to change community culture and spread preparedness practices.
Event organizers also described how the CWPP can act as a “funding magnet” by helping the city and partners prioritize projects for grants from agencies such as CalFire and the Department of Conservation. The meeting host thanked grant partners, including the State Coastal Conservancy and the Resource Conservation District, which helped fund the CWPP effort.
No formal votes or city‑policy changes were taken at the meeting. Organizers said the CWPP is not a mandatory planning element and does not assign responsibilities; it is a planning document meant to guide project prioritization and to support grant applications. Residents may submit detailed feedback through the city’s CWPP questionnaire and onsite suggestion boxes; the council will use that input to revise the draft and prioritize projects.
The Ventura Regional Fire Safe Council and city staff said they will use community input to refine project lists and proposals, and to pursue funding for prioritized work. For more information or to submit comments, organizers directed residents to the city website and to contact the Ventura Regional Fire Safe Council.
