A coastal permit that allows for vegetation clearing on 14 miles of evacuation routes in Inverness, Bolinas and Stinson Beach was approved last Thursday by the county’s Deputy Zoning Administrator. The work will allow easier access for residents and emergency services during fires, according to the Marin County Fire Department and the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, which jointly applied for the permit.
The evacuation routes represent the first major project in West Marin initiated by the M.W.P.A., whose work on the coast has been held up by environmental review processes. Though a few residents voiced concerns at last week’s hearing, county officials said the work would be undertaken with the cooperation of homeowners and attention to sensitive habitat areas.
“Each day that goes by is one day closer to disaster occurring,” county fire chief Jason Weber said. “The work is designed to provide maintenance in the least invasive way possible while maximizing the safety to just get people out alive.”
The project allows for vegetation treatment within 10 feet of the road edge and up to 15 feet of vertical clearing on sections of Balboa Avenue, Behr Lane, Calle Del Arroyo, Camino Del Mar, Douglas Drive, Dover Road, Drakes Summit Road, Drakes View Drive, Elm Road, Keith Way, Laurel Street, Mesa Road, Ocean Parkway, Olema-Bolinas Road, Overlook Drive, Sunnyside Drive, Terrace Avenue, Via de la Vista and Vision Road.
The project, which does not set in stone any work that authorities may later deem unnecessary, enacts the most basic standards required for emergency access, Chief Weber said. Treatment methods will vary based on topography and the condition and type of vegetation. The project will include pre-construction surveys and biological monitoring and management practices.
Though its cost has yet to be defined, the project will be funded by Measure C, passed in 2020 to fund prevention and preparedness efforts in Marin. The project’s original scope encompassed 16.5 miles of rights-of-way but was trimmed to 14.3 miles after some areas were found to be on federal and state lands.
The project was exempted from sections of the California Environmental Quality Act because it will not significantly impact the environment, but rather maintain existing roadways. No healthy, mature or scenic trees will be removed, and no excavation is involved. Maintenance will occur every three to five years in forested areas and every two to five years in denser, brushier areas. “To clarify the kind of work we’re doing here, it’s really removal or thinning of understory species and removal of dead and dying vegetation,” said Anne Crealock, a planning and program manager for the M.W.P.A.
Deputy Zoning Administrator Immanuel Bereket said letters from community members were overwhelmingly supportive, save a few that raised concerns about environmentally sensitive habitat areas, known as ESHA. In a letter to project planner Megan Alton, California Coastal Commission staff also expressed concern about ESHA impacts. Coastal planner Honora Montano said regardless of the CEQA exemption and proposed management practices, the applicants should still be prepared to deal with impacts, given that much of the areas are within ESHA and buffer zones.
Inverness resident Carolyn Longstreth shared the worry. “The [updated] Local Coastal Program includes a provision stating that a future amendment will allow the type of work proposed here, and that statement is strong evidence that the drafters knew the current L.C.P. prohibits this kind of work in ESHA,” Ms. Longstreth said. She urged the county to scale back the project to only remove invasives and cut tall grasses.
Ms. Alton said there would be no impacts to ESHA that would require mitigation or restoration plans, and Mr. Bereket said the project was allowable under current rules. “We have to base the project on the rules and regulations that are in effect today, not on draft documents that may or may not be adopted,” Mr. Bereket said in reference to the unfinished hazards section of the L.C.P.
Nancy Stein, a resident of Inverness Park, raised questions about the impacts on private roads and the people who take care of them. Residents of Drakes Summit already prune twice a year, and she worried that additional tree work by the county could cause the road to collapse. “You can’t apply the same standards to every road because nature doesn’t work that way,” she said. “It’s now proven science that the trees are dependent on the shrubs that grow beneath them. If the road caves in after pruning from the fire department, who pays for that? Where does your responsibility end?”
Understanding water and drainage on a particular road is important to any work, and removing shrubs can sometimes cause invasives to grow in their place, including thistles and other highly flammable plants, Ms. Stein said. Chief Weber noted that roads with robust resident-based planning will likely not need anything more than a little grant funding.
Clearing will not begin this winter, but will take place from mid-October through January, to avoid the bat roosting and bird nesting seasons. If construction outside of nesting seasons is infeasible, a pre-construction survey will be made by a qualified biologist. If nests are determined, a biologist will keep a close survey on nests, establishing buffer zones that will be managed throughout construction.