From: Susan Lamont
To: _CityCouncilListPublic
Subject: [EXTERNAL] LRA Wildlands-Urban Interface Zone Map Date: Monday, May 11, 2026 10:12:39 PM
Santa Rosa City Council:
I am writing to request that you delay a decision on changing the LRA Wildlands-Urban Interface Zone Map.
It doesn't take a scientist to notice that areas that have never burned in 100 years have been upgraded and areas that have burned multiple times in 100 years have been downgraded. This should be a huge red flag for you.
Time to go back to the drawing board.
Susan Collier Lamont
District 2
2214 Creekside Rd.
707-889-3021
From: Sonia Taylor
To: Stapp, Mark; Okrepkie, Jeff; Alvarez, Eddie; Banuelos, Caroline; Fleming, Victoria; MacDonald, Dianna; Rogers, Natalie
Cc: _CityCouncilListPublic; Lowenthal, Paul; McDaniel, Jared Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Item 16.1, Update to WUI
Date: Tuesday, May 12, 2026 10:56:17 AM
Attachments: 5_12_26_taylor_SR_CC_WUI_ltr.pdf
4_20_26_taylor_SR_CC_WUI_ltr.pdf
Mayor Stapp, and members of the City Council,
Attached is my letter supporting and urging you to adopt the Update to Santa Rosa's WUI today.
I'm also attaching my April 20th letter, which hasn't made it into the public record, apparently, in an excess of caution.
As always, please don't hesitate to call if you have any questions.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sonia
Sonia Taylor
707-579-8875
[email protected]
Sonia E. Taylor
306 Lomitas Lane
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
707-579-8875
[email protected]
12 May 2026
Mayor Mark Stapp
Vice Mayor Jeff Okrepkie
Eddie Alvarez
Caroline Bañuelos
Victoria Fleming
Dianna MacDonald
Natalie Rogers
Re: Item 16.1, May 12th Agenda
Update to the Santa Rosa Wildland Urban Interface Area
Mayor Stapp and Members of the Santa Rosa City Council:
I am writing this letter in addition to the letter I sent on April 20th in support of this Update to the Santa Rosa Wildland Urban Interface (WUI).
Based on what I’ve read in the Press Democrat article about this update to the WUI, it sounds like there may be confusion over this update.
First, when the State, through CalFire, updated the fire hazard severity zones within Santa Rosa’s boundaries, in our Local Responsibility Area (LRA), a number of areas were newly identified as being in fire hazard zones, including areas along Bennett Valley Road.
These CalFire identified LRA fire hazard severity zones MUST be adopted by Santa Rosa. It’s the law.
Government Code §51179. (a) A local agency shall designate, by ordinance, moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones in its jurisdiction within 120 days of receiving recommendations from the State Fire Marshal pursuant to Section 51178. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV§ ionNum=51179
Santa Rosa is allowed by law to INCREASE the fire hazard severity zones within our boundaries, (paragraph (b) of Government Code §51179), but is NOT allowed to decrease the fire hazard severity zones identified by CalFire. Period.
Second, with the CalFire identification of these fire hazard severity zones within Santa Rosa’s boundaries, it is only prudent that Santa Rosa’s Fire Department has now determined that those areas are indeed in fire hazard and should be added to our WUI. If those newly identified fire hazard severity zones were NOT added to our WUI, in fact, it would be a dereliction of duty, frankly, likely with attaching future potential liability.
Third, there is appears to be confusion about what being in an identified fire hazard severity zone means as far as your personal homeowner’s insurance is concerned.
The CalFire identifications are HAZARD identifications. Insurance companies aren’t the least bit interested in these hazard identifications, and in fact are only interested in what the RISK is for your home. Risk may start with the hazard, but also includes a number of additional considerations not considered by CalFire.
I am informed, and believe it is true, that all insurance companies have their own private risk assessment consultants and use the risk assessment to determine whether they will write insurance for your home, what that insurance will cost, and what mitigation measures they will require you to perform to obtain that insurance.
Again, insurance companies don’t care about any hazard identification, except maybe generically as a starting point for their much more intensive analysis of risk.
Fourth, none of us like that we are living in either a CalFire identified fire hazard severity zone, or in the WUI. When we bought our home in Santa Rosa in 1989, fire danger wasn’t on our mind, even though I’d lived through two wildfires growing up in Malibu. Even when our home was put into Santa Rosa’s WUI in 2009 we didn’t worry about it, at all.
It wasn’t until 2017 when the danger of wildfire – and, even worse, urban conflagration – hit home for us, and for everyone in not only California, but the entire United States.
None of us want to have to live with this knowledge and danger, or want to have to meet the State or Santa Rosa’s defensible space requirements. None of us want to have to have a go bag packed, none of us want to have to keep our cars at least ½ full of gas during the summer/fall, none of us want to have to know our possible evacuation routes by heart.
