Today at 9:31 am, the State Board of Forestry announced their proposed rulemaking being published in the California Regulatory Notice Register, officially signaling the commencement of the public comment period, beginning today, and closing on June 22, 2021, at a public hearing scheduled on that date.
35 minutes later, the BOF issued a Notice of Proposed Emergency Action for the rulemaking, which truncated the public comment period to close on May 5, 2021, well in advance of the public hearing.
We want to make sure that all are aware that the State Board of Forestry must – by close of business on May 5, not June 22 – receive any public comment on this proposed rulemaking change to the State Minimum Fire Safe Regulations, which we have discussed and earnestly believe will in turn affect our local ordinances in many facets having to do with road design and the legal issuance of entitlements for construction and land development, and could potentially place a complete moratorium on residential and commercial development in the foothill region for the foreseeable future, as well as have unknown adverse effects on the local economies of any community located in the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones of our state.
You can view the 45-day Notice, Initial Statement of Reasons, and Rule Plead at the Board’s Proposed Rule Packages webpage.
Email your comments, or comments as attachments to emails (preferred) to PublicComments@bof.ca.gov.
We are attaching the final rulemaking text, as well as the Notice of Emergency Action to this email for your reference. We believe our County point people on this issue are Dore Bietz and Liz Peterson. Now is the time to network with any concerned associates in the public and private sectors of our communities, and make our concerns known.
Click links below to open supporting documentation (PDF format):