After homeowners received letters assessing their property’s fire risk, questions remain about the next steps in building fire resilience.
A new wildfire risk map has drawn questions from Oregon homeowners, reports Tiffany Olin for KTVL. Olin writes, “people across Southern Oregon have received letters in the mail from the Department of Forestry classifying their property as high or extreme risk and within the wildland-urban interface.” But the letters have raised questions since they don’t indicate how homeowners should respond. Derek Gasperini, Public Affairs Officer for Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF), said for now, homeowners just need to be aware of the risk to their home.
According to the article, “The Oregon State Fire Marshal will be passing defensible space codes and other regulations by December of this year that are expected to go into effect by April of 2023.” Gasperini said grants will be available to help homeowners pay for defensible space upgrades, which will be required as part of Senate Bill 762, “passed as a response to the 2020 Labor Day fires across the state.”
Planetizen recently covered a proposal to build a community-wide fire perimeter in Paradise, California. The proposal is in part an acknowledgement that fire protection measures can be expensive or impractical for renters, mobile home owners, and other residents in diverse housing types.
FULL STORY: Oregon's new wildfire risk map sparks questions among Southern Oregonians
Can We Know Which Homes in California Will Burn?
As the state's worst wildfire season ever refuses to end, an analyst from UCLA considers how land use and building codes determine the location and extent of the damage.
How the West Got Bigger, Badder Fires
Two new books chronicle the origin of U.S. policy on wildfire, the damage that policy has done, and why it’s unlikely to change any time soon.
How To Protect an Entire Town From Wildfire
In the wake of the destructive Camp Fire, a proposal to encircle the town of Paradise with a green belt could help keep future fires at bay and better protect vulnerable residents.
Keanu Reeves Set to Play Daniel Burnham in ‘The Devil in the White City’
Planning is going to get a new level of star power as a limited series adaptation of The Devil in the White City gets ready for television screens in 2024.
Marrying Urban Identity and Economic Prosperity
A new book posits that truly successful communities have a strong economic base and a firmly rooted sense of place.
Surveying the Rising Trend of Office-to-Residential Conversions
With office vacancies climbing and a stubborn supply crunch driving up the cost of housing, some downtowns have emerged at the forefront of a new wave of adaptive reuse.
$2.2 Billion in RAISE Grant Funding Announced for Transportation Projects
The Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) competitive grant program, supersized by the federal infrastructure bill in 2021, just announced a new round of funding.
Colorado Workers Squeezed by Housing Crisis
In Colorado’s booming resort towns, even sleeping in your car has become an unaffordable luxury.
Did L.A.’s Supportive Housing Bond Fail?
Six years after Prop HHH was passed, the fund appears to be delivering on its housing construction goals in the 10-year timeline. But the measure is being routinely criticized on all sides.
City of Mt Shasta
McKenna
Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
Cohousing Association of the US
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Rail~Volution
Sun City Center Community Association, Inc
City of Mesa
Town of Gilbert, Arizona
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Hand Drawing Master Plans
This course aims to provide an introduction into Urban Design Sketching focused on how to hand draw master plans using a mix of colored markers.
