local Letters to the editor

Submitted to the TO Acorn - June 29, 2025 - Published July 4th

Do you own a home in a High or Very High Fire Severity Zone? If the answer is YES or I Don’t Know, I urge you to act now. Search the subject – fire hazard severity zones – and follow the link to the CAL FIRE website. Scroll down the page to the - Explore Fire Hazard Severity Zones – and enter your address. Red is very high, Orange is high, and Ventura County elected to include both colors in the soon-to-be-adopted mitigation requirements.

I support efforts to improve the odds that Conejo Valley doesn’t become the next Altadena, burned to the ground in an 80 mile-an-hour Santa Ana brushfire. There should be fire risk mitigation requirements for homes in vulnerable neighborhoods, but I am concerned that the current draft is low on science, high on one-size-fits-all and heavily influenced by the insurance industry. If you are in a Red or Orange map area, your opportunity to learn more and share concerns about the zone 0 fire risk mitigation requirements is NOW.

If the final zone 0 requirements lean toward non-combustible rather than ember resistant, virtually all plants – flowers, bushes, and small trees – will need to be removed from the 5-foot zone. Removal will likely include potted plants, wood fencing and gates, BBQ grills, boats and RVs, and trash cans.  Air-conditioner units and heat-pumps might also need to be relocated. Homes will be subject to yearly inspection and home sales will not take place without informing the buyer of the hazard zone requirements and bringing the property into full compliance.

I created a website - zone0conejovalley.com – and started a public Facebook group (I know Meta) called - Zone Zero - Very High Fire Severity Zone - Conejo Valley - so we could share information that is sorely lacking from public agencies in our area. If you are interested in common sense, science-based mitigation requirements that will allow us to keep high moisture, irrigated landscaping in zone 0, come join us. We are already 137 strong.

Betsy Connolly

Submitted to the TO Acorn - June 28, 2025 - Published July 4th

I am writing to express my deep concern about the Very High Fire Severity Zone (VHFSZ) plans. If you have not heard of these and are a local resident, please keep reading. To find out what zone (created by the Office of State Fire Marshal) you live in, visit www.osfm.fire.ca.gov/FHSZ . 

Mandates adopted at the end of 2025 will require the removal of all landscaping within a 5-foot perimeter of homes. These are set to take effect on January 1, 2026. 

I accept that change and compromise must happen to prevent fires. However, the proposed requirements have not been tailored for our suburban town, where homes are close together and landscaping is different from other parts of California.

In 2015, my family paid to remove our front lawn and re-landscape with native plants that need less water than others. Like many residents, we received a Metropolitan Water District Rebate of more than $2,000 from the SoCal Water Smart Program. Requiring us to rip out plants that local government helped pay for is fiscally irresponsible and lacking in governmental strategic planning.

Moreover, the environmental impact will be massive and irreversible. Many residents in the VHFSZ have very small yards; ripping out vegetation will transform lush Thousand Oaks into a concrete hellscape. It will wipe out our wildlife population and prevent absorption of precious rainfall.

I urge everyone reading this to attend the Wildfire Preparedness Workshop on July 20 at 5:30 p.m. The location: the Rancho Santa Susana Community Center’s Multipurpose Room B, located at 5005 East Los Angeles Ave in Simi Valley.

If there are scientific data supporting the proposal, I expect that it will be shared at the July 10 meeting so that the affected community (which is massive) can review it.

I urge the committee focused on these zones to invest time into creating a plan that will work for Thousand Oaks. Insisting that property owners adhere to a “one-size-fits-all” tactic will be disastrous for our town… and serves only insurance agencies by giving them ammunition to drop the clients from whom they are no longer profiting. 

Shannon Diffner