Title
First Reading of an Ordinance to Repeal Ordinance No. 2009-001 and Adopt a New Ordinance Relating to Fire Hazard Severity Zones
Staffreport
COUNCIL PRIORITY
• Public Safety
SUMMARY
On February 24, 2025, CAL FIRE released the 2025 Local Responsibility Area (LRA) Fire Hazard Severity Maps. CAL FIRE, in coordination with the Office of the State Fire Marshal, is required to periodically update these maps and severity zones and notify local governments before releasing updated severity zone maps for both the State Responsibility Areas (SRA) and LRA.
As a local government, the City is required to adopt, by ordinance, updated Fire Hazard Severity Zones (FHSZ) within the City’s boundaries within 120 days of being published. As a result of these maps being released, there have been local changes that include the addition of High and Moderate Fire Hazard Severity Zones, and the elimination of the Very High Fire Severity Zones.
RECOMMENDATION
To effectuate the new FHSZs, repealing Ordinance No. 2009-001, which designates the current Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones within the City’s limits, is necessary. Staff recommends that the Council introduce for first reading an ordinance designating Moderate and High Fire Hazard Severity Zones in the City of San Leandro as recommended by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and in accordance with Government Code Section 51178.
BACKGROUND
In 2009, the City accepted the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s (CAL FIRE) recommendations as to the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones (FHSZ). City Council passage of an ordinance was required to comply with the requirements of Government Code Section 51179. Other options were not available to the City given that no prior provisions were established prior to 1994 and given that in 1995 the City accepted the Bates Maps (as defined and provided by AB 337). The Bates Bill was prompted after the devastating Oakland Hills Fire of 1991.
Adoption of that ordinance was consistent with the City’s past practice, which first adopted such maps in July 1994. The proposed ordinance is therefore a third update to prior actions. It should be noted that in 1994 and again in 2009 the Bates Bill called for CAL FIRE to identify only Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones in the Local Response Area (LRA). In 2021 AB 642 and SB 63 required CAL FIRE to identify Moderate and High FHSZs in the LRA. The 2009 maps established a small Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone in the City. This area was limited to the eastern most streets within the City. The 2025 maps have increased the City’s overall area of coverage, but downgraded the entire area from Very High, to High and Moderate FHSZ.
The adoption of this ordinance in and of itself will result in some minimal additional impacts to citizens as a whole. Within both the High and Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone the impacts to new construction projects will remain the same. New projects will need to comply with the requirements set forth in Chapter 7A of the 2007 California Building Code.
Chapter 7A requirements only affect new construction. Remodels and additions to existing structures are not affected. The regulation establishes minimum standards for the protection of life and property by increasing the ability of a building located in a High or Very High Fire Hazard Zone to resist the intrusion of flames or burning embers projected by a vegetation fire. The regulation requires Fire Resistive Materials on the exterior of the building and closure of roof vents. The City of San Leandro’s Building Department has similar standards in place today.
Under the new ordinance, property owners in High and Very High FHSVs are also required to make a natural hazard disclosure as part of a real estate transfer. Alameda County Fire Department Code (ACFD) Compliance Officers will handle this requirement.
Analysis
It should be noted that local jurisdictions are permitted to designate areas not identified as Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones by the State Fire Marshal as Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones following a finding supported by substantial evidence in the record that the requirements of Government Code Section 51182 are necessary for effective fire protection within the area. California Government Code Section 51182 speaks to 100-foot defensible space clearance requirements. Staff recommends adopting the new maps as they are.
Staff recommends against stricter Very High FHSZ adoption. The reasons are several:
• In addition to 100-foot (Zone 2) and 30-foot (Zone 1) defensible space requirements, the State will very likely adopt 5-foot (Zone 0) requirements for Very High FHSZs. The City would have to adopt another new neighborhood protection ordinance to enforce these clearance requirements. The consequences are likely to include substantial costs required to inspect, notice, cite, fine, abate, and issue liens. Departments impacted would include Community Development, Police, Legal, and Fire.
• Staff fully supports the above-mentioned defensible space clearance recommendations in the wildland-urban interface area. The key distinction is the way the City gains compliance. The Alameda County Fire Department already performs defensible space clearance inspections for the City and will continue to do so. Community education and engagement has proven to be substantially more effective than adopting an ordinance that will trigger enforcement. The education strategy is more friendly to homeowners and contractors for maintenance and remodeling. It yields more participation and incentivizes permitted work. In 2020 Marin County voters passed a parcel tax that created the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority. This JPA includes 17 agencies, including every city in the County, and has $19,000,000 per year to fund robust wildfire safety projects. Only one city, San Rafael, has a mandatory defensible space policy. Other agencies report that they have chosen not to mandate due to the policy’s cost and ineffectiveness in gaining compliance.
• Insurance companies are likely to drive compliance in defensible space and home hardening in the near future.
• CAL FIRE’s FHSZ map evaluates “hazard,” not “risk”. The map is like flood zone maps, where lands are described in terms of the probability level of a particular area being inundated by floodwaters, and not specifically prescriptive of impacts. “Hazard” is based on the physical conditions that create a likelihood and expected fire behavior over a 30 to 50-year period without considering mitigation measures such as home hardening, recent wildfire, or fuel reduction efforts. “Risk” is the potential damage a fire can do to the area under existing conditions, accounting for any modifications such as fuel reduction projects, defensible space, and ignition resistant building construction.
• CAL FIRE used the best available science and data to develop, and field test a model that served as a basis of zone assignments. The model evaluated the probability of the area burning and potential fire behavior in the area. The model’s factors include fire history, vegetation, flame length, blowing embers, proximity to wildland, terrain, and weather.
• Insurance companies use risk models, which differ from hazard models, because they consider the susceptibility of a structure to damage from fire and other short-term factors that are not included in hazard modeling. It is unlikely that insurance risk models specifically call out CAL FIRE Fire Hazard Severity Zones as a factor, but much of the same data that is used in the fire hazard severity zone model are likely included in the insurance companies’ risk models. However, insurance risk models incorporate many additional factors and factors that change more frequently than those that CAL FIRE includes in its hazard mapping, which is built to remain steady for the next 10+ years.
In addition to defensible space inspections and education, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training, and Personal Emergency Preparedness (PEP) training, ACFD will host at least two additional Emergency Preparedness workshops, and more if there is demand.
Legislative Updates related to this Ordinance
• Senate Bill 63 (2021) now requires FHSZ classifications to include Moderate and High Fire Hazard Severity Zones in addition to Very High, expanding fire hazard oversight.
• Assembly Bill 337 (1992) originally mandated the identification of Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones following devastating wildfires.
• Assembly Bill 211 (2022) requires local agencies to adopt Moderate, High, and Very High FHSZ designations within 120 days of receipt of State recommendations. However, local governments cannot downgrade hazard levels identified by the state but may increase them if justified.
Current Agency Policies
• ORDINANCE NO. 2009-001 ORDINANCE ADDING CHAPTER 21 TO TITLE III OF THE SAN LEANDRO MUNICIPAL CODE, RELATING TO VERY HIGH FIRE HAZARD SEVERITY ZONES
• CBC Chapter 7A
Code Compliance Review
Fire Code Compliance staff reviewed real estate transfer inspection requirement.
Legal Analysis
The City Attorney reviewed the staff report, and proposed ordinance for internal consistency and legal form.
ATTACHMENTS
A: Draft Ordinance
B: Ordinance No. 2009-001
PREPARED BY:
Paige Bowie, Division Chief, Alameda County Fire Department