But burying your head in the sand isn’t a solution, either. The reality is that many of us DO live in danger of not only wildfire, but of urban conflagration, regardless of whether we’re in a CalFire identified fire hazard severity zone or in Santa Rosa’s WUI. Frankly, the only reason at least part of the JC didn’t burn in an urban conflagration in 2017 is because the wind blew embers into Coffey Park, which burned instead. And neither the JC nor Coffey Park is in a fire hazard severity zone, or the WUI.
I want to point out that the CalFire fire hazard severity zone maps do NOT consider the dangers of urban conflagration, and when those maps are updated some day to include that danger, I believe that the areas of concern will be greatly increased. In an LA Times article about the LA fires/urban conflagrations, the following statement was made by David Sapsis, who leads CalFire’s hazard mapping efforts:
“I do believe, when we start to complete some research synopsis of this fire event,” Sapsis said, “that we’re going to be looking at a recalibration for what urban conflagration distances can be. And the ramifications of that will be significant.” https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-02-04/cal-fire-maps-did-not-predict- altadena
Fifth, and finally, the Fire Department is doing the right thing by increasing Santa Rosa’s WUI – they’re using real evidence to do so.
I request that you approve the Update to Santa Rosa’s WUI today.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Very truly yours,
Sonia E. Taylor
Cc: Jared McDaniel, Assistant Fire Marshal
Paul Lowenthal, Division Chief – Fire Marshal
Sonia E. Taylor
306 Lomitas Lane
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
707-579-8875
[email protected]
20 April 2026
Mayor Mark Stapp
Vice Mayor Jeff Okrepkie
Eddie Alvarez
Caroline Bañuelos
Victoria Fleming
Dianna MacDonald
Natalie Rogers
Re: Item 16.1
Update to the Santa Rosa Wildland Urban Interface Area
Mayor Stapp and Members of the Santa Rosa City Council:
I am supportive of your adopting the Ordinance before you updating Santa Rosa’s Wildland Urban Interface area (WUI). I believe that the evidence in the record (CalFire’s State and Local Responsibility Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps, plus our unfortunate on the ground experience with all too recent fires) strongly supports the proposed expansion of our WUI.
With that said, I must say that it makes me nervous to reduce any of our existing WUI. Santa Rosa has commenced the update of our 2020 Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). We (all of us in the state, collectively) have learned a great deal about fire behavior, ember cast and urban conflagration since 2020. I would suggest that after the completion of our updated CWPP, Santa Rosa should revisit our WUI boundaries.
In the meantime, however, I support your approval of the Ordinance updating Santa Rosa’s WUI, and hope you will vote in favor of this item.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Very truly yours,
Sonia E. Taylor
Cc: Jared McDaniel, Assistant Fire Marshal
Paul Lowenthal, Division Chief – Fire Marshal
From: Jennifer McNeil
To: City Council Public Comments
Subject: [EXTERNAL] 5/12/26 Council Mtg - Petition for Item 16.1 WUI Map Date: Tuesday, May 12, 2026 11:24:26 AM
Attachments: WUI Opposition Petition 05-06-26.pdf
Hi - please see attached petition served on May 6, 2026.
Thanks!
--
Jennifer McNeil
Legal Assistant to Don L. Nauman
Don L. Nauman
Attorney at Law
3936 Mayette Avenue
Santa Rosa, CA 95405
(707) 525-0151
Fax: (707) 544-5418
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From: Pappas, Jon
To: City Clerk
Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] Visuals handouts for May 12 city meeting? Date: Tuesday, May 12, 2026 3:10:08 PM
Attachments: Handouts May 12, 2026 Wildland Urban Interface.docx Please find attached the handouts for the Wildland Urban Interface in Bennett Valley.
Jon Pappas
From: City Clerk
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2026 4:21 PM
To: Pappas, Jon
Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] Visuals handouts for May 12 city meeting? Good afternoon, Public comment may be submitted in advance of the meeting via email at cc-comment@ srcity. org by 5: 00 p. m. today. Rhonda Bolla, CMC | Deputy City Clerk Office of the City Clerk |100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 9 | Santa Rosa, CA 95404 Good afternoon,
Public comment may be submitted in advance of the meeting via email at cc- [email protected] by 5:00 p.m. today.
Rhonda Bolla, CMC | Deputy City Clerk
Office of the City Clerk |100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 9 | Santa Rosa, CA 95404 Tel. (707) 543-4704 | Fax (707) 543-3015 | [email protected] From: Pappas, Jon <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2026 1:37 PM
To: City Clerk <[email protected]>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Visuals handouts for May 12 city meeting? Hello City Clerk,
Is this the correct email to send you visuals/handouts for the city council meeting? This is for tomorrow’s meeting. The topic is the public hearing on Wildland Urban Interface in Bennett Valley. I have three, one-page handouts.
Thanks
Jon Pappas
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