Sonoma County was directly impacted by wildfires in 2017, 2019, and 2020, in addition to experiencing significant stress and decreased air quality due to smoke from nearby wildfires in 2018. Further, County residents have experienced multi-day de-energizations through PG&E’s Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) in an effort to prevent wildfires from sparking in high-hazard conditions.

While the threat of wildfires is impacting quality of life and energy grid reliability, the County and its nine cities are striving to meet state and local climate mitigation goals. RCPA invited the ULI Panel as part of its efforts to create a comprehensive strategy to plan, fund, and implement effective responses to these increased risks.

Questions for the Panel

• What land use and development strategies and policies can Sonoma County use to equitably address current wildfire risks and set the foundation to meet the predicted increased lengths of fire season and power shut offs
• How can Sonoma County increase the resilience and reliability of its energy supply as it transitions from fossil fuels to renewable electricity and prepares for the impact of extreme
  winds, heat, power shut offs, and wildfires?
• How can we ensure that land use, development, and infrastructure investment decisions are transparent and support equity? What examples of other communities’ engagement, coordination, and decision-making can we learn from and apply?
• Recognizing that energy and wildfire risks often span jurisdictional and organizational
  boundaries, what best practices in governance and funding can Sonoma County implement to ensure a coordinated, effective response to these risks? How can the Sonoma County General Plan support this effort in tandem with updates to the individual General Plans of the County’s incorporated cities, specifically the City of Santa Rosa?
• What can we do now and in the next few years to a) establish new and sustainable revenue sources to dedicate to this grid and wildfire resilience work and b) leverage new revenue sources for maximum impact?

Selected Key Recommendations

The ULI panel delivered recommendations in the areas of land use and development for wildfire resilience; housing access; energy and economic resilience; and equitable governance and partnerships. For a full list of key recommendations, please see the panel’s presentation of recommendations via the above link.

• Build out a coordinated plan for blended source of and use of funds as “One Sonoma”
• Expand support for new development through promotion of minimum county-wide wildfire resilience standards for housing
• Support existing development through increased investment in home hardening programs
• Establish wildfire buffer zones and protective corridors
• Share data regionally, especially for the General Plan. Hire one firm to do a regional analysis with community drilldowns
• Prioritize infill development and explore context-sensitive infill typologies (including, 5 over 1s, duplexes, fourplexes, bungalows, cottages)
• Explore a housing bond to increase housing access and potentially support home hardening
• Commit to transitioning energy infrastructure, rather than replacing in-kind
• Incorporate, communicate, and expand existing energy and resilience programs regionally
• Identify equitable regional wildfire prioritization metrics
• Establish mutual aid agreements and interlocal agreements, including pre-positioning contracts, for wildfire response and recovery
• Take a “whole resilience” approach to assessing the costs/benefits of investing in resilience