The Town of Marin County Civil Grand Jury Corte Madera*

No single agency or jurisdiction is taking responsibility and authority for building infrastructure for safe evacuation routes across jurisdictions in Marin County. Agree with the finding. Comment: This is by design and in line with best practices. The responsibility is shared due to the numerous contributing factors related to evacuation readiness and safety. It is not yet clear that infrastructure is a major impediment to safe evacuation. Slow evacuation is not necessarily unsafe, but this issue would require further study. Central Marin Fire coordinates and engages with Corte Madera Public Works in hazard reduction along roadways. Additionally, vegetation fuel reduction along roadways is underway, and will soon be increasing, through the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority (MWPA) and new funding made available as of July, 2020. Vegetation along the public right-of-way is the adjacent landowners responsibility, not a public agency's in most cases. However, the Town of Corte Madera, in coordination with the Central Marin Fire Authority, has implemented the highly successful Chipper Program to assist property owners in the reduction and maintenance of the vegetation on their properties as well as providing defensible space inspections, awareness and education.

There is confusion in the county as to who has ultimate responsibility and authority for ensuring that Marin has safe evacuation routes. Disagree with the finding. Comment: There are many factors that contribute to safety and efficiency of evacuations, and responsibility for these factors lie with multiple public agencies, private entities, and landowners. Local emergency service personnel work very closely to address each incident. The order to evacuate, and responsibility for the evacuation, lies with the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction. Fire agencies and law enforcement have worked together to create pre-determined evacuation zones, multi-jurisdictional training exercises, common terminology and other initiatives that involve evacuation routes. Marin fire agencies, public works staff, and the Office of Emergency Services (OES) coordinate efforts around evaluation and prioritization of evacuation routes and infrastructure improvements. Marin County Board of Supervisors and town and city councils have the

responsibility for safe evacuation routing, and they have not sufficiently considered evacuation as a criterion when approving improvements to roads and traffic infrastructure in their jurisdictions. Disagree with the finding. Comment: Roads and traffic infrastructure has not been identified as the major factor in evacuation safety in Marin. The MWPA evacuation study will evaluate potential hazards and impediments as well as additional critical factors not addressed in the Grand Jury report, such as non-traffic related improvements that are significant components of evacuation safety: home hardening, near home defensible space, roadside vegetation, roadside combustible structures. Traffic related improvements with the greatest impact are likely to be intersection related, including the ability to manage intersections effectively during power outages/Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS), or when public works and law enforcement availability is reduced (battery/generator backup for intersections, remote intersection control, real-time traffic monitoring, law enforcement control). Evacuation routes may have garnered less attention in some regions prior to 2017, however, our regional understanding of wildfire potential has changed dramatically since the 2015-2019 fire seasons. Since then, regular coordination of fire agencies and public works has taken place. A local example of this is Central Marin Fire Department's active participation in the development of our Climate Adaptation Plan (CAP) which includes recommendations for new signs for roads and paths, enhancing hillside transportation network capacity and connections and improving traffic congestion controls and parking enforcement along evacuation routes.

County and municipal administrators, public works, and traffic engineers have not adequately considered mass evacuation as a criterion for planning and funding traffic infrastructure improvements. Disagree with the finding. Comment: Public works professionals, traffic engineers, and other relevant staff consult with fire professionals and consider evacuation in concert with daily traffic impacts, pedestrian safety, and other traffic related considerations to best inform projects and spending priorities in Corte Madera. In addition, Public Works engineers heavily rely upon standards set by state and national transportation agencies for guidance on how to design roadways and other infrastructure improvements and thus if the Grand Jury believes there are deficiencies in our process they should pursue these changes at the state and federal levels. The Town of Corte Madera will not comment on the practices of other jurisdictions.

Most Marin jurisdictions have not yet included urgently needed evacuation plans in their general plans as required Partially disagree with finding. Comment: Again, the Town of Corte Madera will not comment on the practices of other agencies. MWPA, which is composed of 17 member agencies including the Town of Corte Madera) plans to conduct an analysis of evacuation routes including hazards and risks. The analysis is anticipated to be completed in 2021, the study will include ratings of roads and contributing factors to evacuation impediments. It will provide the guidance necessary to inform the MWPA's annual workplan as well as local hazard mitigation plans, public works agencies, traffic engineers and others making infrastructure improvements. The Town's existing Safety Element of its General Plan already includes policies and programs related to evacuation planning. The Town intends to work with the County of Marin on the next update to the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan and will incorporate the updated LHMP into our Safety Element.