California is no stranger to wildfires. This year alone has seen 7,068 wildfires burning over 521,000 acres, according to CAL FIRE, the state's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Factors such as dry vegetation, changes in precipitation, powerful winds, warmer temperatures, and human causes like campfires and arson contribute to wildfire risk. Given the regularity of wildfire season across the West Coast and California, wildfire risk has moved from an environmental concern to a central factor in land use planning in Southern California.
Wildfire Risk Trends: What Southern California Land Use Planners Can't Ignore
As a result of climate change causing hotter, longer dry seasons and droughts, combined with past land and forest management practices, such as fire suppression, which allowed ladder fuels and dense underbrush to accumulate, the risk of wildfire ignition has significantly increased.
The increase in ignition risk and an increase in high-consequence fire events have focused state and local agencies on how to reduce impacts. These catastrophic events, such as the Eaton, Palisades, and Kenneth fires, destroy many structures, cause fatalities, displace communities, disrupt infrastructure, and cost billions.
To effectively reduce these significant impacts, it is crucial to implement evolving land use planning strategies. This includes proactively restricting and modifying existing development codes.
Over recent decades, housing growth has expanded into California's wildland-urban interface (WUI), or the zone of transition between development and undeveloped wildlands. From 1990 to 2020, there has been an influx of housing units in California's WUI, partially due to general population growth coupled with residents' desire to obtain more affordable housing. This growth, however, comes with a complex set of challenges and considerations, especially concerning wildfire risk, environmental impact, and the future of sustainable development in California.
Key State and Local Regulations Developers and Property Owners Should Be Aware Of
The California Legislature recently passed bills related to wildfires, Assembly Bill (AB) 1 and Senate Bill (SB) 616. SB 616 creates a commission within the Department of Insurance to recommend improvements to home hardening and tying resilient building methods to insurance discounts. AB 1 would enhance insurance discounts by requiring the Department of Insurance to regularly review the existing "Safer from Wildfire" regulations for updates reflecting advances in science, safety, and mitigation.
Other legislation, such as the Wildfire Hazard Legislation and Safety Element Planning and Zoning Law, mandates that cities and counties adopt a comprehensive general plan, which must incorporate a safety element designed to protect communities from diverse hazards, particularly wildfires. Furthermore, it stipulates that land use policies within very high fire hazard severity zones and state responsibility areas must emphasize the preservation of life, property, and natural resources.
Aside from legislation, developers and property owners should familiarize themselves with the 2025 California Wildland Urban Interface Code (CWUIC) that consolidates, strengthens, and clarifies requirements for structures in fire hazard zones. These requirements that address fire spread, water supply, and fire-resistant materials are included as part of the Title 24 State Building Code updates for 2025.
California's various fire hazard severity maps are also key, as they have become foundational in informing planning, building codes, and where special regulations must apply. Recent revisions to these maps include much more area as very high and high fire hazard zones than previous map iterations. Such designation precludes certain types of sensitive development and eliminates the application of streamlined permitting statutes for residential development and significantly impacts a homeowner's ability to obtain insurance.
Wildfire and wildfire evacuation risk are becoming increasingly more important components of a local agency's analysis under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Historically, such analysis was brief and cursory in CEQA documents. However, following several recent Court of Appeal decisions, including People ex rel. Bonta v. County of Lake (2024) and Center for Biological Diversity v. County of Los Angeles (2025), local agencies are having to place a greater focus on the analysis of wildfire impacts in CEQA documents and develop mitigation as necessary to address identified impacts.
How Increased Compliance Costs Affect Development Decisions
It's no secret that Southern California needs more housing. However, increased compliance costs, like home hardening, defensible space, ensuring proper building materials, enforcing landscaping regulations, and retrofitting existing development, are expensive and politically contentious. The increased cost and difficulty of developing new housing in high-fire areas naturally incentivize development in more urban, developed areas, leading to more dense, infill development that helps meet the state's housing needs instead of development into WUI zones.
Legal Risks When Failing to Meet Wildfire-Related Requirements
Owners and developers failing to meet evolving wildfire-related requirements can face monetary fines and assessments. Local governments can issue notices of violations (NOVs), order corrective action, and impose administrative fees.
California Government Code sections, like § 25845, allows the Board of Supervisors and counties to remove hazards and recover costs from property owners. Such costs can include contractor, inspection, and administrative costs. Unpaid abatement costs can become liens on the property or special assessments. In some jurisdictions, fines can escalate to repeat infractions, and repeated or egregious violations may lead to misdemeanor charges.
Apart from costs, sellers of residential property are required by law to disclose wildfire vulnerabilities, compliance with defensible space management laws, or whether home hardening requirements have been met. Failure to disclose can lead to legal claims from buyers.
Additionally, non-compliance can lead to insurance coverage being denied or claims rejected if, after a fire, it is discovered that required mitigation or building safety measures were not met. Insurance companies and regulators are increasingly looking at risk management in underwriting.
Addressing Wildfire Risk: Developer Best Practices in Planning and Approval
There are a number of best practices and strategies developers can use to address wildfire risk, including site selection and orientation, density and clustering to reduce project exposure and interface with combustible fuel sources, and development of defensible space and vegetation management. Other strategies include the implementation of upgraded water and fire suppression systems and increased use of fire-resistant construction exceeding state and local building codes.
How Wildfire Risk Will Shape the Decade Ahead
As wildfire risk continues to influence California's land-use laws and development policies, this trend is expected to intensify, including the adoption of more stringent building codes by state and local agencies in the coming years.
California is already providing guidance to local agencies on mitigating fire hazards, including evacuation planning, emergency access, and building hardening, through resources such as the Office of the Attorney General's mitigation guidance for local governments.
As wildfire severity increases, so too will pressures on insurance and housing affordability. Concerns are growing over the availability and cost of insurance in high-risk areas. Homes in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) and other high-fire-risk zones will become increasingly difficult to develop, sell, and insure, shifting desirable development to more urban, less risky areas. Newly passed legislation, such as the California Safe Homes Act, aims to increase home resilience through measures like fire-safe roofing and creating defensible space near homes, helping to address the insurance challenges.
Given the evolving regulatory landscape and the complexity of wildfire-related requirements, property owners and developers should consult an attorney to ensure compliance, understand liability risks, and navigate insurance and development challenges effectively.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
