Council given presentation on proposed changes to fire hazard zones
Updates from Jan. 31 city council meeting
– The Paso Robles City Council met Tuesday and received a presentation on proposed state changes to Fire Hazard Severity Zones (FHSZ) that will likely result in increased property insurance costs for certain property owners within the city if the new map is adopted. The council also approved a resolution that allows the city to participate in a regional study regarding desalination, and received a presentation regarding federal assistance that is available to property owners within the city that experienced damages due to the recent storm events, among other items.
Highlights from the meeting, as sent by the city, are as follows. The recording is available at www.prcity.com/youtube.
Council did the following:
- Read a proclamation in honor of Winifred Pifer Great Kindness Challenge
- Read a proclamation in honor of AARP Andrus Award Recipient
- Received a presentation from the Small Business Administration regarding federal assistance that is available to property owners within the city that experienced damages due to the recent storm events.
- Received a presentation from Paso Robles Fire Chief Jonathan Stornetta (Available on the city’s YouTube) regarding proposed state changes to Fire Hazard Severity Zones (FHSZ) that will likely result in increased property insurance costs for certain property owners within the city if the new map is adopted. As part of the state’s consideration of the new map, Cal Fire is accepting public comment on the proposed map between now and April 4, 2023. The public may submit written comment at the address below or through email at FHSZcomments@fire.ca.gov.
Written comments may be submitted by U.S. mail to the following address:
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
Office of the State Fire Marshal
C/O: Scott Witt
California Natural Resources Building
715 P Street, 9th floor
Sacramento, CA 95818
To determine the FHSZ of a property, the public can search an address using a new FHSZ Viewer at osfm.fire.ca.gov/FHSZ.
- Approved a resolution that allows the city to participate in a regional study regarding desalination. It is unlikely that a regional desalination project could cost-effectively provide desalinated water directly to Paso Robles due to the city’s distance from the coast. However, future use of desalination by other water suppliers in the county could reduce demand for shared water supplies like surface water from the Nacimiento Water Project, which could provide indirect benefits to the city’s water supplies and long-term reliability. The study does not require any financial commitment from the city.
- Tabled a discussion regarding the implementation of certain changes to the Downtown On-street Parking Program to the Feb. 21, 2023, city council meeting. The changes that were being considered included acquiring a new mobile app to conduct paid parking transactions, finalizing a resident parking program, and updating the downtown business parking validation program. Until the city council considers the additional updates to the parking program at future meetings, the city council’s decision on Dec. 20, 2022, remains effective. That decision raised parking rates to $2 per hour and eliminated the two hours of free parking. However, based on the council’s deadlock Tuesday night, the city is unable to renew its contracts with parking management partners that support parking kiosks and mobile parking applications. The city will continue to operate as normal until the vendors discontinue access to parking management systems.
This is a subset of the items approved on Jan. 31, the complete agenda and YouTube recording can be found here.
The regular council meeting scheduled for Feb. 7 has been canceled. The next regular council meeting is on Tuesday, Feb. 21, at 6:30 p.m., in person and via live stream at www.prcity.com/youtube. Public comment can be made during the meeting in person or by calling 805-865-PASO (7276) or provided prior to the meeting by emailing cityclerk@prcity.com, after the agenda posts and prior to noon the day of the meeting.
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