AB 2517: Fire safety: fire hazard severity zones.

Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal to identify areas in the state that are not state responsibility areas, commonly known as local responsibility areas, as moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones based on consistent statewide criteria and based on the severity of fire hazard that is expected to prevail in those areas. Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal to periodically review and make recommendations relative to very high fire hazard severity zones within local responsibility areas. Under existing law, this review is required to coincide with review of state responsibility area lands every 5 years and, when possible, fall within the timeframes for each county’s general plan update. Existing law requires a local agency to designate, by ordinance, moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones in its jurisdiction within 120 days of receiving the recommendations from the State Fire Marshal. Existing law authorizes a local agency to, at its discretion, include areas within its jurisdiction not identified as very high fire hazard severity zones by the State Fire Marshal as very high fire hazard severity zones and areas not identified as moderate and high fire hazard severity zones by the State Fire Marshal as moderate and high fire hazard severity zones. Under existing law, a local agency is required to transmit a copy of an this adopted ordinance to the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection within 30 days of adoption. Existing law provides that changes made by a local agency to the recommendations made by the State Fire Marshal are final.

This bill would require the State Fire Marshal to, no fewer than 180 days before finalizing the designation of local responsibility areas as moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones, post specified information relating to those designations on its public internet website, conduct regional public workshops to receive oral public comments and consider those comments, provide at least one workshop on the draft maps for stakeholder participation, host a 30-day public comment period to receive written comments from interested stakeholders and stakeholders, respond to all written comments by local agencies regarding land use and zoning matters that address the accuracy of the data used by the State Fire Marshal for those designations within 30 days of the end of the public comment period, and coordinate with other state agencies to help educate the public during the public workshops, their constituencies, as specified. The bill would also require, on or before January 1, 2030, and every 5 years thereafter, the State Fire Marshal to review the local responsibility area lands designated as moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones and to recommend changes. The bill would no longer require end the requirement that this review to, review, when possible, fall within the timeframes for each county’s general plan update. The bill would authorize a local agency to, at its discretion, increase the level of fire hazard severity applicable to a parcel in its jurisdiction if a parcel contains 2 or more designations, so that the higher level of fire hazard severity would apply to the entire parcel. parcel and include documentation of existing wildfire mitigation efforts or programs implemented locally within the fire hazard severity zones in its jurisdiction. The bill would require the State Fire Marshal to publish within 60 days the local ordinance transmitted to the board, as described above, on its internet website.