Rancho Heights Road landowners meet with CalFire staff

A handful of Rancho Heights Road property owners met with staff from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection at CalFire’s Monte Vista station August 25.

The meeting included Rancho Heights Road landowners Phil Bulfinch and Paul Rieker with property owner Ronald Barbanell joining the meeting by teleconference. The CalFire staff consisted of Giny Chandler, Kathleen Edwards, Jim Garrett, Dale Hutchison, Mike Martin, Dottie Shaw and Howard Windsor. Tom Rodgers, who is on the staff of State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth, attended the tail end of the meeting in Rancho San Diego.

Martin, a region chief, requested the meeting in response to issues raised by Bulfinch and Rieker. Because Rancho Heights Road was built prior to current county road standards, CalFire believes that the county has the responsibility for fire hazard mitigation.

“We understand their concerns, but we don’t have the authority or responsibility to determine what is a local land use decision,” said Edwards, who is a unit forester with CalFire. “Our interest is in just trying to facilitate. We certainly will try to help facilitate the transfer of information.”

Rancho Heights Road is a private road and is not county-maintained. Bulfinch and Rieker both hope to develop their parcels but have learned that emergency access has been an obstacle.

“CalFire doesn’t have the authority or the responsibility of determining what roads are public or private ones. That is the county’s role,” Edwards said. “The designation of that road is out of our scope. It is a land use issue.”

Edwards noted that CalFire desires to investigate additional information, although recent fire activity has limited CalFire staff’s ability to research those issues.

“We’re still trying to follow up on some other information,” she said.

To comment on this story online, visit http://www.thevillagenews.com.