BURBANK : Measure OKd to Replace Shingles
The Burbank City Council has unanimously approved a proposal to require property owners with wood-shingle roofs to replace them with less flammable roofing materials over the next 20 years.
Council members voted 5 to 0 Tuesday in favor of the ordinance, which targets re-roofing of structures built before May, 1982, when a law prohibiting wood shingles in all new construction went into effect.
The Burbank Fire Department proposed the measure in an effort to reduce the risk of fire posed by wood shingles that are considered highly flammable even when treated with fire retardant.
The new ordinance requires that homeowners must replace their entire roofs within the next 20 years and also bans the use of wood shingles as siding or exterior wall covering in any new construction, additions, garages or remodeling projects.
But homeowners will still be permitted to use wood shake to repair small portions of their existing wooden roofs.
The city Building Department estimates that 19% or 8,000 of the city’s buildings have wood-shingle roofs.
Homeowners who fail to follow the ordinance will be cited, but how the city will find violators is unknown, Burbank City Clerk Marge Lauerman said.
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