Low Enrollment In Government Debris Removal Program – Signup Deadline Looms
Written by 991KBU on January 25, 2019
Only 30 percent of the homeowners on Malibu … with burned-down houses … have signed up for the state fire debris removal program.
And the city is officially urging all homeowners whose properties burned in the Woolsey Fire to make a decision quickly …as the deadline for a decision is one week from today.
And there is an even tougher deadline looming …
The city announced yesterday that all burned houses have to be removed in three months …. March 15th to be exact …
The city warns that … if debris removal has not been completed by March 15th … the state will remove the fire debris from the property at the owner’s expense.
That could cost … at a minimum … $100,000 … says the city.
And the city warns that it could cost much more, and a lien will be placed on the property to ensure payment.
The county Board of Supervisors has set a March 15th demolition deadline.
Properties everywhere in the county — including in the City of Malibu … must have their fire wrecjage removed by March 15th.
That … or be declared a public nuisance by the county.
That deadline has … frankly … not gotten a lot of publicity or news coverage.
Malibu Mayor Jefferson Wagner has been urging residents who lost homes in the Woolsey Fire to sign up for the state run fire debris removal program,
The mayor notes his own home burned down in the Woolsey Fire … and he is going through the same difficult process as many of his friends and neighbors in Malibu.
Wagner says he has evaluated going on his own …. hiring his own crews to demolish his house in Latigo Canyon.
But he says the paperwork … observing strict protocol on waste hauloff and disposal … and hiring crews will be very expensive … complicated and daunting.
The mayor says … and we quote … “I understand that when you have experienced a trauma like this, it is even more confusing and uncomfortable to go through such a complex bureaucratic process. But we must. You are not alone, there is help for you. We can get through this together.”
The county and city have staffers on duty at City Hall daily from 9 to 3 to answer questions and help people complete the opt of and right of entry forms for the demolition service.
But as of this date … only 30% of the nearly 500 properties in Malibu that were burned in the Woolsey Fire have signed up for fire debris removal.
