BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1207
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 28, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Wesley Chesbro, Chair
SB 1207 (Kehoe) - As Amended: March 24, 2010
SENATE VOTE : 23-11
SUBJECT : General plan: safety element: fire hazard impacts.
SUMMARY : Requires a local government located in areas at risk
of wildfire to consider, by January 1, 2015, specified wildfire
hazard and risks in its review of the safety element of its
General Plan. Requires the Office of Planning and Research
(OPR) to update a fire planning report and propose changes to
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) guidelines
pertaining to fire risks.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection (Board) to
identify all lands, or state responsibility areas (SRAs) where
the state has the primary financial responsibility for
preventing and suppressing fires. Fire prevention and
suppression in areas not classified as SRAs are the
responsibility of local agencies or the federal government.
The board is required to map SRAs every five years.
2)Requires California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
(CDF) to classify and update or reclassify, if necessary, SRAs
into fire hazard severity zones for the purposes of fire
prevention and suppression. Within local responsibility
areas, CDF must identify "very high fire hazard severity
[VHFHS] zones." Both zones must be based on factors including
fuel loading, slope, and fire weather.
3)Pursuant to CEQA, requires lead agencies to prepare an EIR for
a discretionary project if an initial study shows that it may
have a significant effect on the environment. Requires OPR
to prepare guidelines to implement CEQA and to recommend
changes to the guidelines, and the Natural Resources Agency
(NRA) to certify and adopt these changes at least once every
two years.
4)Requires local governments to adopt a general plan that
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includes, among other things, a safety element. Prior to the
adoption or amendment of this element, a local government with
SRAs or a VHFHS zone must submit a draft element to the Board
and local fire agencies for review and comment.
THIS BILL :
1)Requires OPR, on or before January 1, 2012, to update its
"Fire Hazard Planning" document.
2)Requires, prior to January 1, 2015, and thereafter upon each
revision of a housing element, a safety element to be reviewed
and updated as needed to address the fire risks on SRA lands
and land classified as VHFHS zones. This review must consider
information the "Fire Hazard Planning" document and include
all of the following:
a) Information regarding fire hazards, including, but not
limited to fire hazard severity zone maps, historical data
on wildfires, and information about wildfire hazard areas
that may be available from the United States Geological
Survey.
b) General location and distribution of existing and
planned development in VHFHS zones, including structures,
roads, utilities, and essential public facilities.
c) Local, state, and federal agencies responsible for fire
protection, including special districts and local offices
of emergency services.
d) Goals, policies, and objectives for the protection of
the community from the unreasonable risk of wildfire,
including, but not limited to, all of the following:
i) Avoiding or minimizing the unreasonable risks of
wildfire to new development.
ii) Identifying construction design or methods,
including fire resistive construction materials, fuels
management methods, or other methods, to minimize damage
if new development is located in a state responsibility
area or in a VHFHS zone.
iii) Locating, when feasible, new essential public
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facilities outside of high fire risk areas, or
identifying construction methods or other methods to
minimize damage if these facilities are located in a SRA
or VHFHS zone.
iv) Working cooperatively with public agencies with
responsibility for fire protection.
e) Establish a set of feasible implementation measures
designed to carry out the above goals, policies, and
objectives.
3)Directs OPR, in cooperation with CDF, on or after January 1,
2011, at the time of the next review of the CEQA guidelines to
prepare, develop, and transmit to NRA recommended changes to
the guidelines regarding fire hazard impacts. NRA must
certify and adopt the recommended changes or amendments.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, $50,000 to OPR to update CEQA guidelines, and $65,000
to CDF to assist OPR.
COMMENTS : According to the author's office, given the
devastating wildfires the state has recently experienced, the
significant increase in development in the wildfire-urban
interface, and the doubling of fire risk over the next several
decades projected by climate change scientists, "It is in the
state's best interest to ensure that cities and counties do all
they can to engage in comprehensive and consistent fire
prevention and fire protection planning as early in the local
land use planning process as possible for projects in SRAs and
[VHFHS] zones."
1)Background : SRAs primarily consist of privately owned
forestlands, watersheds, and rangelands. According to the
Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO), roughly one-third of the
state or 31 million acres is within SRAs. SRA lands are found
in every county expect San Francisco and Sutter Counties. CDF
removes lands from SRA every five years as housing density
reaches more than three units per acre.
