Pursuing a high level of protection against fire dangers outweighed potential financial costs to residents as the Portola Valley Town Council Wednesday night adopted a significantly revised fire code.

With the fire season ongoing and the Maui wildfire disaster still resonating, the five council members unanimously approved a local ordinance crafted by the Woodside Fire Protection District that’s stricter than what the state requires at the Sept. 13 meeting. They turned down calls from the town Wildfire Preparedness Committee (WPC) and others to hold off on ratification until further work is done and additional community input is received.

In a related emergency-preparedness matter, the council also received an update on a draft evacuation plan that another town committee has been working on for more than a year.

“I think adopting safety ordinances is going to be really critical,” Council member Judith Hasko said before she and her council colleagues took action on the fire-code revision. “I can't in good conscience vote to hold something up because (some people) don't like specific language.”

But Hasko and the rest of the council did want to see improved collaboration and communication between the fire district and WPC.

“I would ask you to try and work out a process with the WPC that's more productive,” Hasko told fire officials in attendance.

Improving that process would serve in educating the community about the updated ordinance, the council said.

“I'm definitely happy to support this,” Vice Mayor Sarah Wernikoff said of the ordinance. “I think what I'm focused on is what are the opportunities for improvement in terms of the process. I feel like we've definitely had hiccups.”

A key objective “is to try to get people to understand what's needed to be done and why it's important for community safety,” Council member Craig Taylor said, “and I think most residents are going to follow through with that.”

The revised ordinance is “a work-in-progress, (but) I'm comfortable with it,” Mayor Jeff Aalfs said.

The new ordinance incorporates changes and additions that make it more stringent than state standards, responding to climactic, geological and topographical conditions distinct to the local area.

The fire district serves Portola Valley, Woodside and surrounding unincorporated areas, including Emerald Hills, Ladera and Los Trancos Woods.

Certain existing structures that undergo a large enough renovation will have to conform to the same fire-safety requirements as those for a new building. This is “necessary for the Woodside Fire Protection District to provide a reasonable degree of fire and life safety for the community and firefighters,” the agency said.

Another new wrinkle is requiring a construction permit that involves a landscape plan, which should detail plants put in a project, grade changes, screening elements and other information useful for a fire crew to know in battling a blaze at a development.

The update also added a section that requires a building to install a full sprinkler system -- not a partial one. The fire district pointed out that if a blaze starts in a portion of a building where there are no sprinklers, the heat can overcome the section with them.

Before the council made its decision, it took several public comments for and against approving the revise.

WPC Chairperson Jennifer Hammer strongly objected to it.

“There are potentially significant financial and regulatory burdens for the residents of Portola Valley,” Hammer said. “I know we're all thinking about the terrible fires in Maui. There is a desire to act quickly to keep Portola Valley safe, but this fire code is going to impact residents for many years.”

Hammer and others also contended that additional open discussions should have been held with the fire district.

“It just seems like a lot of changes are happening very quickly without a process that allows for residents to have their questions answered and their feedback heard,” Hammer said.

“It's very important that the public be deeply involved and then educated about what our fire hazards and risks are in this community,” resident Rusty Day added.

“We want clarity here,” resident Caroline Vertongen said. “Just ratifying or just adopting this is not right.”

Although she doesn’t want to see costs go up, resident Karen Askey said, the revamped ordinance is “worth the money” if lives are saved.

Dale Pfau said he understands the criticism coming from some of his fellow residents. “Let's be serious about the issues," he said. "This is a step forward in trying to help us mitigate what we can with the fire danger that we have (and) is only going to get worse in future years.”

Pfau added, “Much of this new code is really just bringing us up to par with the other municipalities in the county.”

Fire officials said the work on the ordinance sought to bolster the ability to safeguard residents, their property and the environment.

They also said the fire district is willing to hold community outreach sessions for residents to ask questions and learn about what changed in the fire code.

Evacuation planning moves forward

In other news from the Sept. 13 meeting, the council was updated on the evacuation plan being worked on by the town Emergency Preparedness Committee.

The plan contains a wide range of information that details levels of danger from slow-developing emergencies to imminent risk, how residents can prepare for an evacuation, communications before and during an event, traffic control, responsibilities of various agencies and other elements.

It also incorporates evacuation routes and scenarios developed in a traffic study released a year ago.

The council debated whether or not to formalize and officially adopt the plan but stopped short of doing so. For now, members decided merely to acknowledge the plan as a work-in-progress guide available on the town website for the public to peruse.

“Everybody who looks at it will learn something about where their risk is, which should be front and center on our website as our current working document,” Council member Mary Hufty said, “and we should be proud of the work that everybody finally did to get this together.”

“I think this is all going in the right direction,” Taylor said.

Mayor Aalfs told his fellow council members that the plan will need further refinement in collaboration with stakeholders, including the fire district, San Mateo County Department of Emergency Management and the county Sheriff’s Office.

The mayor said the ongoing work looks to improve the town’s preparations and coordination with other agencies in the event of a mass evacuation. It will also raise public awareness of the steps and resources that residents need to be ready for such an event, he said.

Day said he hoped the town continues to work on the document, telling the council not to regard it as a plan yet.

“We need a lot more,” Day said. “This is just the beginning. To have a plan, you have to anticipate what is going to happen in a real wildfire.”

When a catastrophe leaves residents “completely confused, in the dark with no communications, what are we going to do?” he added. To have a practical strategy for such a scenario, “that’s a plan.”