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Santa Rosa officials propose changes to WUI mapping after Cal Fire updates; staff caution on insurance implications
Summary
City staff proposed changes to Santa Rosa's wildland-urban interface boundaries at a subcommittee meeting, saying the redraws are informed by Cal Fire state-responsibility-area maps and local deployment and risk modeling.
City staff presented proposed redraws to Santa Rosa's wildland-urban interface (WUI) mapping at the Public Safety Subcommittee, saying updates follow Cal Fire state-responsibility-area (SRA) map releases and new modeling.
Fire Marshal Paul Oentall (as introduced in the presentation) summarized the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) history and said the CWPP analysis of Coffey Park previously did not justify adding that neighborhood to the local WUI. He said the department has monitored Cal Fire's SRA updates that began in December 2022 and released further mapping to jurisdictions in early 2025.
The Cal Fire maps and local modeling showed both increases and decreases in mapped risk across the city: Fountain Grove and areas near the fairgrounds and Taylor Mountain shifted toward higher risk, while some adjacent hillsides in Oakmont decreased. Oentall said the department proposes expanding the city's local WUI in parts of south and southeast Santa Rosa (near the fairgrounds/Montgomery High School/Creekside) and along White Oak Drive toward Highway 12 in Oakmont, and contracting other local WUI patches that the state no longer maps as high or very high.
Oentall described the administrative approach staff plan to use: where the state now maps high or very high risk, state requirements will apply; where staff recommend local WUI designations the city would apply additional local code and fire‑safety rules. He said staff will bring the recommendations to community meetings and return to council with formal recommendations and detailed explanation.
Committee members asked whether WUI remapping triggers CEQA waivers or otherwise affects housing approvals. Oentall said the maps do not provide CEQA waivers and that new CEQA considerations (for example, evacuation analysis) could be triggered by some projects; he said the city has not adopted local construction bans tied to WUI mapping and that state obligations apply in state-mapped high and very-high areas.
Council member McDonald cautioned staff and residents against assuming insurance carriers will use local maps, noting state rules restrict carrier use of local maps; he emphasized insurance decisions involve multiple factors beyond WUI mapping.
Next steps identified by staff include additional public outreach, finalizing technical recommendations informed by Cal Fire and the CWPP, and presenting a formal map-adoption package to council for action.
