February’s council agenda focused on further developing the projects identified in our January Strategic Planning Session, including the following major activities:
- We held a first annual Firewise meeting for three of our homeowners Associations in Oak Park: Canyon Cove, Country Glen and Country Meadows. At this session we overviewed the next steps with Firewise and shared with attendees how to enter their volunteer hours. The next step is for all three of these HOAs to submit their applications, including the hours/dollars spent in 2023 and documentation of their annual event (the February meeting). We had good attendance from all 3 HOA’s.
- Two board members demonstrated an interactive map from the Center for Geospatial Science and Technology (CGST) that we will share with the entire board at the next meeting. We will also discuss a second proposal from CGST regarding HOA identification, and updates on parcel assessment and Firewise Community updates.
- We discussed guidelines with Rancho Simi Park and Rec (RSRPD) for a proposed community Fire Resilient Garden. This would be on RSRPD property that is currently occupied by the Triunfo Water District. Both RSRPD and the water district support this project.
- We are working with PMF Consulting Group to develop a social media advertising campaign for the remainder of the year. Our goal is to advance the number of assessments, Firewise Communities and volunteers involved in our group.
- After weeks of work, we are finishing a grant proposal to the California Fire Foundation that will be submitted before March 15.
The grant goal is to increase the level of structural hardening and defensible space mitigation for individual homeowners in Oak Park. We plan to utilize a portion of the grant to fund social and print media advertising, encouraging more home wildfire assessments. Another portion of the grant would be divided into small individual sub-grants ($1,000) to fund post-assessment improvements as an enticement for homeowners, particularly among residents over 65 years of age, who account for approximately 16 percent of our population. We can leverage our advertising media buys and our current Firewise communities (three so far) to generate interest. Although this project will fund the post-assessment improvements for only a small number of homes (approximately nine), it should generate interest and excitement and position us for additional grants to help subsidize additional post-assessment improvements in the future.
