Boulder Open Spaces and the Marshall Fire
18th January 2022
The Antiplanner speaks truth to Narrative.
In both cases, the homes were built close to one another so that, if one house caught fire, the radiant heat from that fire would ignite its neighbors. For years, state and local fire officials have encouraged people who own homes near public lands to make their homes firewise, meaning the roof and certain other parts of the houses are nonflammable and vegetation and other materials that could generate enough radiant heat to ignite the wooden walls of the homes are kept more than 100 feet away.
Firewise principles only work when homes and other structures are at least 100 feet apart. Otherwise, if one ignites, its neighbors are likely to catch fire as well. To protect against wildfire, I told the Independence Institute, cities should surround themselves with low-density development. Unfortunately, the anti-sprawl zoning codes in California and other cities do not allow for such low-density development. In guarding against sprawl, a problem I don’t even think is real, planners have made their cities more vulnerable to the very real problem of wildfire.