(1) Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to identify areas of the state as very high fire hazard severity zones based on specified criteria. Existing law requires a local agency, within 30 days after receiving a transmittal from the director that identifies very high fire hazard severity zones, to make the information available for public review, as provided.
This bill would also require the director to identify areas of the state as moderate and high fire hazard severity zones and would require a local agency to make this information available for public review, as provided. By expanding the responsibility of a local agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(2) The California Building Standards Law provides for the adoption of building standards by state agencies by requiring all state agencies that adopt or propose adoption of any building standard to submit the building standard to the California Building Standards Commission for approval and adoption. In the absence of a designated state agency, the commission is required to adopt specific building standards, as prescribed. Existing law requires the commission to publish, or cause to be published, editions of the code in its entirety once every 3 years.
This bill would require the commission to adopt, approve, codify, and publish amendments to the California Building Standards Code that would extend provisions of the code relating to construction of new buildings in specified fire zones to land designated as moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones and land designated as wildland-urban interface fire areas, as provided.
(3) Existing law requires 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.
This bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to, on or before July 1, 2021, adopt regulations relating to defensible space requirements in vacant lots, create and maintain a public database relating to defensible space inspections and assessments conducted by the department, local agencies, or volunteers, and develop, and propose to the Legislature for consideration, a financial penalty structure to apply to landowners for whom the director has authorized the removal of vegetation that is not consistent with defensible space requirements and has made the expense of the removal a lien upon the property, as provided.
(4) Existing law requires the department to establish a local assistance grant program for fire prevention activities in the state. Exiting law requires that the eligible activities include, among other things, fire prevention activities, as provided.
This bill would also specifically include vegetation management along roadways and driveways and public education outreach regarding home and community wildfire resistance, as provided, as part of the eligible activities, as provided.
(5) Existing law requires the director to provide grants to, or enter into contracts or other cooperative agreements with, specified entities for the implementation and administration of projects and programs to improve forest health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the State Air Resources Board, as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to reduce air emissions, to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature. Existing law requires that any project or program described above that is funded with moneys from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund complies with all statutory and program requirements applicable to the use of moneys from the fund.
This bill would authorize any project or program described above, or any grant, funded from the Greenhouse Reduction Fund, to include projects or programs for vegetation management along roadways and driveways, including defensible space training, as well as public education outreach regarding home and community wildfire resistance, as provided.
This bill would require the department, in cooperation with the United States Forest Service, to establish a program for purposes of the development of specified federal environmental protection documents for landscape scale ecological restoration and fire resiliency projects on national forest lands that are at least 50,000 acres. The bill would authorize the department to contract with Native American tribes, local governments, forest collaboratives, and qualified nongovernmental organizations to develop the federal documents.
(6) 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Statutes affected:
SB 1348: 4124.5 PRC, 4799.05 PRC
02/21/20 - Introduced: 4124.5 PRC, 4799.05 PRC
05/08/20 - Amended Senate: 51178 GOV, 51178.5 GOV, 51182 GOV, 4124.5 PRC, 4291 PRC, 4799.05 PRC
SB1348: 4124.5 PRC, 4799.05 PRC