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Washington City adopts wildland‑urban interface code after fire chief warns of state mandate and mapping concerns
Summary
After a briefing from Fire Chief Matt Evans on state bills requiring adoption of WUI standards, the council unanimously approved an ordinance adopting the wildland‑urban interface code and a city map approach that currently identifies no city parcels as high‑risk; staff said the state will open a submission portal in August.
Fire Chief Matt Evans told the Washington City Council on June 10 that recent state legislation requires cities to adopt wildland‑urban interface (WUI) provisions and to identify high‑risk zones — but that the state map did not reflect local conditions. “Two sessions ago they passed House Bill 48 that requires cities to adopt the WUI code,” Evans said, and he added that the state later updated the code again in the most recent session.
Evans showed a state map that marks broad swaths of the county, including Long Valley, as high‑risk. He said the city does not believe many of the areas the state labeled as WUI represent true wildland‑urban interface and that staff plan to ask the state to remove parcels the city deems ineligible. “We plan to submit to honestly to remove everything that we have that's that they list as high‑risk,” he said. Under the statute, Evans said, insurers are expected to follow the state map and property owners in identified areas will be able to request an assessment that could change their designation.
Council members asked how the program will be implemented, whether insurers will line up with the state map and how assessments and defensible‑space measures will work. Councilman Ivy said the law responded to real problems residents were seeing with insurance availability and coverage. “There was enough disruption in the market that a lot of this feedback came back up from residents saying we need this fixed,” Ivy said during the discussion.
The council voted unanimously to amend city code (Title 8‑1‑6) to adopt the WUI code; the roll call vote was 5–0. City staff and the chief emphasized that, as drafted, the city’s proposed map does not place any city parcels in a high‑risk WUI zone, meaning the code itself will have little immediate effect unless the map is changed in the future.
Next steps outlined by staff include submitting the city's documentation to the state's portal when it opens (projected in August) and participating in any state training or assessor programs so the city can provide certified assessments for residents. Officials cautioned that implementation details — how insurers use their proprietary models, exact assessment fees and the state's assessment workflow — remain unsettled and will determine how the law affects homeowners in practice.
The ordinance takes effect as city code; the state’s mapping and assessment procedures will determine which properties, if any, are ultimately treated as WUI and subject to related building and insurance effects.