CDF's role in SRAs is to prevent and suppress wildland fires.
However, CDF is also authorized, but not required, to provide
rescue, first aid, and other emergency services if the
activity does not require additional funds. Moreover, it is
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the Board's policy to respond to a structure fire if it
presents a threat to wildlands. Even though state law does
not require local governments to provide fire protection
within SRAs, in practice they have assumed the responsibility
for structure protection and basic medical assistance.
According to the LAO, about 70 percent of SRAs are covered by
some form of local fire protection, funded by property taxes
or special assessments.
In 2006, while a vast majority of incidents CDF responded to
in SRAs were non-fire medical emergencies, CDF spent about 75
percent of its time fighting wildland fires, 95 percent of
which, according to CDF, were caused by humans. In its
analysis of the 2008-09 budget, the LAO found that CDF's
budget has increased 150% since 1997-98. One of the cost
drivers is increasing development in the wildland urban
interface. Despite the fact that the total acreage in SRA has
remained stable over the last 15 years, the number of housing
units in SRA has increased by 15% over this period. Based on
2005 data, the LAO reports there are about 870,000 housing
units in SRAs and the trend is upward.
2)Preventing fires through better planning : By relying strictly
on planning as a means to minimize the hazards of wildfire,
this bill takes a different approach than SB 1500 (2008,
Kehoe), which prohibited a county from approving development
on SRA lands unless it provided sufficient structural fire
protection, but is intended to lead to a similar outcome:
avoiding and minimizing the impacts of wildfire on life and
property.
Instead, this bill requires a safety element of a General Plan
to be reviewed and updated, by January 1, 2015, as needed to
consider updated fire planning advice published by OPR and
information such as the location of historical fires, existing
and planned development in fire hazard zones, and agencies
responsible for fire protection. It relies on a similar
planning approach contained in AB 162 (Wolk), Chapter 369,
Statutes of 2007, which required more comprehensive flood
hazard planning through a three-pronged approach of hazard
identification, the development of appropriate goals,
policies, and objectives to minimize flood risks, and feasible
measures to implement the above.
Local governments containing SRAs or within a VHFHS zone are
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currently required to submit the safety element of their
General Plan to the Board and local fire agencies for review
and comment (submission deadlines vary but by December 31,
2015, all local governments must submit their elements to the
Board). The Board reviews about 20 such elements a year but
given resource constraints it can only conduct a cursory
review using a standard analytical template. This review
encompasses many of the same issues required by this bill.
However, without additional resources, expanding the issues to
be included or reviewed in a safety element would undoubtedly
further constrain the ability of the Board to conduct
meaningful reviews.
3)Fire hazards may be a significant impact : CEQA requires lead
agencies to prepare an EIR for a discretionary project if an
initial study shows that it may have a significant effect on
the environment. The initial study contains questions that
help a planner determine the significance of a project's
potential impact on the environment, including a project's
wildland fire risks to people or structures. This bill would
require OPR, on or after January 1, 2011, to propose
additional questions regarding a project's potential fire
hazards impacts on SRAs or VHFH severity zones, and directs
NRA to adopt these proposed changes as part of the CEQA
guidelines. In doing so, the bill may effectively create a
new category or subset of environmental impact, the
significance of which may trigger the preparation of an EIR.
4)Previous legislation : Except for the deadlines, this bill is
identical to last year's SB 505 (Kehoe), which the Governor
vetoed. In his veto message, the Governor stated:
While I concur that counties must ensure that adequate fire
protection is available in an area before approving
additional development, I am concerned that this bill will
result in additional General Fund costs and create
significant cost pressures to maintain State Responsibility
Areas and fire hazard severity zone maps. In addition, I
am also concerned with the cost pressures this bill will
place upon local governments to implement this measure.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
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American Planning Association of California
California Fire Chiefs Association
California Native Plan Society
California Professional Firefighters
California State Firefighters' Association
Fire Districts Association of California
League of California Cities
Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority
Orange County Professional Firefighters' Association
Sierra Club California
Opposition
California State Association of Counties
County of San Bernardino
County of Orange Board of Supervisors
Regional Council of Rural Counties
Analysis Prepared by : Dan Chia / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092