Belmont to Designate WUI Areas

The Peninsula "Daily Journal" printed an article on the Town of Belmont's consideration of a proposal to designate "very high hazard" wildfire areas, June 10, 2014.

With scorching summer weather and fire season here, Belmont is considering the designation of a large portion of its hills as very high risk to ensure those who live or own land in the area are working to prevent forest fires.

The Belmont Fire Department is proposing an ordinance to establish the sprawling San Juan Canyon and portions of the Western Hills as wildland-urban interface, or WUI. The designation applies to areas where buildings are in close proximity to heavily vegetated open space, often on a steep terrain, and could be challenging for firefighters to manage during a wildfire, according to a staff report.

Approximately 27 acres of the San Juan Canyon will be the city’s obligation after the council purchased the land in 2009 with the intent of designating it as open space.

The department wants to designate hillside residential zones between Hillcrest Drive and Marsten Avenue, and Ralston Avenue and Bishop Road as a very high fire hazard severity zones, said Belmont Building Official Mark Nolfi.

“The issues of wildland fires weighs heavily on the fire departments’ minds right now, what with the drought and what’s been going on in San Diego. Local fire departments believe this area has been really lucky that they haven’t experienced something like the Oakland Hills fire. That could very easily happen to any of the WUI communities in the Bay Area and there are several of us. San Carlos, Belmont, Hillsborough, these are areas that were designated wildland-urban interface by the state, by the state fire marshal,” Nolfi said.

Read the full article, "Belmont hills to be named high fire risk: Council to decide if portion of hills and canyons receive designation" on the Daily Journal online.