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Are San Luis Obispo officials plans for fire safety going too far?

July 22, 2025

Allan Cooper

OPINION by ALLAN COOPER

As you probably know, there are now more parts of San Luis Obispo that fall within moderate, high and very high Fire Hazard Severity Zones. The SLO City Council is planning to hold a public study session, likely in October, to develop a new local defensible space ordinance.

City officials will also explore the development of an inspection and enforcement program.

According to state law, defensible space requirements only apply to new developments and are not retroactive. In new developments located in very high Fire Hazard Severity Zones, the defensible space requirements will apply to that area that lies within 30 feet of any building.

However, the city may very well impose stricter requirements by, for example, making these requirements retroactive. In that case, if you live on a typical downtown lot that is 50 by 100 feet that is also located within the high fire hazard severity zone, your entire yard may have to be denuded of any vegetation that is considered flammable.

In planning applications received this July, one applicant is already requesting a tree removal due to proximity to their home as it would not be compliant with defensible space requirements. The applicant also cited the risk of losing insurance. Any request like this that is directed either to the arborist or Tree Committee will not likely be denied.

There is a caveat that some vegetation is acceptable because it is fire retardant. However, if the insurance companies and the city plan to impose stricter requirements ignoring these fire retardant qualities, we could be seeing, in the most extreme case, the removal of every tree and bush in the city!

So, we all should remain vigilant. This would require our active participation in the decision making process surrounding the city’s development of a defensible space ordinance this October.

Alan Cooper, a long-time San Luis Obispo resident, is a member of Save Our Downtown.

 


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Couldn’t agree more with Alan’s opinion. With the October public meeting just a few months away, who knows how draconian the city could get with its emerging defensible space and permitting regulations and costs to comply with these new regulations? With the decision makers we currently have on our City Council, if something can go wrong, it will go wrong.


Few understand how the city’s action to require such regulations will affect thousands of homes in its mature neighborhoods. And considering what these regulations might require, why would the city continue pushing its crazy protected bikeways that are constraining city streets and negatively impacting city fire response times to fight fires to our neighborhoods?


10

Gosh, I could write a song about this! Lessee, hmmmm…something about no trees or bushes or.. I got it!


“Pave paradise, and put in a parking lot”!


Oh boy, I’ll be famous now!


-6

Are you criticizing that song? You clearly know it so it clearly succeeded in the sense of getting a message across… and likely monetarily successful as well. Reminds me of the red less succesful states criticizing the blue more successful states. What planet are you on?


-6

Do what you want at the risk of everyone else? Nah.


Literally just learned this lesson via Palisades fire not 4 hours from here… Dense living spaces, aka cities, come with certain restrictions that are in the best interests of the entire city. There won’t be a place for your “vegetation” if the house burns down kind of thing ;) lol.


Even living in the boonies; plenty of rules out there too fyi.


Don’t be selfish is the lesson here.


7

If only your facts were correct! Have you looked at photos of the LA fire areas after the fire? Because they’re full of living, live, green trees and shrubs — proof these were not vegetation fires, but house-to-house fires driven by extreme winds we’ve never had around here. The facts are clear: much vegetation is fire-protective, so clearing it all is a dumb move. Real fire science, as opposed to casually quotable mass media fire science, knows this. Our city does not. Clear out the genuinely flammable stuff and dead stuff, leave the rest.


9

This is a good investment opportunity. Local concrete and paving companies will be the play.


2

Get off my lawn LOL


3

Don’t we already have weed abatement programs enforced by the Fire Dept.?


18

You raise a good point. Are they enforced? Look around and you’ll see they’re not in the city of SLO. Which raises the question just how the fire department will “enforce” a total clearance rule like that they’re talking about creating. Oh, yeah, jack-booted firemen traipsing through our private spaces looking for violations. That’s not what Americans want, is it?


8

…too far


5