Valley Center Fire Protection District spends $250,000 a year processing and doing inspections for the more than 1,400 burn permit requests it gets a year.
The burn permitting process has become a real problem for the district.
That’s according to a report released Thursday night to the Valley Center Fire Board by District Administrator John Byrne.
Valley Center is a unique area when it comes to burn permits. Because of its large area (85 square miles) and relatively low population compared to the area, the community processes more burn permits than any other community in San Diego County.
“We’re miles ahead of anyone else when it comes to burn permits,” Byrne told The Roadrunner.
The San Diego County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) has long required that an “Application for Authorizat-ion to Burn” be made in order to permit open burning on land within the County.
Each fire agency issues its own regulations regarding physical field inspection of the proposed burn area and the materials to be burned. A field inspection must be completed before a permit holder is given eligibility to burn. Once a permit holder’s proposed burn area has been inspected and eligibility to burn is granted, he is eligible to burn without further inspection for a two-year period.
A permit to burn is valid only on a day which is announced by the APCD about 8 a.m. each morning as being a “permissive burn day.” Otherwise it is a “no burn day.”
On a permissive burn day, an eligible permit holder must first contact the fire agency that issued the permit before commencing to burn. He/she is then allowed to burn that day until 3 p.m. by which time the fire must be extinguished and cold.
The APCD and Cal Fire have an informal understanding that Cal Fire is the agency designated to implement the burn permit processes and control burning.
CDF Station 1on Vesper Road has been the fire agency within the district that is charged with the responsibility to administer the burn permit process.
During the open burn season (usually December–May or June, Station 1 is manned by three fire personnel.
During the 2006 – 2007 calendar years’ burn seasons, the district processed more than 1940 applications.
“The volume of this activity significantly exceeded Station 1’s capability to adequately process it without the assistance of the district. Consequently, both district stations have participated in the process,” says Byrne’s report.
Residents process permits by going to any one of the three stations. They call the stations for information about permissive burn days. The field inspection load is shared, although not equally, by the three stations.
The stations give out daily permissions to burn and respond to unauthorized burns.
Stations 72 & 73 handled 55% of the Applications for Authorization to Burn. Since Station 1 and Station 73 are often on training missions or handling incidents and not available to process applications and handle phone traffic, the bulk of this work is shouldered by district administration.
Shortly after taking over as district administrator Byrne began devoting a lot of attention to the stations’ overhead and the stations began to coordinate the burn permitting process.
They began devising a common database for logging and tracking applications, timely disseminating permit information to all parties concerned including Cal Fire’s dispatch at Montevista, and by spreading the field inspection load.
“Work needs to be done to control the hours of operation devoted to the permit process, especially on weekend days,” writes Byrne.
But he says that the fact that the district is involved in the process at all is a problem.
It costs the district $500 per hour to deploy a fire engine.
“If it is assumed that TWO field inspections can be done per hour, the fire engine cost alone is nearly $260,000 so far this year. It also creates the prospect that response times will be elongated while station fire crews are on the road doing field inspections.”
Within the last two weeks, it was decided that, where possible, district and Cal Fire utility vehicles driven by a firefighter would perform field inspections.
“The problem with this approach,” Byrne told The Roadrunner is that "four on staffing” i.e. the goal of having four firefighters per engine company, is effectively reduced while that firefighter is assigned to inspections.
Residents don’t currently pay anything for burn permits, and during the discussion Thursday night directors seemed reluctant to get into that, although a recently adopted fee schedule would allow the district to charge $60 per permit.
Byrne said he plans to meet with the Director of the APCD seeking County reimbursement of the costs incurred.
Byrne concluded: “Another possibility, which is remotely probable, would be to seek compensation from Cal Fire for the District’s efforts in assisting Cal Fire to carry out its obligations to the APCD. The most extreme measure might be to forbid open burning altogether in the District. This is the approach that the City of Vista has taken.”
Board Pres. Mel Schuler pointed out that since the district asks that residents clean up landscaping to avoid a fire hazard, that it would be counterproductive to then forbid them to burn the refuse they have cleaned up.
