For decades, the lookouts on Grizzly Peak Boulevard have been a favorite place to meet up, watch the sunset, enjoy a few drinks, and smoke; they’ve also caused perennial complaints from neighbors concerned about carelessly tossed still lit smoking materials landing in the dry brush below.
On May 15th, after a mild winter and an early spring, Oakland Fire declared the beginning of the 2020 “fire season.” At the same time, the pandemic’s stay-at-home orders kept bars and restaurants closed, and fewer places were available for friends to gather and relax. This made the lookouts (noted as red stars on the above map) more attractive than ever but also more risky for accidentally igniting a fire. By late June, six fires in Oakland were attributed to fireworks starting earlier and with greater frequency and intensity than in previous years. Fortunately, the six fires were put out quickly without injury or destruction.
Concerns of residents in the hills designated by Cal Fire as a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone were expressed in a mid-June letter from the North Hills Community Association to the City of Oakland. The residents asked that the City close the lookouts during fire season.
The closure request fortuitously coincided with the City’s formation of an inter-departmental wildfire prevention working group; the group brings together representatives of Emergency Services, Fire, Police, Public Works, and Transportation to identify ways to reduce the likelihood of a major wildfire, including vegetation management, ignitions and spread control, and steps to take to prepare for a fire, including evacuation planning. The group recognized that Grizzly Peak Boulevard, originally designed as a fire break for the Hills, had been a concern of fire chiefs from the several jurisdictions (see map key) along Grizzly Peak Boulevard since at least the 1991 Oakland Tunnel Fire.
The urgency of the impending July 4th holiday required an immediate response. For 24 hours, law enforcement officers from Berkeley, Oakland, East Bay Regional Parks, Moraga-Orinda, and the University of California, Berkeley staffed the intersections and enforced the closure of Grizzly Peak from Centennial to Skyline, closing the road to all traffic except by local residents. Oakland has primary jurisdiction of most of Grizzly Peak Boulevard (15 feet from the center line) no matter whose property is on either side of the road. Subsequently, Oakland beefed up patrols to educate people in the lookouts about the information on newly installed signs, “No Smoking; Closed from 9 PM-6 AM.”
Photo by Jerry Skomer, 2020.
As the warm weather and beautiful, smoke-enhanced sunsets continued to attract people to the lookouts, more Berkeley residents joined the chorus of Oakland residents in complaints to public officials, an interagency working group was formed, and more effective solutions were explored. Law enforcement officers from most of the neighboring jurisdictions coordinated patrols each evening during the early October Red Flag Alerts and cleared the lookouts of parked vehicles. Since that level of effort was unsustainable, the following week UC and Oakland started placing logs across the lookout entrances and following up by chaining them together.
As their work continues, Oakland will evaluate the effectiveness of their strategies and study other possible options. The City plans to extend the effort to Skyline Drive, which has its share of lookouts attracting reckless behavior. And, the community organizations will persist in our role as “critical friend,” including advocacy with elected officials and willingness to educate ourselves and our neighbors.
