This week the Board of Forestry (BOF) held its first webinar to discuss the latest draft of the State Fire Safe regulations, released February 8th. RCRC, along with the California State Association of Counties and the Urban Counties of California, submitted comments to the BOF last week on the revised proposal, outlining the extremely detrimental impacts the new regulations will have in all areas of that state, but particularly in rural areas. The most concerning aspect of the rulemaking is the ban on any building construction, including wildfire rebuilds, on existing roads that fail to meet minimum standards.
The State Fire Safe regulations set forth basic wildfire protection standards for development in the State Responsibility Area and, beginning July 1, 2021, the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones of the Local Responsibility Area. As reflected in our comments, the BOF proposal will have extremely detrimental impacts on rural areas of the state, essentially creating “no-build zones” in some communities, prohibiting all residential and commercial building construction, including disaster rebuilds.
For updates from the BOF on the Fire Safe Regulations and other activities of the BOF Resource Protection Committee, subscribe to email updates here. And, for more information, please contact Tracy Rhine.