With resignation, Mission Viejo approves state fire map that shows hazard zones

After residents expressed concerns about the potential impact on fire insurance rates, a resigned Mission Viejo City Council moved forward with the adoption of an updated state map that identifies homes in “very high” or “high” wildfire hazard zones.

Mission Viejo received the map from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, on March 24 and posted it on its website so residents could review the risk designations. The city hosted a workshop and a property insurance town hall in the lead-up to Tuesday’s meeting.

Residents frustrated by skyrocketing fire insurance rates — when not losing coverage altogether — viewed the map with skepticism, especially a very high wildfire hazard area around Wilderness Glen, unofficially dubbed the “volcano” or the “bullseye.”

“I’m a retired firefighter and I looked at this plan when they started implementing it a couple years ago and that ‘volcano’ was not there,” said Kenny Dossey, who lives in the very high hazard zone. “All of a sudden, now it appears. For those of us that understand fire, we know that’s bogus.”

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Dossey’s comments echoed the frustrations of residents who found the map a top-down gift to insurance companies in the wake of the Eaton and Palisades fires.

Councilmembers acknowledged frustrations expressed by residents while at the same time relaying information provided by representatives during the May 19 property insurance town hall.

“The maps that the insurance companies use are not those [Cal Fire] maps,” said Councilmember Wendy Bucknam. “They actually utilize other maps. Will these [Cal Fire] maps have an effect on that? I don’t know. I can just share with you what was stated by the experts at the town hall.”

Bucknam also noted that fire insurance rates increased before formal adoption of the map.

Located in the Saddleback Valley, Mission Viejo is one of 16 Orange County cities with very high wildfire hazard areas. Adoption of the Cal Fire map is mandatory and cities do not have the authority to change the risk designations, though they can offer feedback to scale an area’s hazards upward.

“The Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps are vital for wildfire resistance in California and Mission Viejo,” said Cliff Jones, the city’s planning manager. “They support local and state fire planning and response and help protect lives, property and infrastructure.”

Councilmember Trish Kelley, who noted that her own fire insurance doubled, wanted to know if mitigation efforts in Wilderness Glen — part of a $2 million Cal Fire grant awarded to Mission Viejo — could change the area’s risk designation before maps are updated again in five years.

“No,” Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Cheyne Maule said. “The work that’s being done mitigates the risk … but the maps are to be adopted as they are today until the next time they draw them up.”

Kelley asked why the Wilderness Glen area evolved into a very high fire hazard zone from the previous map.

“The science and the modeling has changed, and that’s what, essentially, produced the maps,” Maule said.

Mayor Bob Ruesch said the California Department of Insurance is willing to look at residents who “harden” their homes through brush and vegetation removal and sealing their attics.

“That alone is probably the most significant thing that you can do to save your home, to lower the rates,” he said. “I want, in the event that we do have a fire, your home [to be] the one you come back to. That’s not to mitigate what we need to do as a city. We need to do a better job.”

Last summer, city officials observed brush-clearing goats at work at a Rancho Santa Margarita Water District site. San Clemente and Laguna Beach deploy goats to their dried out hillsides too.

“Goats are coming to Mission Viejo,” said Jerry Hill, assistant city manager, to applause from the chamber.

Before welcoming a herd, councilmembers voted 5-0 to give initial approval of the Cal Fire map with decidedly less enthusiasm.

“That passes, unfortunately, unanimously,” Ruesch said.