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First look at fuels reduction ordinance<br>

Williams Vice Mayor Bernie Hiemenz congrat-ulates city employee Jeff Pettit on five years of service with the city of Williams.

Long overdue, part of putting together a plan includes setting up some type of ordinance requiring home, land and business owners to have a “defensible zone” around their properties where potential wildfire fuels have been adequately cleared.

Attendees of the Oct. 28 Williams City Council meeting got their first look at such an ordinance, drafted by Williams Fire Marshal/Abatement Officer Phil Langston and Williams Building Inspector Tim Pettit. Councilman Cary Price, who has been working closely with Kleindienst and has been heading up community wildfire protection efforts within the council, co-introduced the draft with Langston at the meeting.

The ordinance makes general guidelines for a defensible space no less than 60 feet around any structure and is split into four zones in respect to distance from buildings. Zones one, two and three — 0-10 feet, 10-30 feet, and 30-60 feet, respectively — are minimum requirements for structures regardless of lot size. They include regulations such as removing slash, needles, leaves and other debris, limiting amounts of wood chips, and having a non-combustible perimeter for the first two-three feet around any structure.

In addition, existing trees must be trimmed back or removed (if necessary) to provide a minimum of 10-15 feet between crowns of native species, and — depending on the zone or distance from the structure — trees must be pruned anywhere from 6-15 feet from the ground or 25 percent of tree height, which ever is less. Other regulations also apply.

The fourth zone targets larger properties with heavier forest vegetation and is intended to reduce wildfire rate of spread and intensity. One of its main requirements is reducing unnatural tree density on a per-acre basis.

At first, it seemed the ordinance would be adopted smoothly.

“A lot of the cities (at risk in northern Arizona) are considering this to be their number-one priority and I know we’ve got some other things that are number-one priority, but we really need to be involved with this,” said Price after a brief discussion. He added that he and Kleindienst had been around to several subdivisions or structures in the community and that most were already in an acceptable position, with only a few needing some work.

Councilman Michael F. Vasquez made a motion for adoption, but was then halted by Councilman Don Dent, who took issue with one aspect of the proposal — that the ordinance includes existing properties, not just new ones.

“My number-one concern is that it is going to be a major change as far as what we make people do in respect to tree removal,” explained Dent a few days later. “And the way it was presented to us, it would affect existing properties and new properties. I think we need to let the public look at it before we make a decision.”

At the meeting, Dent pointed out that many — whose properties may be at risk and a target for fuels reduction — originally purchased their property because of the trees and other vegetation surrounding it. To force them to start cutting those trees down, without any prior warning or consideration, would cause a rather large amount of upset throughout Williams.

Vasquez agreed, withdrawing his motion. A decision was then made to table the issue for another session, allowing the public to absorb information about the ordinance and offer comment before passage.

Other business

• City Sanitation Department Operator II employee and Williams Volunteer Fire Department firefighter Jeff Pettit was awarded a plaque, check and gift certificate for his five years of service to the city.

• A conditional use permit was given to the Grand Canyon Railway for their proposed RV park and kennel setup. The kennels will be located closer to the depot and hotel than in original plans, with subsequent changes to the park’s ingress and egress.

• The Whistle Stop Fueling Station — formerly the Pic Quick store east of the Williams Motor Vehicle Division office — was approved for a liquor license.

• Council approved the final plat plan for Highland Meadows Phase Four — the last and final phase of the Highland Meadows project — to be located just west of the golf cart crossing path on Country Club Drive.

When asked if he had anything to add prior to council’s decision, developer William Gary shook his head and commented on his own happiness about nearing the end of the project.

“It was going slow the first couple of years, but this year and last year, it’s just been crazy,” Gary said.

• Council passed a resolution supporting Elaine Moffitt — local area resident and

former vice-president of Qmax, a large highway construction company — in her running for appointment to the vacant District Five seat on the Arizona Department of Transportation Board.

Williams City Council will only meet once this month — on Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. at city hall — due to the Thanksgiving holiday.


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