Fire Season Facts, or Landscape Lesson 3 for L.A. Homebuyers: Clearing Hillsides Is Not Optional
A hillside area inside your property line could run from $500 to $1500 or higher to clear of brush and weeds, and the L.A. County Fire Department will require you to do it. This is my third landscape lesson learned, posted for buyers trying to add up all the potential costs of owning a home in the L.A. area.
As LAist just noted, fire season is here. Unfortunately, licensed contractors don’t offer fire sale prices for clearing hillsides and overgrown landscape fuel.
My last two posts, The Treetop View, and Tall Palms are a Headache, advised that periodic trimming of large trees and tall palms on a home site can be expensive. The work is optional, however. If you just don’t want to bother with your landscape, you can let tree branches grow toward the sky and palm fronds dangle 30 feet above your head.
If your property is located in a fire hazard zone, however, or if there is a lovely wild hillside behind it, you don’t have a choice. Find out where the property line ends and get an estimate for the annual cost of clearing it and trimming the rest of the landscape to comply with the fire department’s mandate. You will have to undertake this cost every year.
L.A. County inspects each property, assesses compliance, and fines owners if inspectors have to travel to a site more than twice (this Fire Department blog entry explains the rules).
A neighborhood group in Altadena just received a FireSafe grant to trim back overgrown trees and reported on the hazard abatement here. I don’t know what a FireSafe grant is, but homeowners in other fire hazard areas might want to find out.
La Crescenta, nicknamed the Balcony of Southern California, is on the north side of the Verdugos. As this resident writes, it has seen its share of wildfires very close to home.
Here are three of the newest Redfin listings high in the foothills of north Glendale and La Crescenta:
2837 Pinelawn Drive
$869,000
4 bed/2.5 bath
2,376 sq.ft.
$366 per sq.ft.
On Redfin 6 days
2723 Pinelawn Drive
$899,000
4 bed/2.75 bath
2,292 sq.ft.
$392 per sq.ft.
On Redfin 2 days
3535 Paraiso Way
$679,900
3 bed/2 bath
1,702 sq.ft.
$399 per sq.ft.
On Redfin 5 days