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) this week closed its Disaster Recovery Centers.
This does not mean FEMA is going away. Its help is still just a phone call away. Anyone affected by the wildfires can still call their toll free helpline at 1-800-621-FEMA (3362).
Some of the disaster centers will move and most will re-open as SBA Disaster Loan Outreach Centers.
All disaster assistance centers have closed for the holidays. Centers that are scheduled to reopen will operate as Disaster Loan Outreach Centers (DLOC) run by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).
The following centers will reopen as DLOCs on Jan. 3, 2008, with the following Monday through Friday schedule:
Fallbrook Community Center (Disaster Recovery Center)
341 Heald Lane, Fallbrook, CA
(San Diego County)
Its hours will be 9 a.m.–6 p.m.
Ramona Community School (Disaster Recovery Center)
1710 Montecito Road, Ramona, CA
Its hours will be 9 a.m.–6 p.m.
The SBA is the federal government’s primary source of money for the long-term rebuilding of disaster-damaged private property. SBA helps homeowners and renters, businesses of all sizes, and private, nonprofit organizations fund repairs or rebuilding efforts, and covers the cost of replacing lost or disaster-damaged property.
These disaster loans cover losses not fully compensated by insurance or other recoveries and do not duplicate benefits of other agencies or organizations.
Businesses or individuals unable to visit the DLOC may obtain information by calling SBA’s toll-free number: 1-800-659-2955 (TTY 1-800-877-8339) or visit SBA at www.sba.gov/services/disasterassistance/
Lines are open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday–Saturday.
Those affected by the fires can also register online at www.fema.gov. The deadline to register with FEMA for federal and state aid is Jan. 9, 2008.
During the upcoming Christmas holiday period, the teleregistration line at 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or TTY 1-800-462-7585 will be closed from Sunday, Dec. 23 through Tuesday, Dec. 25. During the periods of operation, it will be available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Registering with FEMA starts the application process for federal and state assistance related to property losses directly caused by wildfires in Southern California. People who have registered with the American Red Cross or other helping agencies must also register with FEMA if they want access to federal and state aid.
VC planning group member Leon Schwartz wants the group to become more involved with zoning enforcement.
“We have done a lot with enforcement but I think it’s a really important thing to be concerned about. When there are things in the community that aren’t in accordance with the rules we should alert the County,” he commented at the group’s Dec. 10 meeting.
Planners have no authority over enforcement—actually they have no actual authority at all, just an advisory role—but the code enforcement division of the Dept. of Planning & Land Use does listen to them when they make complaints.
The Code Enforcement division operates almost entirely on complaints. It doesn’t have the staff or budget to make sweeps through unincorporated areas such as Valley Center, a community where one zoning enforcement officer once remarked that there are no legal signs in place.
Schwartz told his fellow planners: “I’ve been talking to a lot of people and I have driven around a lot. People are not following the rules and they are doing what they please.”
He singled out three instances:
1) a trailer or RV parked behind the barber shop on Valley Center Road that has a business operating out of it. “People who have been on this board have had RVs on their property that were removed or fines paid, so in the interests of equal enforcement my recommendation would be to report it to code enforcement,” said Schwartz.
2) a car dealership located in the old Olson Realty building. According to Schwartz, and to Design Review Chairman Lael Montgomery, when this business got approval it was for two to four vehicles to park along the road.
“The other day I counted twelve,” said Schwartz.
3) Where a nursery used to be (near the Old Valley Center Motel). Trailers, mobile homes or RVs are parked close to the road.
“I’ve been told everything from that it’s a staging area of vehicles to be moved to Rincon. I don’t know what’s taking place there but it’s definitely an eyesore,” said Schwartz.
Planner Deborah Hofler said that if the group gets into code enforcement that it should consider where its purview lies.
“Do we do commercial, or do we include residential? Do we do the entire one hundred square miles in our planning area? If we are to break out things for this area we need some pretty good guidelines.” She noted that all of the examples that Schwartz cited were along Valley Center Road.
