Placerville Community Wildfire Protection Strategy
Summary
SCH Number
2025030508
Public Agency
El Dorado County Resource Conservation District
Document Title
Placerville Community Wildfire Protection Strategy
Document Type
NOE - Notice of Exemption
Received
Posted
3/13/2025
Document Description
The Placerville Community Wildfire Resiliency Strategy (CWRS) is a wildfire protection planning document that resulted from a collaborative stakeholder-driven planning process. The planning document informs the City and surrounding unincorporated County residents about the region's wildfire history, the wildfire hazards and risks and protection priorities, and provides a framework for the future identification and prioritization of landscape-level fuels treatment projects and other potential wildfire risk reduction and preparedness strategies. These strategies include landscape-level fuels treatment projects, defensible space creation and maintenance, structural ignitability reduction measures (e.g., home hardening), land use and policy changes, and improvements to response capacity. Agencies and community groups can use this framework to develop future hazardous fuels reduction projects and community education programs that are ready to be considered for federal and state grant funding.
Contact Information
Name
Mark Egbert
Agency Name
El Dorado Resource Conservation District
Job Title
District Manager
Contact Types
Lead/Public Agency
Phone
Email
Location
Coordinates
Cities
Diamond Springs, Placerville
Counties
El Dorado
Regions
Citywide
Cross Streets
US Highway 50, State Highway 49 and 193.
Zip
95667
Total Acres
80,000
State Highways
49, 193
Airports
Placerville Airport
Schools
El Dorado High School, Markham Elementary, Schnell Elementary
Waterways
South Fork American River, Weber Creek
Other Location Info
The Project study area, referred to as the Placerville Project Study Area (PPSA), encompasses approximately 80,000 acres that includes the City of Placerville and surrounding unincorporated areas in El Dorado County. Unincorporated communities within the PPSA include Diamond Springs, Pollock Pines, Cold Springs, and Camino (see Figure 1-1). Located about 40 miles northeast of the Sacramento metropolitan area, the PPSA is bisected by U.S. Highway 50, which runs east to west, and CA State Route 49, which runs in north to south. Elevations within the PPSA range from 4,000 feet above mean sea level (amsl) in the eastern portion of the PPSA to 850 amsl in the western portion of the PPSA. The PPSA lies along the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada foothills and is generally divided into two distinct areas based on geography and vegetation type. While the entire PPSA is on the western slope of El Dorado County, the eastern portion of the PPSA is surrounded by Eldorado National Forest lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service in the higher elevations and dominated by conifer forest and the western portion of the PPSA includes rolling foothills and privately-owned agricultural lands in the lower elevations dominated by oak woodland forest.
The study area was developed based on fire modelling, evacuation routes and zones, and natural features such as the ridgelines and river valleys. The northern edge of the PPSA is contiguous with the South Fork of the American River drainage and the southern edge of the PPSA aligns with major roads and potential evacuation zones.
Notice of Exemption
Exempt Status
Statutory Exemption
Type, Section or Code
PRC Sec. 21150
Reasons for Exemption
The project is exempt because the adoption of the Placerville CWRS will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. Additionally, the Placerville CWRS is statutorily exempt from CEQA pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15262, which exempts feasibility or planning studies for possible future actions that have not been approved, adopted, or funded from the requirement to prepare an environmental impact report or negative declaration. This exemption applies as long as environmental factors are considered.
The purpose of the Placerville CWRS is to assess wildfire hazards and risks, provide information for planning, selecting, and prioritizing future wildfire prevention, preparedness, and resiliency activities, including landscape-level fuel reduction treatments, defensible space creation and maintenance, home hardening programs, and public education and outreach. It also aims to make such activities eligible for state and federal funding.
The Placerville CWRS does not involve physical alterations to the environment and does not commit the City, County, El Dorado RCD, or any other agency or entity to a specific course of action. Future activities are contingent upon the availability of funding and the review and approval of the authorizing jurisdiction. Any activities or actions recommended or included in the Placerville CWRS may be modified or entirely denied. Furthermore, if future wildfire prevention and preparedness activities are pursued, the public agency authorizing those activities will be required to comply with CEQA on a case-by-case basis, as applicable.
County Clerk
El Dorado
Attachments
Final Document(s) [Approved_Certified draft environmental documents]
Notice of Exemption
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