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Portola Valley sets new requirements for fire-safe building materials

by Dave Boyce

The Portola Valley Town Council on Wednesday unanimously agreed to apply the state's regulations on the use of ignition-resistant building materials and methods, known as Chapter 7A, for all new buildings in town, and all replacement roofs, windows, decks and siding.

The council's May 13 vote "introduced" the amendments to the town's building code. If the council votes to adopt the ordinance after a second reading on May 27, it becomes law after 30 days.

The Woodside council enacted a similar law in March, but delayed defining the point at which a remodel is significant enough to be considered a new building.

The Portola Valley council went ahead and defined it: any addition that affects 50 percent or more of the exterior wall-plane surface or floor area is a new building, which is lower than the current 75 percent threshold, according to a staff report written by Planning Manager Leslie Lambert and Deputy Building Official Gary Fitzer.

The report treats the threshold for requiring installation of an interior automatic sprinkler system in the same way with respect to exterior wall-plane and floor area: the current 75 percent threshold drops to 50 percent.

To view the staff report and the text of the ordinance, go to tinyurl.com/rax2w9.

The council is acting in the context of a recently updated wildfire hazard map from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, that labels Portola Valley's Woodside Highlands neighborhood as a "very high" hazard zone.

The town missed an April deadline to accept the Cal Fire map, but there are no penalties for not accepting it.

Residents of Woodside Highlands vigorously opposed accepting the Cal Fire map out of concern that insurers would use it to justify rate increases or policy cancellations. Insurers have said in interviews that they don't rely on Cal Fire maps for such matters.

The Woodside Fire Protection District and the town itself did their own analyses of Portola Valley's vegetation, terrain and weather and prepared maps that show many more hazardous areas in this wooded community that sits against the wooded foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

For some months, the council has been discussing a town-wide initiative to increase fire safety. This set of building code amendments is meant to address findings by town staff, based on the town's hazard map.

Local weather, geology and topography "can and do create situations resulting in extremely uncontrollable and contagious fire situations leading to excessive harm and danger to life and property in the community," the report said.

Wildfire destroyed 78 homes so far this year in Santa Barbara, and firefighters were fighting a grass fire in Santa Clara County near Henry Coe State Park as Ms. Lambert spoke to the council. "It's time," she said, referring to the fire season. "We need to get on it."

"I would certainly encourage haste," Mayor Ann Wengert said.

This ordinance will make homes safer and is in every resident's interest, Councilman Richard Merk said, then added that it may be "a real hardship" for some, a point also made by resident Virginia Bacon.

Councilwoman Maryann Moise Derwin echoed the urgency. "We stuck our necks out and rejected Cal Fire," she said. "We've got to do this. We've got to walk this talk and accept Chapter 7A."

Getting to safe

The 50 percent thresholds in the new ordinance are crafted to hurry the town along toward the council's goal of increasing fire-safety as quickly as possible.

The town issued 71 building permits between March 2008 and March 2009, the report said. Three of the remodels/additions would have been classified as new buildings under the 75 percent threshold as compared to four under the 50-percent rule.

For the 59 smaller remodels in which only the new work would have been governed by the new code requirements, nine would have fallen under the 75-percent rule versus 12 for the new threshold, the report said.

The town currently has building permits in process for 10 new homes and nine remodels, Ms. Lambert said.