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 Bill Text - SB-629 Wildfires: fire hazard severity zones: post-wildfire safety areas.

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 |Add To My Favorites |Track Bill | Version: 09/18/25 - Enrolled
 09/02/25 - Amended Assembly
 07/16/25 - Amended Assembly
 07/03/25 - Amended Assembly
 05/01/25 - Amended Senate
 03/26/25 - Amended Senate
 02/20/25 - Introduced

 SB-629 Wildfires: fire hazard severity zones: post-wildfire safety areas.(2025-2026)

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 Date Published: 09/18/2025 02:00 PM

SB629:v93#DOCUMENTBill Start

 Enrolled
 September 18, 2025

 Passed
 IN 
 Senate
 September 13, 2025

 Passed
 IN 
 Assembly
 September 12, 2025

 Amended
 IN 
 Assembly
 September 02, 2025

 Amended
 IN 
 Assembly
 July 16, 2025

 Amended
 IN 
 Assembly
 July 03, 2025

 Amended
 IN 
 Senate
 May 01, 2025

 Amended
 IN 
 Senate
 March 26, 2025

 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

 Senate Bill

No. 629

Introduced by Senator Durazo
(Principal coauthors: Senators Cortese, Menjivar, Pérez, Reyes, Smallwood-Cuevas, and Stern)

February 20, 2025

 An act to amend Sections 51178, 51181, and 65302 of, and to add Section 51179.5 to, the Government Code, and to amend Sections 4202 and 4204 of the Public Resources Code, relating to wildfires. 

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SB 629, Durazo.
 Wildfires: fire hazard severity zones: post-wildfire safety areas.

Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal to identify areas of the state as moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones based on specified criteria. Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal to periodically review the areas in the state identified as very high fire hazard severity zones, as specified. Existing law requires a local agency, within 30 days after receiving a transmittal from the State Fire Marshal that identifies those fire hazard severity zones, to make the information available for public review and comment, and to present the information in a format that is understandable and accessible to the general public, including, but not limited to, maps. Existing law requires a person who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains an occupied dwelling or structure in a very high fire hazard severity zone to take certain fire risk management measures,
 including maintaining defensible space of 100 feet from each side of the structure, except as provided. Existing law requires the Office of the State Fire Marshal to develop a model defensible space program, as provided, that includes, but is not limited to, specified components, including enforcement mechanisms for compliance with and maintenance of defensible space requirements. Existing law includes among these enforcement mechanisms, among other things, site inspections.

This bill would require the factors on which the fire severity zones are based to include areas within the perimeter of a wildfire that burned 1,000 or more acres, destroyed more than 10 structures, or resulted in a fatality, and to include areas at risk for an urban conflagration that accounts for the potential for structures to serve as a fuel source that extends the ember cast outside of wildland areas and areas where agricultural land affects fire hazard. The bill would require the State
 Fire Marshal to publish the model and methodology used to develop the fire hazard severity zones on its internet website at least 60 days before finalizing those designations and to publish the model and methodology for specified factors whenever the State Fire Marshal reviews the fire severity zones.

This bill would require the State Fire Marshal to designate any area that is within the perimeter of a wildfire described above occurring on or after January 1, 2025, as a post-wildfire safety area, as defined, and to transmit a map of the post-wildfire safety area to any local agency with jurisdiction over territory in the designated area within a specified timeframe. Within a certain timeframe following the transmission of the map by the State Fire Marshal, this bill would require the designation of a post-wildfire safety area to trigger the application of state fire protection standards, as defined, in the area. The bill would exempt any designation of a
 post-wildfire safety area by the State Fire Marshal from the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act. The bill would require a local agency to, within 10 business days of receiving the map, post a notice at the office of the county re