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Yucaipa adopts state wildfire severity maps into safety element; urgency ordinance enacted
Summary
Council adopted an urgency ordinance to incorporate the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s updated fire-hazard severity maps into the city safety element and to align associated building-code provisions for very high, high and moderate fire-severity zones.
The City Council voted unanimously on July 28 to adopt an urgency ordinance (No. 4-59U) and introduce ordinance No. 4-59 to incorporate the state’s updated Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps into the city’s general-plan safety element and to align local building-code requirements accordingly.
City staff told the council the state’s revised maps add a “moderate” severity band that the city will designate FR-3, in addition to FR-1 (very high) and FR-2 (high). The change will mean that future construction in mapped high- and very-high-severity areas will be subject to enhanced, fire-resistant building standards required by state law; staff emphasized that the map updates themselves do not directly change homeowners’ insurance policies, although insurers may use similar data when setting rates.
Why it matters: the adopted changes are required to keep the city’s general plan consistent with state mapping and to meet statutory deadlines; they also trigger specific building-code standards for properties mapped in higher-severity zones.
The council approved the urgency ordinance to meet the state timeline; staff said a companion development-code update will follow to align site-review procedures and building-code cross-references. Staff also noted the safety element is under review by the state Board of Forestry, which may recommend minor conforming edits.
Councilmembers did not request substantive changes and asked staff to finalize any minor edits recommended by the state board.
