Rebuilding Sonoma County: Larkfield and Mark West area ‘starting to come back to life’

Joel Chandler is rebuilding the Larkfield home he lost to the Tubbs fire more than nine months ago, outfitting ? his new residence with cutting-edge technology and building it with the most up-to-date structural standards.

One thing about his Larkfield Estates neighborhood is poised to remain the same: the PG&E power poles providing electricity to him and his neighbors on Brighton Court.

Chandler is not happy about that. He wants the utility to be held to “2018 standards” and views the above-ground poles as a possible safety hazard should future fires ignite.

“It’s like they’re doing the bare minimum,” Chandler said. “Why isn’t PG&E being held to the same standards we are?”

Chandler wants the utility to put its power lines underground, just as they are along some other streets in his area. He’s talking to other Larkfield Estates property owners about possibly signing onto a petition.

PG&E already is working on replacing underground power lines in Larkfield - but only where they already ran below the surface prior to October’s fires. The utility says that doesn’t rule out expanding underground lines later, however.

“We are doing what we call ‘like for like,’ and we’re replacing what was previously overhead and then re-trenching what was previously underground,” said spokeswoman Deanna Contreras. “The conversation about what needs to be underground and where it makes sense to underground is a much larger issue that needs to be approved by all parties: the counties, the cities, the (California Public Utilities Commission).”

In a follow-up email, Contreras said putting power lines underground is “not a panacea.” Underground power lines are still vulnerable to weather-related damage, including from lightning strikes, earthquakes and flooding, and they can also be damaged by third-party excavation work, Contreras said.

Underground lines also can take nearly twice as long to repair when damaged, and it costs about $2.3 million per mile to put overhead lines in the ground, according to Contreras.

PG&E has already finished trenching 2.5 miles of the nearly 4 miles planned in Larkfield, and is on track to finish reconstructing those underground lines by the end of the year, Contreras said.

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Houses ‘flying off the shelf’

Meanwhile, rebuilding in the greater Larkfield-Wikiup and Mark West area picked up some steam over the past month.

Fairfield-based Silvermark Construction Services celebrated completion of the first rebuilt home on Willow Green Place in June, and the company has sold many of the 14 homes it’s rebuilding nearby over the past month, according to David Hosking, the company’s chief operating officer.

“People came in and were able to see a finished product and boom: the houses started flying off the shelf,” Hosking said. “It’s hard for somebody to go buy something and it’s just dirt, but every one of these have framing or some sort of something going on. And that’s why they’ve sold.”

Hosking expects occupancy approval on another home by the end of the month and one more in early August.

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Newly framed homes popping up

Silvermark’s initial focus was buying lots from fire survivors who didn’t plan to rebuild and then selling them to others. Now, the company has seen an uptick in fire survivors looking to rebuild homes they will move into.

“It feels like a lot of people are going like, OK, we better make some decisions,” Hosking said. Between last weekend and Monday, Hosking said he signed up four “design-builds:” one in Coffey Park and three in Larkfield.

Throughout the area around Old Redwood Highway and Mark West Springs Road - a region once dominated by charred rubble and empty lots - the sight of newly framed homes is now familiar. Chandler’s house is one of those going up.

“It’s starting to feel real again,” he said. “It’s starting to come back to life.”

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Offering feedback on recovery

The county also held a fire recovery community meeting for the Mark West area July 10 at the Sonoma County Office of Education near Airport Boulevard.

About 70 people showed up to provide feedback that will inform a disaster recovery plan being developed by the county government.

Michael Gossman, the deputy county administrator heading the Office of Recovery and Resiliency, compared it to a similar meeting held recently in Sebastopol. The Mark West meeting, which had a higher share of fire survivors, focused more on improving the county’s alert and warning capabilities, criticized by many in the area as insufficient during the fires.

“I think it’s because of the number of survivors in that area and how close they were to the fires,” Gossman said. “We’re all at risk for some type of disaster, but I think people who either went through it or lived near it in (supervisory) District 4 are going to feel a little more sensitive to the next one.”

The county has another community meeting planned for Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Finley Community Center and another on Aug. 8. at the Sonoma Veterans Memorial Building, also at the same time. The recovery plan is expected to be presented to the Board of Supervisors in September.

You can reach Staff Writer J.D. Morris at 707-521-5337 or jd.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @thejdmorris.