Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007 | Mayor Sanders, the firefighters, and all emergency personnel did a great job protecting the public this week. The U-T prepared a great summary graphic of the fires. The middle right of the graphic shows a map of population density and evacuation and the limits of the total area evacuated this week in portions of the city of San Diego and greater San Diego County. The California Planning and Zoning Laws identify the safety element as one of the seven mandatory elements in a general plan. Government Code Section 65302(g)
states that the safety element shall include protection of the community from any unreasonable risks associated with the effects of wild land and urban fires. It shall also address evacuation routes. The city of San Diego’s general plan will be going before the planning commission on Thursday.
As a matter of policy, the city of San Diego will be preparing contingency plans during wild land and urban fires which will address evacuation routes during emergencies. Pages 59 through 61 of the safety element of general plan, discuss San Diego’s Disaster Preparedness: Develop and maintain current, integrated, and comprehensive emergencies operations and disaster plans on an annual basis as well as prepare and maintain a comprehensive multi-modal evacuation plan.
It looks like San Diego will have a city-wide evacuation plan like every other California city after all.