City of Orinda 2025 Review
Excerpt from the Supplemental Sales Tax Oversight Commission Annual Report
During 2024-2025 fiscal year, the City of Orinda dedicated substantial time, personnel, and resources to advancing emergency preparedness and wildfire resilience. During this period, Measure R provided funding to:
Reduce hazardous vegetation and thus reduce the risk of wildfire within the City;
Prepare City staff and other agencies supporting Orinda in case of an emergency in Orinda; and
Educate Orindans about their responsibilities to reduce wildfire fire risk and prepare for emergencies, including evacuations.
The constant challenge is how to get Orindans to take action to protect themselves, their neighbors, and the City—not just this year but every year. We need to find more ways to encourage this behavior.
Wildfire Risk Reduction
The City is committed to maintaining City property to keep it in compliance with City and MOFD vegetation standards. This includes creating a five-foot non-combustible zone around City Hall and the Orinda Community Center and reducing fuels on City-managed parcels, evacuation routes, and public rights-of-way. For its part, no City-managed property was cited by MOFD for non-compliance. The City also found a successful resolution to the median area between Highway CA-24 and Brookwood Road, where aggressive initial vegetation cutbacks prompted resident concerns. Staff engaged extensively with neighbors and MOFD to reach a mutually acceptable compromise that maintains necessary wildfire-risk reduction. Orinda has established two programs designed to incentivize Orindans to remove hazardous vegetation – “fire fuel” – on private property to reduce the risk of wildfire: the Fire Fuel Reduction Incentive Pilot Program and the Chipper Program. While some Orindans are taking advantage of one or both programs, there is still a need for Orindans to do more as evidenced by the large number of residents who receive a pre-citation from MOFD.
Measure R Fire Fuel Reduction Incentive Program
In June 2022, the City Council allocated $400,000 for a grant/incentive program, of which approximately $247,000 remains. For this matching grant program, the City will reimburse 50% of qualifying expenses up to $1,000 to encourage compliance with vegetation standards for the City and MOFD by removing wildfire fuels. The Incentive Pilot Program has been modified twice: in 2023 to expand the scope of work and properties eligible for the grant, and in April 2024, to increase the maximum reimbursement award from $599 to $1,000 and allow applicants to reapply in subsequent years. During the 2024-2025 fiscal year, 107 grant applications were approved (48% of total applications) totaling $89,164. Of the 107 applications, 73 requested $1,000, with an average reimbursement of $833. Nine applicants previously received funding. During this period, applicants reported spending $390,461 or an average of $3,649 per applicant, which is an increase in reported fuel reductions.
Chipping Program
The Orinda Chipper remains the most popular and well-recognized of the two main programs. In follow-up surveys, residents have consistently rated their overall satisfaction with the program very highly, at 92.1% or higher. The program is so popular in the middle of the summer it can take upwards of six weeks to have a pile picked up. (The new chipper contract for 20252026 will allow for an increase in chippers to address peak demand times and remove the vegetation in a more timely manner without creating capital cost and on-going maintenance expenditures for that extra capacity.) From July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, there were 1,175 completed reservations: 300 first-time users and 887 repeat users. They averaged spending nine hours per pile. Overall, Orindans invested more than 10,000 hours removing fire fuels in preparation for their chipper appointments. This resulted in approximately 4,515 cubic yards of hazardous vegetation being removed and disposed of by the Orinda Chipper. This resulted in the Chipper program being over budget this year both in disposal fees and service on the equipment. (MOFD also runs a Chipper program for the entire fire district.)
Emergency Preparedness
During fiscal year 2024-2025, City staff dedicated substantial time and resources to advancing emergency preparedness, including updating key emergency management documents, expanding parking restrictions on Red-Flag days, and exploring new technologies to aid in evacuations and fire resilience, as described below.
Planning and Policy Updates
City staff worked to renew major foundational documents: the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP), the Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) and the Safety Element. FEMA officially approved the Contra Costa County Hazard Mitigation Plan and the Orinda LHMP update on Sept. 18, 2024. The plan is valid until an update is resubmitted or until Sept. 18, 2029. The City is in the process of updating the EOP, starting with a Request for Proposals (RFP) in January 2025 and selecting Navigating Preparedness Associates at the end of May 2025. In January 2023, an updated Safety Element was adopted into the City's General Plan, with annual updates shared with the City Council and SSTOC. As a result of the City’s settlement with Orindans for Safe Emergency Evacuations (OSEE) at the end of June 2025, staff is incorporating evacuation- specific tasks into the document. Additional updates for the Safety Element were in process as this report was being written.
