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Local committee urged to align landscaping rules with state defensible-space and insurer standards
Summary
A town committee heard a technical presentation on wildfire risk linking state building-code incorporations, CAL FIRE defensible-space guidance and insurer certification standards to rising nonrenewals; presenters urged revising the town’s landscape guide and clarifying local ordinances to reduce homeowner exposure and insurance loss.
Neil, the presenter, told the Emergency Preparedness & Response Committee that state building rules now incorporate CAL FIRE’s General Guidelines for Creating Defensible Space and that Title 24 has tightened spacing and shrub-group requirements for new development. He said the CAL FIRE guidance allows either 10-foot canopy separations or continuous canopy with complete understory removal, but noted the incorporation-by-reference language in state regulations can make local requirements appear ambiguous.
The presentation linked those regulatory changes to insurance outcomes. Neil said insurers and third-party vendors (he cited Verisk and other proprietary scorers) are assigning high…
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