In the wake of the devastating wildfires affecting communities in the Los Angeles area, APA California is mobilizing expert guidance, resources, and leadership to help planners and other professionals in these communities to navigate the complexities of recovering and rebuilding.   

In partnership with the California Planning Roundtable and other allies, we are pleased to announce the first webinar of a series of expert roundtable discussions to activate our collective thinking. 

In October 2017, Pete Parkinson, AICP was enjoying life as a retired Sonoma County planning director and well into his first year as APA California Chapter President. All of that changed on one horrific night when multiple wind-driven wildfires swept through North Bay counties and the City of Santa Rosa. 5,300 homes and numerous commercial structures were destroyed in Sonoma County over the next few days. More than 40 North Bay residents lost their lives. Pete’s own home was gone and his community was brought to its knees.

Sound familiar? Millions of Southern Californians are now living this tragically familiar reality. Planners are now teaming up with other disciplines–as planners do–to help get their communities back on their feet. In this webinar, Pete will share some of the lessons he learned in the immediate aftermath of the fires and beyond. Those lessons were often informed by the unique perspective and experiences he’d developed over decades in the planning profession. As the immediate aftermath of the disaster transitioned into the long road to recovery, Pete began to think about the ethical obligation that planners have to think comprehensively and long-term. This meant thinking not just about recovery and building back, but starting to plan for the next fire. As one wildfire scientist says, the best predictor of future fires is past fires. Join us to talk about lessons for recovery, reflections on what we can learn in the aftermath of disaster and how we can start thinking about our wildfire future.

Speaker Information: Pete Parkinson, AICP worked as a professional planner for more than 35 years. He was the Sonoma County planning director from 2002 to 2013 and served as APA California Chapter President in 2017 and 2018. Natural disasters have been part of his professional portfolio wherever he went, from landslides, coastal flooding and the Loma Prieta earthquake in Santa Cruz County to floods and wildfires in Sonoma.

Jennifer Gray Thompson

Jennifer Gray Thompson is the CEO of After the Fire USA. After the devastating fires in the North Bay of San Francisco in October 2017, she became Executive Director of Rebuild North Bay Foundation (RNBF), a nonprofit dedicated to help the region rebuild better, greener, safer, and faster. In 2021, RNBF created After the Fire USA. ATF USA provides compassionate, effective, and relevant consulting services to wildfire communities to support locally led and designed recoveries. She is a cofounder of CANVAS, an association of disaster professionals who “listen locally, act regionally, reform nationally.” She also hosts the “How to Disaster” podcast, which highlights innovative leaders in the space of disaster.

Laurie Johnson

Laurie Johnson is an award-winning urban planner specializing in disaster recovery and catastrophe risk management. For over 30 years, she has combined her unique blend of professional practice and research to help communities and organizations address the complex challenges posed by natural hazards and disasters. Much of her post-disaster recovery efforts are captured in her book, After Great Disasters: An In-Depth Analysis of How Six Countries Managed Community Recovery (2017).  She is also the coauthor of Clear as Mud: Planning for the Rebuilding of New Orleans (2010) which examines the post-disaster recovery policies, plans and planning processes in the City of New Orleans in the first three years following Hurricane Katrina. She has an extensive publication record and is a leading author of numerous government and industry guidance documents on disaster recovery and reconstruction, community and lifeline resilience, socioeconomic implications of catastrophes, and risk-informed land use planning. She also is an accomplished executive in catastrophe risk management and insurance, most recently serving as Chief Catastrophe Response and Resiliency Officer for the California Earthquake Authority and the newly formed California Wildfire Fund. She is affiliated faculty with New York University’s Global Institute for Public Health Program on Population Impact, Recovery and Resilience and Texas A&M University’s Hazards Reduction and Recovery Center. 

On Aug 8, 2023, fires burned across Maui island, destroying the town of Lahaina and killing more than 100 people. In the aftermath, the community planning team pulled survivors together to start planning for the future. This webinar will cover the long-term recovery planning process, the outcomes experienced in Maui, describe the next steps for Lahaina recovery, and share lessons learned. With Lahaina 17 months ahead of Los Angeles on its path to recovery, this webinar will provide timely lessons for California planners.

Speakers:

Kate Blystone

Kate Blystone is the Maui County planning director. Appointed to the position after the August 8, 2023 fires that destroyed Lahaina Town, she co-led development of the Lahaina Long-Term Recovery Plan which will guide the rebuild process. In her nearly 25-year career as a planner in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific Northwest, she has focused primarily on housing policy, long-range planning, and community engagement within the public, private and nonprofit sectors of the profession. She has an MURP degree from Eastern Washington University. 

Jennifer Maydan, AICP

Jennifer is an executive assistant II with the Maui County Office of Recovery and was co-lead of the team that developed the Long-Term Recovery Plan. She was born and raised on Maui and has been involved with community planning in Maui County for over a decade. Her practice is guided by her passion for community planning, with a focus on encouraging sustainability, resilience, and equity in her community. Prior to the fire, Jennifer was the lead planner for the West Maui Community Plan, the long-range land use plan and vision for the west side, including Lahaina, adopted in 2022. She holds a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning degree from the University of Colorado Denver.

This webinar will highlight the 2021 Dixie Fire and how the impacted communities are recovering and rebuilding almost four years after the catastrophic wildfire. The  2021 Dixie Fire burned 768,130 acres in Plumas County (46% of County) and, at the time, was the largest single wildfire in California history. 

Speakers:

1. Tracey Ferguson, AICP
2. Hanson Hom, FAICP
3. Brian Mooney, FAICP
4. Thomas Jacobson, FAICP
5. Michael Smiley, AICP

This webinar is part of a continuing series to provide planners with an overall understanding of the fire recovery process and best practices for recovery and redevelopment. This webinar will cover issues including where the State building codes are now and where are they headed related to fire hardening, what is Zone 0 and why is it important, and what should planners be aware of as areas redevelop after a fire or as develop occurs in areas subject to wildfire.

Speakers:

1. Barbara Satink Wolfson
2. Marc Roberts
3. Stuart Tom