Red-Flag Day Parking Restrictions
In 2024, the City expanded the Red-Flag Day Parking Restriction Program to additional neighborhoods in North Orinda. Previously, the program focused on El Toyonal and nearby areas. The program’s objective is to ensure that narrow roads remain passable during red-flag warnings to support timely evacuation and emergency access. There were four red-flag warnings issued during the 2024 fire season.
Evacuation Guide and Trifold
In summer 2024, the City updated the Evacuation Guide and Wildfire Prevention and Emergency Preparedness Resources Tri-fold. The Evacuation Guide, delivered to residents in the October 2024 issue of The Orinda News, features the neighborhoods subject to the red flag day parking restrictions as well as the Minor Road contra flow route. The Tri-fold includes information about Fire Adapted Community Ambassadors, the Measure R Fire Fuels ReductionIncentive Grant, the Chipper Program, Moraga Orinda Firewise Network, and key terminology. These guides are available at links on the City of Orinda home page.
Regional Funding for Evacuation Preparedness
The City supported Contra Costa Transportation Authority’s (CCTA) efforts to obtain Caltrans grant funding to develop a new Countywide Emergency Plan (awarded August 2024). This project should begin July 2025 and take two-years to complete and will examine multiple hazard scenarios to include wildfire and man-made incidents. Lamorinda was selected as a regional pilot area for new countywide evacuation management investments. In addition, Lamorinda will benefit from CCTA’s smart-signals modernization project, which among other things will enable signals to be synchronized across jurisdictions to aid in evacuations by allowing signals to “flush traffic out” of a corridor. Construction has not begun on this project.
Risk Management and Evacuation Modeling: Ladris
At the June 11, 2025, SSTOC meeting, Leo Zlimen, CEO of Ladris, provided a demonstration of Ladris’s evacuation modeling software for wildfires designed for counties and municipalities. He explained how the model integrates fire spread patterns with evacuation timelines, allowing communities to understand where residents might be in relation to an advancing fire. The City entered into an agreement with Ladris to assist with evacuation modeling as part of the City’s settlement with OSEE. The staff is currently undergoing training on the software before making aspects of it publicly available to Orindans. This will be reported on in more details in next year’s report.
Educational Programs, Outreach, and Ongoing Support of Local Volunteers
The City organized and/or supported several events focused on wildfire and emergency preparedness, including ongoing activities such as organizing the Third Annual Wildfire Prevention and Safety Fair (May 17, 2025); hosting a table at several Orinda Farmer’s Market; driving the Chipper truck in the 4th of July parade; participating in the Orinda Police Department’s National Night Out, the Orinda Parks & Recreation’s Trunk or Treat, and MOFD’s Annual Open House in Orinda; working with Orinda students and Girl Scouts troops on wildfire education; and producing educational content pushed out through social media, Orinda’s weekly e-newsletter, and The Orinda Way (April and October editions). There were two new events:
Tri-Agency Meeting (October 21, 2024) with the Moraga Town Council, the Orinda City Council and the MOFD Board of Directors, organized by MOFD and hosted by Orinda, to discuss Community Wildfire Risk Reduction. Presentations were from Chief Winnacker and an Insurance Representative.
Wildfire Community Education Night (April 30, 2025), featured a panel of regional leaders including Mayor Malkani, MOFD Fire Chief Jeff Isaacs, OPD Police Chief Anthony Rossi, City Manager Linda Smith, and State Senator Tim Grayson. The event was well attended, with standing room only. A recording of the event is available on the City of Orinda’s Emergency Preparedness webpage. State Senator Tim Grayson also held an informative meeting at Miramonte High School on Saturday, May 3, 2025.
Volunteers
City staff continues to support local volunteers engaged in emergency and wildfire preparedness efforts. Staff regularly participates in meetings of the Moraga Orinda Firewise Network, providing updates of City activities and programs at their meetings. Staff also attends Firewise neighborhood meetings to promote City programs. In addition, City staff and the City’s grant consultants supported Fire Safe Moraga Orinda on its grant application to the California FireSafe Council. We are pleased to report on July 26, 2024, FSMO received a $100,000 California FireSafe Council: State Fire Capacity Grant.
New Website: OrindaReady.com
City staff has been meeting with web designers to create a comprehensive platform (OrindaReady.com) to access all emergency preparedness, wildfire risk reduction, and related materials. The goal with OrindaReady.com is to create a centralized platform, organizing information and resources by issue or subject, aiming to make it easier for residents to find the resources most valuable to them. The website launched in November 2025.