(1) Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to identify areas in the state as very high fire hazard severity zones based on specified criteria and the severity of the fire hazard. Existing law requires that a person who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains an occupied dwelling or structure in, upon, or adjoining a mountainous area, forest-covered land, brush-covered land, grass-covered land, or land that is covered with flammable material that is within a very high fire hazard severity zone, as designated by a local agency, or a building or structure in, upon, or adjoining those areas or lands within a state responsibility area, to maintain a defensible space of 100 feet from each side and from the front and rear of the structure, as specified. A repeated violation within a specified timeframe of those requirements is a
crime.
This bill would require a person described above to utilize more intense fuel reductions between 5 and 30 feet around the structure, and to create a noncombustible zone within 5 feet of the structure. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime or expand the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
This bill would require each local agency having jurisdiction of property upon which conditions that are regulated by the defensible space provisions described above apply to annually report to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection the number of inspections,
enforcement actions, and estimated compliance rates with those provisions for the property within its jurisdiction. By imposing additional reporting requirements on local agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
This bill would require each local agency having jurisdiction of property upon which conditions that are regulated by the defensible space provisions described above and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to make reasonable efforts to provide notice to affected residents of the above requirements before imposing penalties for a violation of those requirements.
This bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to (A) ensure the inspection of each known structure within a state responsibility area at least once every 3 years, (B) periodically review and provide spot checks of defensible space requirements compliance in areas where contract counties enforce those
requirements within a state responsibility area or within a very high fire hazard severity zone designated by a local agency, (C) provide biannual training to applicable local officials on defensible space inspections, and (D) take all feasible steps to improve compliance with defensible space requirements.
This bill, in addition to other penalties in existing law, would subject a person, including a landowner, who is determined by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to be in violation of those defensible space requirements within a state responsibility area to an administrative civil penalty in an amount not to exceed the greater of $500 or the cost to perform or contract for the work necessary to comply with those requirements, as provided. If a person fails to pay a penalty imposed by the department pursuant these provisions, the bill would authorize the department to record a lien on the property in the amount of the penalty assessed by the
department, and would provide that, upon recordation, the lien shall have the force, effect, and priority of a judgment lien. The bill would establish the Defensible Space Penalty Fund in the State Treasury and would require penalties collected pursuant to these provisions to be deposited into that fund and to be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for fire prevention work conducted by the department.
(2) Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to develop, periodically update, and post on its internet website a guidance document on fuels management for purposes of very high fire hazard severity zones, as designated by a local agency, and requires the guidance document to include, but not be limited to, regionally appropriate vegetation management suggestions that preserve and restore native species.
This bill would limit these native species, for purposes of
the guidance document, to those that are fire resistant or drought tolerant, or both.
(3) Existing law provides that the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection may authorize the removal of vegetation that is not consistent with specified standards regarding defensible space, as provided.
This bill would require the director to, where necessary and feasible, use members of the California Conservation Corps, a local conservation corps, a resource conservation district, fire safe councils, or other entities deemed appropriate by the director to remove that vegetation.
(4) Existing law requires a person that owns, controls, operates, or maintains an electrical transmission or distribution line upon mountainous land, or in forest-covered land, brush-covered land, or grass-covered land, to maintain certain clearances between all vegetation
and all conductors that are carrying electric current during those times and in those areas determined to be necessary by the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection or the agency with primary responsibility for the fire protection of those areas. A violation of this provision and other specified provisions relating to fire prevention requirements is a crime.
This bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Public Utilities Commission, on or before January 31, 2021, to develop a guidebook of tree and shrub species that, if planted in the vicinity of electrical transmission and distribution lines, could not come into
contact with conductors due to growth, anticipated wind conditions, or structural defects, or any of these, cannot encroach within 10 feet of overhead conductors at any time, and would require the guidebook to contain recommended native vegetation to plant in the vicinity of electrical transmission and distribution lines and towers that provides habitat benefits. The bill would prohibit landowners, on or after January 31, 2021, from planting tree species in the vicinity of electrical transmission and distribution lines that have not been identified in, or in a location that would be inconsistent with, the provisions of that guidebook. The bill would prohibit landowners, on or after January 31, 2021, from planting vegetation near electrical transmission and distribution lines and towers that can encroach within 10 feet of overhead conductors at any time. Because a violation of those prohibitions
on landowners would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
This bill would provide that any person who owns, controls, operates, or maintains any electrical transmission or distribution line, the Public Utilities Commission, or the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, after providing notice and an opportunity to be heard to the landowner, is authorized to access properties in which vegetation has been planted in violation of those prohibitions on landowners for purposes of removing that vegetation at the landowner’s expense.
This bill would specify that the above provisions apply in either both a high fire threat district, as determined by the Public Utilities Commission, or
and a state responsibility area.
(5) Existing law sets forth findings and declarations of the Legislature relating to the benefits of the state’s expertise in wildland fire prevention and vegetation management on forest, range, and watershed lands.
This bill would revise those findings and declarations of the Legislature.
(6) Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to assist local governments in preventing future wildland fire and vegetation management problems by making its wildland fire prevention and vegetation management expertise available to local governments to the extent possible within the department’s budgetary limitations.
This bill instead would require the department to assist local governments in preventing future high
intensity wildland fires and instituting appropriate fuels management by making its wildland fire prevention and vegetation management expertise and dedicated fuels reduction crews available to local governments to the extent possible within the department’s budgetary limitations. The bill would explicitly define, for these purposes, “local governments” to include cities, counties, special districts, and water and electrical utilities. The bill would authorize the department to establish a cost-share or in-kind contribution requirement for any fuel reduction work conducted pursuant to these provisions, and would require the department to explore opportunities to use its dedicated fuel reduction crews for areas in proximity to common ignition sources, including, but not limited to, roadways, electrical infrastructure, and campgrounds.
(7) Existing law authorizes a county, by resolution, to loan moneys to certain local and regional districts to
enable those districts to perform their functions and meet their obligations.
This bill would include a resource conservation district as a district eligible for a loan from a county.
(8) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.