The owner of the mobile homes in question happened to be in Monday night’s audience.
Kelly Hedges said that the homes are in transit to fire survivors.
“I build lots of houses up here and we opened a company called Hedges Metro. We have an inventory of twenty houses in Riverside. I was told that if that property was zoned correctly and I used it as a storage yard that I didn’t need additional permits,” said Hedges.
He said the site was not being used as a retail operation and that there is no sales office there.
“We’re not hiding anything. We have a very good reputation. If there’s anything we can do to appease anybody we are happy to do that. Those houses are in escrow to Indians who lost everything on the planet. I hope to call them unsightly doesn’t represent anyone’s heart.”
Schwartz said that it certainly looks like a retail operation since the houses all have sales signs on them.
Planning Chairman Keith Simpson said he wanted to form a subcommittee and put it on next month’s agenda before taking any action.
Schwartz said he wants a letter sent to zoning enforcement before the next meeting.
Simpson said he would draft a letter for specific action but that he wants the group to look at it before he sends it out.
Planning Vice Chairman Oliver Smith said he thought the group should focus its attentions on Valley Center Road. “We could nickel and dime or we could focus on the most obvious thing, and make code enforcement’s time worth their while.”
He suggested giving code enforcement a list that would take them half a day to inspect.
“We’re not demanding anything. We’re saying these look strange and there are questions about them. We are not experts at all. We don’t make the rules. But we will have done our civic duty.”
Gerad Rodriguez chief of the Rincon Tribal Fire Dept., was arrested on Monday for allegedly driving under the influence.
The chief was involved in an accident while he was driving the department’s command vehicle near Pala. His five children were in the SUV.
The car rolled but apparently no one was injured.
Rodriguez was arrested on suspicion of DUI and child endangerment.
He was was arraigned Wednesday.
He placed himself on administrative leave from his chief’s job, which he has held for about 18 months since the department was formed in 2006.
According to a spokesman for the Rincon Tribal council it will make a decision on Rodriguez’s status with the department at its January meeting.
Rodriguez is also a firefighter with the San Diego Fire Dept.
With the new year approaching comes the opportunity of one talented, intelligent, and well spoken young woman to become Miss Valley Center.
The 2008 Miss Valley Center Pageant will be held Saturday March 1 at the Maxine Theater.
Miss Valley Center serves as an ambassador of the community throughout the San Diego area, gains the admiration of fellow residents and has the opportunity to win over $3,500 in scholarships, cash, and prizes.
This will be the 41st year the unincorporated area of Valley Center will crown a queen.
Entries for the 2008 Pageant on March 1, 2008 are available from the high school, Mimi’s Nails, Video Playhouse, or call Debra Jockinsen, the Pageant Director. Get your entries in soon. You can mail your entries to the Valley Center Pageant Association, P.O. Box 2177, Valley Center, CA 92082-2177.
Deadline for entries is January 5 at noon.
Orientation will be on Jan. 5, also at noon, at Ann’s School of Dance. It is mandatory that each contestant attend.
Contestants must be 17 years of age and no older than 25 by May 1st, at least a Junior at an accredited high school, never married or pregnant and of high moral character.
The pageant includes opportunities for personal growth, scholarship funds, many prizes and experiences that last a lifetime. Brittany Byler, Miss VC 2007, has spent her reign attending many high profile community and charitable events throughout San Diego.
The Miss Valley Center Pageant is produced by the Valley Center Pageant Assn., a non-profit organization, committed to providing opportunities for the education and personal growth for young women in Valley Center. Donation of goods, services and education funds help improve the program. For more information, contact VCPA President, Debra Jockinsen at 751-1051.
First graders in Lilac School’s bilingual class put on a holiday program recently at the school. They gave speeches in English and Spanish and sang Christmas songs in both languages. They also did the Jarave Tapatio a traditional dance known to many as the Mexican Hat Dance.
Recent snows on Palomar Mountain have turned it into a winter playground.
The Valley Roadrunner
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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