Advisory committee hears briefing on townwide WUI standards, 100-foot defensible-space rules

The Environmental Design and Planning Committee (EDPC) received a detailed briefing on the town's wildfire policies and how recent code changes will apply across Los Altos Hills.

Jay Bridal, the presenter, said the town adopted Cal Fire's published hazard map and has consolidated Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) standards into Part 7, Chapter 6 of the building code. "We ended up adopting the map as was published from Cal Fire and the map is representative here," Bridal said, explaining the basis for updated vegetation and construction requirements.

Why it matters: staff and members said the consolidated code creates a single framework for defensible space and home-hardening standards that will guide future site reviews and building permits. Bridal described two different planning documents: fire plans for larger developments and vegetation plans for single-family projects, and said the consolidated standards cover roof materials, gutters, chimney clearances and other structural features.

Bridal said the town has translated the Cal Fire map into the town GIS and that defensible-space rules use a 100-foot radius around structures: if that radius intersects a higher-designation zone, the higher standard applies. "If a structure was in a moderate area but the 100 foot around your home went into a higher level designation ... that 100 feet would be treated as if it was very high," he said. Bridal added there are "about 500 homes that used to have inspections for WUI that will not get defensible space inspections" under the new mapping configuration, a point committee members flagged for follow-up.

Committee members pressed staff for clarity about mixed-designation parcels and enforcement. One member, identified in the discussion as Kavita, said, "I just am finding all of this very, very confusing, and I'm concerned that if I don't comprehend it, a lot of us don't comprehend it," and urged staff to return with parcel-level examples. Bridal agreed to provide maps and case examples when the item returns to council and to include flowcharts and slide examples for site-review work.

Enforcement and disclosure: staff explained that Santa Clara County Fire will carry out defensible-space inspections in moderate/high/very-high areas, but that enforcement and inspection regimes vary by jurisdiction. Bridal noted that disclosure requirements apply in orange and red hazard zones and that private buyer-seller disclosures are the mechanism for some information, while the town's municipal code provides other avenues for vegetation management.

Costs and property impacts: members asked about construction costs and property values. A staff speaker relayed a representative's estimate that building to WUI standards can add roughly 4'to'5% in construction cost; committee members said insurance availability and disclosure practices could be a larger driver of property-market effects.

Next steps: the committee requested that staff return with explicit, parcel-level examples, a flowchart to explain when rules apply, and the prior WUI map for comparison so residents and site reviewers can clearly see how standards would affect individual lots. Bridal said the topic will return to council for further guidance.

The committee did not take formal action on the code sections at the meeting and adjourned after covering additional site-review items.