CZU Fire victims share concerns over a specific clause when rebuilding their homes
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Calif. (KION) Residents in Santa Cruz County shared their concern over a specific clause in the CZU Rebuild Directive that would turn liability over to citizens trying to rebuild.
Tensions ran high during the board meeting on September 14th where the Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the CZU Rebuild Directive, a resolution that supervisors passed to allow homeowners to build their homes without a geological hazard study.
"The solution that they've come up with so far has to do with basically waiving the requirement to do a geologic investigation of your building site and instead of adding a covenant into your deed that warns future owners that this home was built without compliance with the geologic code," said Jason Hoppin, Public Information Officer for Santa Cruz County.
The thought behind the resolution is to save homeowners the cost of doing a geological study and save time but it would have owners sign an agreement that would make homeowners liable for damage caused by future disasters.
"We lost our home in a wildfire and we lost everything. Children lost everything. And so the easiest thing for us is to not treat it as a new build, because a lot of the codes in Santa Cruz are incredibly restrictive and oppressive," said Antonia Bradford, who lost her home in the CZU Lightning Complex Fire.
“It's a very trying process to go through to meet some obligations," County Supervisor, Bruce McPherson said. "I absolutely acknowledge the concerns raised by our youth survivors about the covenant that we were debated on last Tuesday.”
The county said it would protect future homeowners and taxpayers who would essentially pay if the county were to be held liable for future disasters but Bradford said the county is solely concerned for themselves.
"It's very risk-averse, which I sort of understand. But at the same time, they're not putting our best interests at heart, " said Bradford. "They're being protective of themselves. So then it leaves us out in the cold. And that's not right. We literally lost everything. Everything."
