I was doing some research on the fires in Los Angeles and what contributed to the start and / or spread of these fires. It is devasting how many homes have been lost and how many people have been affected.
I read that sometimes the way a city or town is designed can make the damage of natural disasters like tornados or fires worse. I was curious what some of the thoughts were on this particular incident that is still not behind us.
I found this interesting blog about different geographies and there were a lot of posts about things related to urban planning.
Smart Growth Burns Thousands of Homes | Newgeography.com
It states “Los Angeles city and regional planners are just as responsible for the Palisades, Eaton, and other fires that have burned in the past few days as if they had poured gasoline on the homes and lit the matches.” which is a very strong statement.
It talks about how the damage from the fires is a direct result of so-called “smart-growth” policies. These polices appear to require maintaining greenbelts around cities and packing people in high density housing within the cities.
It also talks about how one of the requirements for building fire-resistant communities is that homes or structures should be at least 50 and preferably 100 feet apart – this equates to about an acre lot.
This blog post that I read was based on the following article
Smart Growth Burns Thousands of Homes – The Antiplanner
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