Annual Vegetation Reduction Abatement Program

It is important to create a defensible space around your property.  The North County Fire Authority conducts an annual Vegetation Reduction Abatement Program identifying combustible or flammable brush, grass, or other dangerous growth and/or debris on properties throughout the City of Brisbane. The goal is to clear properties by June 1, 2021 thus avoiding abatement notices and penalties.  The City of Brisbane will also be conducting weed abatement on city-owned properties in late May.

Notices were mailed the first week of May from NCFA's Fire Prevention Services Division (see file attachment below).

At the April 15, 2021 Brisbane City Council meeting, Urgency Ordinance No. 661 was unanimously passed, concerning the removal of invasive species, waste material and combustible vegetation, and requiring fire breaks, aka crosscuts, on unimproved properties. NCFA Deputy Fire Chief Biermann presented the staff report.  See this presentation for a quick overview: brisbaneca.org/firepreventioncodeupdate.

The main updates to the City's Fire Prevention Code involved:

• Increasing from a 30 ft. to a 100 ft. fire break around the perimeter of undeveloped properties
• Limbing trees within 100 ft. up to 6 ft., and removing dead trees and those under 6 ft.
• Requiring 100 ft. crosscut breaks so that no parcel is greater than 3 acres without being crosscut
• Cutting dead or dying grass to within 4" of the ground; cutting brush to several inches of the surface
• Maintaining vines such as blackberry vines so that they do not provide a means of transmitting fire rapidly from nearby trees or other vegetation, pruning them periodically, and ensuring they are not dead or dying

If you have any questions about this, or the urgency ordinance that was recently adopted, please reach out to Clyde Preston, NCFA Safety Inspector, at (650) 991-5741.

See below for a short video on the difference having a defensible space can do for your home: