At a Town Council meeting on Tuesday evening, Keystone considered a measure that would make wildfire fuel hazards, like diseased or dead trees, considered public nuisances. The council unanimously approved the measure’s first reading, meaning it will be read and voted on once more by the council on Aug. 11 before officially becoming part of the town code.
If passed later this month, the town will be able to “enforce remediation on property owners” who don’t address wildfire hazards on their property, according to a summary of the measure. Hazards are considered public nuisances — and therefore eligible for enforcement — if they are within certain distances of infrastructure, including being within 30 feet of a home or within 10 feet of a power line.
“With the environment that we’re dealing with today, there is a number of properties that still have not removed some of their dead trees,” said Andrew Nelson, Keystone’s community development director. “I think the community has done a great job of actually going out and mitigating, but we could do just a little bit better to help protect our critical infrastructure resources and people’s personal property.”
The council noted that, while most of Keystone’s residents have already done fire mitigation work, the measure would address the few exceptions endangering others property by not mitigating fire dangers on their own.
“It takes a village to be fire wise, so if you’re on top of it but your neighbors are not, there are challenges there,” said council member Carol Kerr.
Council members voiced their hopes that Keystone residents would continue to self-mitigate their properties risks, but noted that, if the measure passes, they’ll be able to ensure the necessary work gets done.
“To have that … self compliance is always the best opportunity for us as the community, but then there’s also that punitive part depending on the situation,” Nelson said.
Violations would be found in a myriad of ways, including community tips. The council clarified that they will not be performing specific inspections with the sole purpose of finding hazardous materials.
“Let’s just say we’re doing an inspection on a home that’s being built, and right next door you can see that there’s a dead, dying, diseased tree that’s jeopardizing private property, then we can reach out to that adjacent property owner at that point,” Nelson explained. “Its not something where we’re going to be doing a survey of all the trees in town. … But as these issues arise, we will address them.”
The council said it would take steps during the implementation process to ensure that people know about these changes before they can be penalized for having fuels on their property. Some proposed actions included emails to town residents, as well as physical notices by mail.
“There’s a way to notify people,” Nelson said. “I don’t think there should be anyone who’s really surprised at the end of the day that ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t know that I had a dying, diseased tree on my property.’ It’s just whether they choose to actually mitigate that.”
Still, some council members grappled with the implications of passing the measure, including concerns that it infringes upon the rights of private property owners.
“This is a major concern for me in terms of government imposing restriction on private property,” said council member Jon Hagenow. “This is something I struggle with because, at the end of the day, private land is not something that the government should necessarily have major impact on.”
Despite this, Hagenow did move to approve the measure, citing larger concerns for “the public health and safety of our community.”
“When we look at implementing this into the town, there will be folks that are not necessarily happy with the requirement to do X things on their land,” he said. “But it’s important to understand that … it’s the impact it can have on your community. … Fire doesn’t care that there’s an imaginary property line here.”
Community members who wish to comment on the measure before it is passed can attend the Aug. 11 Keystone Town Council meeting and participate in public comment.