Bel Air Hills residents have two neighborhood gatherings on the calendar and a wildfire-regulation update to track, according to the Bel Air Hills Association's October newsletter.

The association, known as BAHA, will host its Fall Festival on Sunday, Oct. 18, from 3 to 5 p.m. at Roscomare Circle Park, at the south end of Roscomare Road. The event is open to all Bel Air Hills residents, not just BAHA members. Costumes are welcome.

A month later, Los Angeles Fire Department Station 109 will hold a pancake breakfast fundraiser on Sunday, Nov. 8, from 9 a.m. to noon. The money will go toward building a circular driveway on the station grounds. Right now, fire trucks must stop traffic to back into the station from Mulholland Drive. A dedicated loop would let engines enter and exit without blocking the road during emergency calls.

Laure Stevens is organizing the event and seeking monetary donations and silent-auction items. She can be reached at [email protected].

Zone 0 regulations pulled back for revisions

The newsletter also flags a significant change in the state's new wildfire landscaping rules. The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection voted unanimously on Aug. 19 to approve Zone 0 regulations, the first statewide standards governing the five feet immediately surrounding homes in designated fire-hazard areas. The rules affect roughly 2 million structures statewide, according to ReadyFireOne.

But the Board subsequently withdrew the regulatory package from the California Office of Administrative Law (OAL) before it could take effect. The Board called the withdrawal procedural, saying it needed to address technical edits and questions before resubmitting, WildfireLA.org reported Sept. 11. No timetable for resubmission has been provided. Another public comment period is likely.

Bel Air Hills sits in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. BAHA told residents the withdrawal does not end the Zone 0 process and that technical or substantive changes will precede resubmission. The association said residents are not yet required to act but recommended clearing combustible material from the first five feet around a home.

The cost of compliance remains contested. When the Board approved the rules in August, Board Chair Terrence O'Brien said the regulations were urgent. "The regulations will make our communities safer … Waiting and postponing is not, in my opinion, an option," O'Brien said at the Aug. 19 meeting, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. At the same meeting, Sarah Flaherty, a representative for L.A. City Councilwoman Traci Park, warned that compliance would cost homeowners thousands of dollars for hardscaping, fence replacement and hillside erosion control, with no state funding for homeowners or fire departments.

Wildfire resilience group MySafe:LA has estimated average compliance costs could exceed $2,500 per property, well above the state's roughly $960 estimate, according to WildfireLA.org.