As the recent catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles County have demonstrated, the risk of wildfires continues to threaten lives and property. An effective wildfire prevention program requires regional cooperation between adjoining public entities and a dedicated source of funding. As communities continue to engage in this work, we offer three funding models that have been used.
Joint Powers Agency funded by Parcel Taxes
After the devastating wildfires in the North Bay in October of 2017, Marin County jurisdictions realized that existing fire budgets were inadequate for necessary wildfire prevention efforts and that no single agency existed for coordinating wildfire prevention efforts across jurisdictional boundaries. The County and most of the cities and fire districts within Marin County formed the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority through a joint powers agreement to engage in county-wide fire prevention activities.
To join the Authority as a member agency, the local agencies were required to place a ten-year parcel tax measure on the ballot. The tax measures passed in March 2020 with about 70 percent of the voters approving the measures. A parcel tax is a non-ad valorem tax imposed as an incident of property ownership and collected on the annual property tax bill. The tax is charged on a parcel of property based on either a flat per parcel rate or a variable rate depending on the property size, use or number of units on the parcel.
The Marin County tax levied a parcel tax of up to ten cents per building square foot or $75 per multifamily unit for 10 years), providing approximately $19,300,000 annually, with annual inflation adjustments.
The funding is restricted to use for fire protection and prevention services focused on five goals: vegetation management (fuels reduction) and local wildfire prevention mitigation; wildfire detection, alert and evacuation; grants; public education; and defensible space and home-hardening efforts. The Authority has developed a strategic plan with goals and strategic measures. [1]
Wildfire Prevention Assessment District
In 2004, the City of Santa Barbara Fire Department drafted and adopted its first Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). The CWPP delineated the City’s high fire hazard areas and included policies to reduce wildfire hazards. To implement and fund the recommendations in the CWPP, in 2006 the City created its Wildland Fire Suppression Assessment District. The District boundaries included certain high-fire hazard areas within the City of Santa Barbara.
An assessment district imposes assessments (charges) for a special benefit conferred on real property to finance a benefit or improvement. Typically, assessments have been used for street improvement, sewer connection, lighting improvement, flood control and other types of improvements. The local agency is required to give notice of the proposed assessment, hold a hearing before levying the assessments, and hold an election.[2]
Understanding that voter approval was necessary to create the district, the City decided to focus on homeowner education and outreach and implementation of community-oriented fuel reductions activities. These activities include vegetation road clearance, defensible space assistance, and strategic vegetation management practices to reduce wildfire risk. The City also decided not to include enforcement activities as part of the District’s functions to reduce concerns about additional fines being imposed on property owners by the district. The assessment district was approved by a narrow majority vote (51% to 49%). City Council approval is required annually.
The District utilizes a full-time Fuel Services Specialist to work with homeowners and the Fire Department. The Fuel Services Specialist also provides annual reports to the City Council about the district’s efforts and successes. A 2016 study by graduate students at University of California, Santa Barbara, found that the fuel management completed within the Santa Barbara’s assessment district is, based on their models, successfully reducing fire intensity (including flame length and rate of spread) under normal and extreme wind conditions (60mph). Their model found that the fire risk was reduced between 60% and 80% when they compared pre- and post-treatment fuel loads.
A recent report from the district notes that creating metrics and tracking programs that demonstrate the success of the district and how funds are successfully being used to reduce wildfire threats are critical to continued support of the district by the public and the City Council.[3]
Tax-Increment Funding in Climate Resilience Districts
In 2009, Sonoma County and its nine incorporated cities formed the Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Authority to coordinate climate protection activities county wide. The authority had three principal areas of focus: decarbonization, carbon sequestration, and resilience.[4]
To enable local jurisdictions to raise funding for climate protection activities, in 2022, the Legislature enacted the Climate Resilience Districts Act, which designated.[5] The purpose of the Act is to create districts to address climate change effects and impacts by providing a sustained and certain level of funding at the local level, allowing action on an appropriate geographic basis, and to facilitate the use of federal, state, local, and private funds.[6] The Act designated Sonoma County’s existing Climate Protection Authority as a Climate Resilience District.
The Act permits cities, counties, and special districts to form a Climate Resilience District to raise and allocate funding for “eligible projects” and the operating expenses of those projects.[7] Among other projects, a project that addresses the risk of wildfire, including establishing fire breaks, prescribed burning, structure hardening, or vegetation control is a project eligible for funding.[8]
Climate Resilience Districts may raise funding for fire protection in several ways. First, the districts have the same powers as a public financing authority, to use property tax increment revenues to fund projects. The districts can also levy voter-approved supplemental property taxes, property benefit assessments and fees.
As communities focus more directly on fire-prevention efforts, there are new means to act in cooperation with neighboring agencies and to raise necessary funding.
Resources
[1] Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, Strategic Plan (May 2023), available at: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6107823cbe8db485b50aa8f8/648ba040f6c027c39bb9f607_MWPA%20Strategic%20Plan_06-8-2023.pdf
[2] The procedures for creating an assessment district including the voting procedures are set forth in Cal. Const., art. XIII D, § 4 and the Proposition 218 Omnibus Implementation Act (Government Code sections 53750 et seq.)
[3] Wildland Fire Suppression Assessment District, City of Santa Barbara (August 2022) at https://www.lci.ca.gov/docs/20220817-Santa_Barbara_Case_Study.pdf
[4] Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Authority website at: https://rcpa.ca.gov/about-rcpa/
[5] Government Code section 62300.
[6] Government Code section 62301.
[7] Government Code section 62303.
[8] Government Code section 62302(b)(1)(D).