KWPOA Monthly Newsletter

Volume 357 | August 2025

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President's Note

Dear Neighbors,

We are pleased to welcome KWPOA’s new Hazard Mitigation Specialist, Zac Meier. He is replacing Heather Hill, who recently left us to focus on a full-time job opportunity. We thank her for her great work in the neighborhood!

Zac is a former wildland firefighter turned wildfire mitigation specialist with close to a decade of experience in land stewardship, fuels reduction, and community wildfire preparedness. He currently serves as the Stewardship Coordinator with the Pacifica Land Trust and is the founder of the Village Wildfire Collective, a grassroots initiative focused on education-driven home hardening and defensible space for communities within the wildland-urban interface. Zac has supported homeowners and land managers across the Bay Area, combining technical field expertise with a hands-on, neighbor-to-neighbor approach to wildfire resilience.

Zac spent multiple seasons on wildland fire engines and hand crews, gaining first-hand insight into fire behavior, structural vulnerabilities, and the conditions that lead to loss — or survival.

For the KWPOA, we're looking forward to Zac applying his experience to help property owners implement practical, site-specific strategies for home hardening, defensible space, and long-term risk reduction. He will also be helping us along the process of enforcement of our CC&R's in keeping our neighborhood safe. His work emphasizes education, clarity, and action — always balancing safety, ecology, and the unique character of each landscape. He’s excited to bring his skills, energy, and passion for wildfire resilience to the Kent Woodlands community, and we’re thrilled to have him on board.

You'll see Zac around the neighborhood and at our monthly board meetings, and he's always available to be reached for a no-charge assessment of the potential risks that fire poses to your property by emailing him at fire@kwpoa.com.

Sincerely,

Jeff Leh, President

A REMINDER REGARDING CONSTRUCTION AND RELATED NOISE:

Construction is allowed Monday through Friday from 7 am to 6 pm and Saturday from 9 am to 5 pm
Construction is prohibited on Sundays and holidays (New Year's Day, President's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day)
Loud noise-generating construction-related equipment (e.g., backhoes, generators, jackhammers) can be maintained, operated, or serviced at a construction site from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday only.

Please note that other noise complaints, such as barking dogs or loud late-night music, should be reported to the Sheriff at 415-479-2311.

Grow What You Eat: Reimagining Our Yards as Food Gardens

Last week, I had the chance to visit a Kent Woodlands neighbor who has transformed their yard into a thriving food garden — and I left inspired. What was once lawn and ornamental landscaping is now bursting with tomatoes, herbs, greens, and berry bushes. It was beautiful, abundant, and deeply hopeful.

More and more homeowners are following the lead of organizations like Thrive Lot, Farmscape and Yard to Fork, which helps turn underused outdoor spaces into productive edible gardens. Our very own Erin Werner, landscape architect, can also help steer you to the right resources.

Whether it's a raised bed for vegetables, a small orchard, or a pollinator-friendly herb spiral, growing even a portion of your own food is a powerful step toward sustainability.

Home gardens can reduce your carbon footprint, improve food security, and reconnect you with seasonal rhythms. They support local biodiversity, build healthier soil, and cut down on the emissions from transporting store-bought produce. Plus, they’re deeply satisfying—there’s nothing quite like harvesting a salad from your own backyard.

Kent Woodlands is a community of thoughtful, capable people with the space and resources to lead by example. Imagine if every home here replaced even a few square feet of lawn with edible plants or native flowers. The ripple effect would be enormous!

You don’t need a green thumb—just a patch of sun, some good soil, and a little curiosity. Talk to neighbors who’ve done it, or reach out to local groups like Thrive Lot. The future is edible!

— Julie Johnson, CNKW Chair

County Five Year Paving Plan

The County recently released an interactive map showing where roads fall in their five-year master paving plan. The map indicates that the following Kent Woodands streets are scheduled for some level of repair within the next couple of years:

STREET	YEAR	TYPE OF RESURFACING
Woodland	2027	Maintenance or Preservation
Laurel	2027	Maintenance or Preservation
Treetop	2027	Maintenance or Preservation
Fern	2027	Maintenance or Preservation
Blue Ridge	2027	Maintenance or Preservation
N. Ridgewood	2027	Rehab or Reconstruction
Acorn	2027	Rehab or Reconstruction
Upland	2027	Rehab or Reconstruction
Westwood	2027	Rehab or Reconstruction
Coronet	2027	Rehab or Reconstruction
Idlewood	2027	Rehab or Reconstruction
Upper Rancheria	2027	Rehab or Reconstruction
Lower Ridgecrest	2027	Rehab or Reconstruction

RESURFACING TYPES:

Pavement preservation — Minor digouts, crack sealing, slurry seals
Preventative maintenance — More extensive digouts, slurry seals, microsurfacing, chip seals, rubberized cape seals
Pavement rehabilitation — Rubberized cape seals with leveling, asphalt concrete overlays and inlays
Pavement reconstruction — Removal and replacement of the asphalt concrete surface, cold-in-place asphalt recycling, full-depth reclamation

KWPOA will continue to advocate for more attention to our roads, but you can call the Department of Public Works at 415-473-6530 if you have specific concerns. More information on the paving plan can be found at www.publicworks.marincounty.gov/paving.

Architectural Committee Application Notices

Please direct any Architectural Committee inquiries to Kristin Tiernan at AC@kwpoa.com.

Marin County emergency officials will use the AlertMarin Emergency Notification System to provide residents with critical information and potentially life-saving instructions in the event of a wildfire or any other situation that requires evacuation. An AlertMarin notification will provide timely, clear, and accurate instructions in the form of a call, text, or email.

Then consider these helpful tips to make sure their alerts get to you at any hour of the day or night (note that instructions may vary, depending on your device):

Create a contact for “Alert Marin”
Add the phone number that Alert Marin will call from (415-473-6376) to that contact
Add the mobile number that Alert Marin will text from (88911) to that contact
For this contact, change your ringtone and text tone sound to a unique tone that will get your attention and be sure to TURN ON THE “EMERGENCY BYPASS” FUNCTION.

— NEED HELP? CONTACT THE KWPOA OFFICE AT INFO@KWPOA.COM —

NEXT REGULAR BOARD MEETING

Monday, August 25, 2025 at 6:00pm

at KWPOA office and via Zoom

Please note that this is a preliminary agenda. Final agenda and meeting link posted at office and at www.kwpoa.com/agendas-and-minutes four days prior to meeting, or is available by contacting the office at info@kwpoa.com.