The Board of Forestry met on March 3 to discuss, in part, the
ongoing Fire Safe Regulation development. Of particular concern
was an issue regarding wildfire rebuilds. A local government
coalition of CSAC, Rural County Representatives of California,
and the Urban Counties of California prompted this discussion
with a
letter to the Board last month. Our review of the current
version of the rules revealed that certain wildfire rebuilds
would not be allowable under the proposed rules. This was the
topic of extensive conversation at the
February 24 Fire Safe Regulations regulatory workshop, where
staff presented their case for not allowing wildfire rebuilds in
certain circumstances, where a road was not up to specific codes.
The board spent a good amount of their time weighing the issue at
both the workshop and full board meeting. Board members also
discussed what they characterized as a potentially arbitrary rule
of limiting rebuilds to no more than 20 percent larger
than pre-fire square footprint.
Public comment was wide-ranging but key areas covered clarity on
which wildfire rebuilds would not be allowed under the new rules,
clarifying language for either the local fire enforcement or
planning code enforcement, and the rebuild size allowed,
including for accessory dwelling units. In most cases, the board
concurred in part with the public comments—and asked staff to
revisit these key areas. Several experts suggested the board take
time to work more closely with local planners, fire departments,
and elected officials to run scenarios on the draft regulations
to really begin to understand the implications of the rules in
the order, and others suggested a general slowdown of the rules
to improve overall outcomes.
The board directed staff to take the feedback received through
these recent workshops and meetings into a draft for a 45-day
rule. The board intends to convene a special board meeting on
this subject later this month to consider a new draft of the
rules, with the intent to put the rules out for 45-day comment.
