On Thursday, the Board of Forestry (BOF) noticed a special meeting to discuss and possibly approve its Fire Safe Regulations proposal for submission to the Office of Administrative Law. Once the proposed rulemaking is published in the Regulatory Notice Register, the formal 45-day public comment period will begin. It is anticipated that a revised draft of the proposal will be released prior to the BOF meeting.
The current proposal, released February 8th, continues to include language that preludes all development on roads that fail to meet specified standards. These “no-build” areas apply to the construction of Accessory Dwelling units and wildfire rebuilds.
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. RCRC, along with the California State Association of Counties and the Urban Counties of California, submitted comments to the BOF 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.
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.