I’m sure the Santa Monica Mountains breathed a collective sigh of relief upon hearing about the imminent passage of the Ridgeline Ordinance. A brief respite from the thundering bulldozers is a welcome sound. Take, for instance, Monte Nido Estates near Las Virgenes-22 tract homes designed to put more money into a rapist/developer’s pocket without the slightest concern for the environment. Are they nonflammable structures landscaped with only native plants and thoughtfully placed on the lots to create minimal invasion into the chaparral? Watch those greedy hands lay waste to a once pristine area. So Zev Yaroslavsky’s Ridgeline Ordinance has loosely fettered one fat leg of the giant known as progress.
But there is a much tougher challenge ahead. The Fire Department, along with the Department of “De-Forestry” and our weed abatement friends (who consider sage a weed) are responsible for as much, if not more, habitat destruction than the rapist/developers. They rely heavily on Bush science: That is, work backwards from your desired result to justify your motives. If people are dim-witted and gullible they will believe it and it becomes a theory. The desired result is to make the Fire Department’s job easier. Wouldn’t it be easier to turn the mountains into a giant landfill, than pave them over? Chief Jordan and Coldwell Banker would like that, and we’d certainly be safe from mountain lions. But the chaparral is not the enemy. Fuel modification plans need to give way to more thoughtful construction using the myriad of foam and block nonflammable materials.
We are fortunate in having built our house before these new regulations came into effect. But would someone today be able to get an exemption from required fuel modification and 20-foot wide gaping drives by addressing the fire hazards by more intelligent methods and thereby perhaps lessen the horrific impart of new construction? The answer comes from more a king than a chief-Chief Jordan, and that answer is “no.” He only must answer to his prostrating, obsequious subjects, also known as the City Council. They barely deign to look him in the eye, much less question his despicable environmental record. Unchecked and uncontrolled, he need only mention the magic words,” it’s for public safety,” to generate obeisance.
The 1993 fire created an ugly pendulum swing from laissez-faire or common sense to a dictatorial doctrine. Anyone who would currently build a wood-frame stucco house in chaparral has no common sense. Thusly, he was appointed to give the masses common sense but he has overstepped his bounds. If we can fetter both ugly legs of this monster known as progress, there may well be a chance to save what little we have left. And don’t forget to plant local natives!
J. H. Wilson