From: Frederick Allebach
To: CityCouncilListPublic
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Public comment on upcoming Santa Rosa city council WUI agenda item Date: Thursday, April 16, 2026 6:00:23 AM
Attachments: Exhibit A - Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Area.pdf Members of the City Council,
I would like to draw your attention to the similarity of WUI area and areas of highest city median household income in the attached maps. These areas are also the highest
percent white, highest level of education and so
on.
It is from these high MHI areas that WUI and fire evac fears are weaponized by NIMBYs to try and forestall
any development in their high
TCAC high and highest resource opportunity areas. I make these same points in this Substack
piece.
https://fredallebach.substack.com/p/weaponizing-hazards-to- forestall
This weaponization will likely happen at this meeting and is a land use planning chess move to prevent city integration and AFFH bc of fire danger; even though these same exact areas and cohorts have aleady used every possible argument plus the kitchen sink to try and prevent neighborhood integration
in the past anyway. WUI is just the latest arrow
in the city-segregation maintaining quiver.
I'm making you aware of the contradictions involved here. It apparently is not so dangerous that people of high MHI don't themselves want to live in or near foothills, WUI, and high fire hazard areas. What is no good IMO is that these same folks then try to prevent
all dense infill development
anywhere in the city on the grounds that it will impede their evacuation.
This argument is brought to bear on ALL new development projects.
What this means logically is that WUI-area residents are seeking to block housing development and AFFH integration in the less dense, more WUI parts of town and trying to force all development onto the already strippy and overdeveloped west side and Santa Rosa Ave areas. The "character" of WUI-adjacent areas is protected in the city Housing
Element and General
Plan while stuffing all new housing into objectively lower-quality of life, super-dense and congested areas along Santa Rosa
Ave is called
"revitalization."
The upshot: AFFH and WUI/ fire hazard policies are in tension, against a backdrop of systemic segregation. If it isn't so dangerous for high median household income folks to live in WUI areas, then a few hundred more here or there is not so dangerous either and the city should also be looking Attachment 2
to conform to its Housing Element and AFFH policies to integrate WUI areas of town that are also highly segregated.
The same points above hold true for land use planning in SoCo USAs, RHNA, and the County Land Use Element where the same exact NIMBY dynamic seeks to prevent housing and
development on all possible
grounds.
I live two miles from the Rogers Creek Fault and am directly adjacent to the Brush Creek WUI area. This is a risk I willingly take to live in the North Bay and that risk is not going away if I try to burn the bridge for any new housing opportunities.
"We don't know where we're going but we have to stick together in case somebody gets there." Ken Kesey
From: Gregory Fearon
To: Freder ck Allebach
Cc: C tyCouncilListPubl c
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Public comment on upcoming Santa Rosa city council WUI agenda tem Date: Thursday, April 16, 2026 7:59:56 AM
Attachments: Exhibit A - Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Area.pdf Greetings!
You are such a community treasure Keep advising the Council, and any other policy-making body you can access Your brain is absolutely fabulous Gregory Fearon
www heapa org
2040 Elizabeth Way
Santa Rosa, CA
gfearon@gmail com
(707) 546-5771 (home)
(707) 230-1198 (cell)
My job is to listen, read, think, write, and talk
Be the best husband I can
Try not to fall down
On Apr 16, 2026, at 5:59
AM, Frederick Allebach <fallebach@gmail com> wrote:
Members of the City Council,
I would like to draw your attention to the similarity of WUI area and areas of highest city median household income in the attached maps. These areas are also the highest percent white, highest level of education and so on.
It is from these high MHI areas that WUI and fire evac fears are weaponized by NIMBYs to try and forestall any development in their high TCAC high and highest resource opportunity areas. I make these same points in this Substack piece. https://fredallebach.substack.com/p/weaponizing-hazards-to-forestall This weaponization will likely happen at this meeting and is a land use planning chess move to prevent city integration and AFFH bc of fire danger; even though these same exact areas and cohorts have aleady used every possible argument plus the kitchen sink to try and prevent neighborhood integration in the past anyway. WUI is just the latest arrow in the city-segregation maintaining quiver.
I'm making you aware of the contradictions involved here. It apparently is not so dangerous that people of high MHI don't themselves want to live in or near foothills, WUI, and high fire hazard areas. What is no good IMO is that these same folks then try to prevent all dense infill development anywhere in the city on the grounds that it will impede their evacuation. This argument is brought to bear on ALL new development projects.
What this means logically is that WUI-area residents are seeking to block housing development and AFFH integration in the less dense, more WUI parts of town and trying to force all development onto the already strippy and overdeveloped west side and Santa Rosa Ave areas. The "character" of WUI-adjacent areas is protected in the city Housing Element and General Plan while stuffing all new housing into objectively lower-quality of life, super-dense and congested areas along Santa Rosa Ave is called "revitalization." The upshot: AFFH and WUI/ fire hazard policies are in tension, against a backdrop of systemic segregation. If it isn't so dangerous for high median household income folks to live in WUI areas, then a few hundred more here or there is not so dangerous either and the city should also be looking to conform to its Housing Element and AFFH policies to integrate WUI areas of town that are also highly segregated.
The same points above hold true for land use planning in SoCo USAs, RHNA, and the County Land Use Element where the same exact NIMBY dynamic seeks to prevent housing and development on all possible grounds.
I live two miles from the Rogers Creek Fault and am directly adjacent to the Brush Creek WUI area. This is a risk I willingly take to live in the North Bay and that risk is not going away if I try to burn the bridge for any new housing opportunities.
"We don't know where we're going but we have to stick together in case somebody gets there " Ken Kesey