Jessica Cejnar / Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021 @ 5:10 p.m. / Local Government
New City Council Agrees With Extending Beach Fire Ban To Preston Island, But Only On Public Property
Independence Day 2018 revelers build bonfires in an area that will soon be off limits to them. File photo: Jessica Cejnar
Arguing that safer places existed, Crescent City Councilors decided to ban beach fires between Battery Point and Preston Island.
But the ban only applies to public property. Despite several objections from residents Monday, the city’s updated ordinance will allow beach fires on private property with the owner’s written consent.
“I think this ordinance, what we’ve been talking about, is a good compromise between liberty and the protections we want to have in place,” Mayor Jason Greenough said.
After receiving complaints from residents about fires they thought were unsafe or annoying conditions from drifting smoke, staff brought proposed changes to a 40-year-old ordinance to the City Council’s attention starting in September.
The new regulations would bring the Crescent City municipal code in line with the 2019 California Fire Code, allowing fire and police departments to issue citations to those who violate the ordinance.
The updated ordinance allows fires up to 3 feet in diameter and 2 feet in height provided they’re at least 25 feet away from vegetation and buildings. It also removes references to city-owned fire rings — which don’t exist — opting instead for a ban on beach fires on public property between 6th Street and the Battery Point Lighthouse parking lot.
On Monday the City Council decided to include public property north to the access road at Preston Island in the proposed ban.
“I think if we want to get compliance from your average citizen, there needs to be a consistent standard all along that stretch from Lighthouse Way all the way to Preston Island,” said Councilor Blake Inscore, who originally brought the idea of expanding the prohibited area to the city’s northern boundary. “When you look at a map, there’s so little space of possible public access and there’s not a plan to put fire rings down there — they’re going to get washed out to sea. It just seems to make sense to move forward with this with good signage at all access points.”
Though he didn't have an exact number, Crescent City Fire Chief Bill Gillespie said his department responds to fires between Elk Creek and the Shoreline RV Park, below the hotels near the Crescent City Harbor and near the jetty. Transients have small fires around Beachfront Park and in the Elk Creek area. But “it’s not the frequency of what we see along Pebble Beach Drive,” he said.
Map shows where beach fires are allowed and where they're prohibited. Courtesy of Crescent City
A major piece of the updated ordinance is to erect signs at city-managed access areas between Oceanfront Lodge at Front Street and Lighthouse Way and Preston Island, Gillespie said, informing them whether fires are allowed or not.
Though they ultimately decided to extend the proposed area where fires were prohibited to Preston Island, the City Council struggled with whether they were infringing on the rights of private property owners.
Councilor Beau Smith said residents and Oceanfront Lodge guests will be the ones receiving administrative citations.
“Do we really think transients are going to pay a fine if written a ticket?” Smith asked.
Gillespie, however, said he didn't recall any encounters with property owners over a beach fire. It’s either been residents from elsewhere in the community, people staying in local hotels or “drinking activity, and they’re typically up in the brush,” he said.
Greenough, who in earlier discussions disagreed with extending the beach fire prohibition to include the area up to Preston Island, said he too felt like the Council was trying to penalize people’s rights on private property.
“The point we’re talking about is, I believe 6th (Street) through Preston Island. There doesn't seem like much beach there to actually put a fire,” he said. “I would hate to put any more restrictions on than we have to. If a person can find a spot on the beach that’s 20 feet away from foliage, I’m inclined to allow them to have a fire down there.”
Inscore, citing Gillespie’s concerns, pointed out that the stretch of beach between 6th Street and Preston Island is among the most difficult to reach if a fire gets out of control. Identifying which areas are private property vs. public property is also a concern since private property ends at the mean high tide mark and that boundary moves.
“If we don’t establish some other kind of guidelines there, enforcement is going to continue to be difficult because of the difficulty of identifying where these lines really are,” Inscore said. “We’re not worrying about taking away any private homeowners’ (rights) in that stretch, but we are addressing an area that has been a problem as a direct result of transient fires in that zone.”
Inscore added that since people are still able to have fires in front of Shoreline RV Park, on Howe Drive near Beachfront Park, on South Beach and at the northern end of Pebble Beach Drive, he didn’t feel the proposed ordinance was overly restrictive.
Most homeowners that spoke up during the meeting were against allowing beach fires in the area, arguing that they pose a hazard.
Resident Natalie Fahning insisted that vacation rental owners are the ones who want to make fires on the beach permissible.
“We don’t want fires,” she said, adding that a previous survey city staff conducted of homeowners in the area didn't reach everyone. “The vacation (rental) owners want fires for their investment.”
Linda Perry said she lives near two vacant properties at 6th and 7th streets that becomes overgrown with grass during the spring and summer.
“A lot of times it’s not mowed down until after the 4th of July, which creates a nice fire hazard for us,” she said, bringing up a fire that occurred on Halloween in the area. “The last fire that occurred between 6th and 7th street embers were blowing across the street and into the area. It was after the rains had started so there weren’t any fires, but if we don’t include this portion of the beach in this ordinance, we definitely have a fire hazard there.”
Crescent City's former mayor pro tem, Heidi Kime, who lives on Pebble Beach, continued to argue against a beach fire ban in the area.
“I reiterate that education and enforcement prevents us from being a restrictive beach community like in Southern California,” she said. “It's one of the treasures we still have in Crescent City. I believe this is an activity that locals and tourists enjoy and I don't think we should be restricting this.”
The updated ordinance bans the burning of non-organic material and requires beach fires to be fully extinguished before they’re abandoned. The updated regulations also prohibits the burying of coals to prevent an unseen danger for beachgoers the following day.
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