The California Zone Zero fire safety rule for Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones (VHFHSZ),* as originally proposed, would have required homes and other buildings to create a defensible space by having no flammable materials within 5 feet. After opponents stalled the rule for years and against the advice of many fire safety scientists, the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection recently adopted a watered-down rule reducing the clear zone to only 1 foot with some pl

Recently I sprained my ankle stepping off stairs onto uneven ground. The doctor said I could run on the beach after two weeks but warned me against walking on variable surfaces like soft sand; if I rolled my ankle again, it would take even longer to heal. So Sunday morning I checked out one of the city's beach wheelchairs from Sandcastle Hotel to get to the ocean's edge. It did not go well. First there was a parking issue. The hotel has no beach access parking and the parking

Accessibility Cambridge Dictionary the fact of being able to be reached or obtained easily (of a building, etc.) the quality of being able to be entered and used by everyone, including people who use a wheelchair, people who are blind, etc. The City Lacks an ADA Transition Plan and Accessibility Planning Since 1992, the federal Americans with Disabilities Act in 28 C.F.R. § 35.150(d)(3) has required the city to have an ADA Transition Plan: The plan shall, at a minimum— (i)

I take seriously the role of mayor as advocate for everyone in Pismo Beach, and I'm running to make it a city that works for all of us. Today I withdrew as a standing witness in San Luis Obispo Coastkeeper v. County of San Luis Obispo, No. 2:24-cv-06854-SPG-AS (C.D. Cal. filed Aug. 2024) because continuing in that role might seem like a conflict of interest with the responsibilities of mayor, and even the perception of bias could hinder my ability to engage in important city

Nowhere is the city's reliance on hope and band-aids more apparent than in hazard planning. A prime example is its response to wildfire evacuation. Wildfire Evacuation from Pismo Heights For many years, there was only one way out of Pismo Heights: down Longview Avenue to Wadsworth Street. In 2022, a secondary evacuation route was formally documented in the Pismo Beach Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). This alternate route is a dirt road that winds through wildland to

At Tuesday's meeting, the city council received an update on Caltran's upcoming relinquishment of Highway 1 (a.k.a. Dolliver Street, Price Street and Pacific Coast Highway). This means that the state would turn over ownership of 2.15 miles of Highway 1 from Mattie Road to the Butterfly Grove to the city of Pismo Beach. The process began in 2017 and is nearing its final stages. What that means is that we will have local control of this main artery running through the heart of