Carmel wrestles with what a fire-safe community looks like.

It was perhaps fitting that Carmel’s community planning and building director, Brandon Swanson, missed the first part of the city Planning Commission’s meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 15. He’d been in a separate meeting with the fire chief and other officials talking about a local response to a potential event like the Los Angeles fires. (There will be a presentation to Carmel City Council on Monday, Feb. 3.)

They’d been discussing the Community Wildfire Prevention Plan, completed in November 2023. The extensive plan covers the cities of Carmel, Monterey and Pacific Grove. (You can find the plan online at monterey.gov/fire.) It covers emergency notifications and also actions that can help buildings survive a wildfire, such as landscaping, building materials and clearing defensible space around the perimeter.

This plan exists primarily on paper, a broad guiding document. There are some tangible outcomes – for instance, in 2024, the Monterey Fire Department conducted 864 defensible space inspections. But a lot of what a plan like this accomplishes is education and awareness.

How to translate that awareness into tangible action puts a finer point on the broad idea of fire resilience. Architects, city planners, homeowners and policymakers are asking: Can we design our way out of the problem?

A partial answer was the subject of a lengthy conversation at the Carmel Planning Commission on Jan. 15, after Swanson arrived. It was the first in what will be a series of conversations about updating the small city’s design guidelines to reflect more contemporary needs for alternative roofing materials – in short, out with the flammable shake roof options made of wood shingles, in with composite and metal.

“We should ensure safety is never compromised.”

Most members of the public who spoke to the commission urged them to embrace alternatives to the shake roofs that have, for roughly a century, been associated with looking very Carmel.

Carmel is famous for embracing and strictly adhering to design standards that uphold what is generally described as “village character.” Sample shingles may be passed around the room for public inspection at a Planning Commission meeting – and opinions about those shingle styles and how they fit in, or not, is a hot topic.

Architect Daniela de Sola (of the firm de Sola.Barnes) urged the Planning Commission to update ideas about acceptable roofing designs. “The problem is that guidelines are in direct conflict with the Wildland Urban Interface codes and standards,” she said. “I do agree that aesthetics play a vital role in creating a sense of place and identity. However, it’s essential we should ensure safety is never compromised in favor of visual appeal.”

Not everyone in Carmel is ready to go for it. Neal Kruse, a member of the Carmel Preservation Association, spoke specifically about standing seam roofs, which have a decidedly industrial look, with visible seams along a uniform surface, rather than shingles layered on top of each other. “Are we so afraid of fire that we’re willing to lose the character of Carmel? I don’t think so,” he said.

I disagree – it’s time to accept that the future is here. On Jan. 10, as the Los Angeles fires raged, NASA announced an analysis showing that in 2024, the Earth’s temperature was 2.65 degrees Fahrenheit above 1850-1900. “The long-term trend is clear,” said Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “We’re already seeing the impact in extreme rainfall, heat waves and increased flood risk, which are going to keep getting worse as long as emissions continue.”

We are at a transformational point on our planet and in our local communities. And as commissioners see it, also for design. “We’re at a pivotal point right now – we could ultimately change the entire aesthetic of the community,” Commissioner Erin Allen said. “We can’t have every single roof metal here, it will change the look of our community.”

Indeed it will change that look – and we must envision what those communities of the future will look like.

Planning Commissioner Michael LePage seemed to see and embrace the reality. “We have to acknowledge we’re up against a situation that’s going to change that architectural character of our residential community,” he said. “We’ve got to make a change.”

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com.

PAM MARINO contributed to this report.