URGENT FIRE SAFETY OBJECTION TO PROPOSED STREET VACATION (RESOLUTION NO. 26-30) PROJECT: Campo on 17th / Enderle Center Drive Closure Hearing HEARING DATE: Tuesday, September 15, 2026, at 6:00 PM
SUBMITTED BY: Concerned Residents of Tustin
TO THE ORANGE COUNTY FIRE AUTHORITY, THE HONORABLE MAYOR, MEMBERS OF THE TUSTIN CITY COUNCIL, AND CITY ATTORNEY: 300 CENTENNIAL WAY, TUSTIN, CA. 92780 We formally object to the proposed vacation and closure of Enderle Center Drive. Granting this street closure to accommodate a private developer's design configuration creates an immediate, catastrophic threat to human life regarding fire evacuation and emergency response. Approving this resolution exposes the City of Tustin to immense long-term civil liability.
1. CRITICAL THREAT TO LIFE: Wildfire and Structural Fire Evacuation Bottlenecks Enderle Center Drive is a vital neighborhood emergency egress route. Eliminating this right-of-way clusters local traffic into a severely restricted bottleneck.
Evacuation Traps: In a fast-moving fire event, hundreds of escaping residents will be forced onto fewer roads, creating gridlock that could trap citizens in the path of a fire. • Emergency Delays: Entering Orange County Fire Authority (OCA) heavy apparatus and ladder trucks will be forced to compete with fleeing resident traffic on a single, choked access point, delavina life-saving intervention when seconds matter.
2. Absolute Discretionary Immunity Waiver and Future Tort Liability While public entities generally enjoy immunity for "poor judgment" in planning decisions, "Design Immunity" (Gov. Code § 830.6) is legally broken if a city approves a plan despite having clear notice of a hidden, highly dangerous condition. By approving this closure over the explicit safety warnings of the neighborhood, the City of Tustin knowingly creates a public property hazard. This completely strips the city of its statutory immunities, leaving Tustin strictly liable for any future wrongful deaths, personal injuries, or property losses caused by fire-related gridlock.
3. Strict Constitutional Liability via Inverse Condemnation Under settled California Supreme Court precedent (Breidert v. Southern Pacific Co.), property owners possess a private easement of ingress and egress to the general public street system. Severing this critical access route-especially when it destroys emergency egress-constitutes a "substantial impairment" of access. This renders the City strictly liable for financial damages under Inverse Condemnation for the resulting drop in neighborhood property values
4. Explicit Violation of Streets & Highways Code § 8324 Under California law, this Council has zero legal authority to vacate a public road unless it makes a formal finding that the street is "unnecessary for present or prospective public use." Because this road is actively used and serves a vital public safety purpose, a finding that it is "unnecessary" is legally fraudulent. Any approval based on this finding is vulnerable to an immediate Writ of Administrative Mandate (CCP § 1094.5) to halt construction.
CONCLUSION & REQUESTED ACTION
We demand that the City Council DENY Resolution No. 26-30. At minimum, we request a Continuance of this hearing until the Orange County Fire Authority issues a certified, unconditioned written safety report explicitly guaranteeing that closing Enderle Center Drive will result in zero net delay to neighborhood evacuation times and fire department response capabilities.
Respectfully submitted,
SIGINITURE
Mans
NAME
ADDRESS PHONE