Under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order implementing AB 3074, and through the local adoption of ordinances 2025-02 and 2025-03, this far-reaching mandate is the latest headache for homeowners in San Diego County. Zone Zero rules are part of the 2026 California Wildland-Urban Interface Code, and they require property owners to remove all combustible materials within five feet of their home. While that may seem common sense at first glance, the devil is in the details.
Zone Zero requires the removal of everything from wooden fences to mulch to excess potted plants; all basic features of our North County homes. Especially upsetting is that these fences help maintain property lines, increase home security, and keep pets and kids safe. Zone Zero turns them into liabilities by executive order.
Estimates indicate that complying with these new rules will cost homeowners thousands, with fence replacements alone exceeding $15,000. For large properties in Fallbrook, this estimate is no doubt on the low end. Statewide, this total could amount to billions of dollars of burden on working families, older adults and all of us who are simply trying to keep food on the table. The cost of living is already astronomical in California, and this is Sacramento adding yet another mandated bill for families.
But here’s what’s even more frustrating: the North County fire board held the first hearing on adopting this fire code with zero pushback to Sacramento; no resistance and no advocacy for local control. No voice was raised for taxpayers who will ultimately shoulder the cost, even with people voicing their concerns to the fire board. Despite the wave of residents’ concern, there was no pushback to Sacramento.
51182.
(a) A person who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains an occupied dwelling or occupied structure in, upon, or adjoining a mountainous area, forest-covered land, shrub-covered land, grass-covered land, or land that is covered with flammable material, which area or land is within a very high fire hazard severity zone designated by the local agency pursuant to Section 51179, shall at all times do all of the following:
(1) (A) Maintain defensible space of 100 feet from each side and from the front and rear of the structure, but not beyond the property line except as provided in subparagraph (B). The amount of fuel modification necessary shall consider the flammability of the structure as affected by building material, building standards, location, and type of vegetation. Fuels shall be maintained and spaced in a condition so that a wildfire burning under average weather conditions would be unlikely to ignite the structure. This subparagraph does not apply to single specimens of trees or other vegetation that are well-pruned and maintained so as to effectively manage fuels and not form a means of rapidly transmitting fire from other nearby vegetation to a structure or from a structure to other nearby vegetation or to interrupt the advance of embers toward a structure. The intensity of fuels management may vary within the 100-foot perimeter of the structure, with more intense fuel reductions being used between 5 and 30 feet around the structure, and an ember-resistant zone being required within 5 feet of the structure, based on regulations promulgated by the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, in consultation with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, to consider the elimination of materials in the ember-resistant zone that would likely be ignited by embers. The promulgation of these regulations by the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection is contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute for this purpose. Consistent with fuels management objectives, steps should be taken to minimize erosion, soil disturbance, and the spread of flammable nonnative grasses and weeds.
Bill #3074 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB3074
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