Agenda Item
4i) Discussion and Possible Action Including Direction to County Staff to Continue Work On Necessary Steps to Implement the County Service Area 3 Benefit Zone Pilot Program for the Sherwood Road Area, Determine Appropriate Mendocino County Policy as the Implementing "agency to effectively and efficiently deliver adequate, reliable, and sustainable services" - License vs Easement; Approve and Authorize Expenditure of any Surplus Funds in the Land Improvement Budget Unit 1910 for Contracting up to $105,000 and Acknowledge Land Improvement Budget Unit 1910 Has Expended $60,000 in Staff Effort to Date and Anticipates That an Additional $95,000 to $105,000 in Staff & Consultant Effort Might Be Required to Complete This Process for a Total Estimated, Past & Future Cost Of $165,000 (Sherwood Road Area)
(Sponsor: Transportation)
Dear Supervisors,
The Sherwood Corridor communities need emergency access routes and have worked with County staff, Cal Fire, Brooktrails and property owners along the existing routes over the past 3 years to develop functioning routes. As you are aware one of these routes was used for emergency access by fire crews during the Oak Incident allowing for the evacuation of the entire Sherwood corrior population using Sherwood Road. The Sheriff and fire officials have all agreed that this was the smoothest evacuation they had experienced and the use of the FIRCO emergency access route was a major reason why. Additional routes have been secured on the Willits Creek route and private segments of Ridge Road and another route connecting Highway 20 to the southern border of Brooktrails is in process. These routes are critical for life and property safety.
Sherwood Firewise Communities, with funding from Cal Fire, Community Foundation of Mendocino County and a public interest law firm, have provided detailed information to the County for the creation of a Zone of Benefit under the CSA3 authority. Property owners have asked the County to move forward with the creation of this Zone in order to fund the maintenance of emergency access routes. Professional engineers developed the required data to support the formation and agreed, along with Cal Fire and the County engineer, that the routes, while not meeting the County "road standards", were "sufficient" for emergency access purposes. Detailed information was developed to provide the required engineering and cost data for the Zone formation.
Last year all involved in the process agreed to put the proposal out for a vote by the property owners and much time was invested in developing the balloting process. At the last minute, LAFCO informed the County that there were some issues that they needed to resolve before the balloting process could proceed. Unfortunately, the details of LAFCO's objections remain unclear after more than a year of delay. One issue that has been discussed by County staff is whether the agreements with the route landowners, a revocable license is "sufficient" for the County's legal requirements.
Clearly the public safety will be negatively impacted if these emergency access routes are not maintained as that was the reason they were not considered viable for use during the 2018 fire season. Brooktrail Township and the County Ad Hoc committee on One Way In and Out Communities worked with Sherwood Firewise and Cal Fire to develop both a route standard and a legal agreement that are considered "sufficient" for the emergency access use. While the original developer and the County should have provided emergency access as part of the creation of the Sherwood communities, this was not done resulting in a dangerous situation during the increasing fire danger. The Sherwood communities have worked hard for several years to provide solutions including the creation of the Zone of Benefit to fund maintenance of the secured emergency access routes.
Thank you,
Doreen Blumenfeld