Mission Viejo council unanimously adopts CAL FIRE's 2025 fire hazard severity maps

Mission Viejo's City Council voted unanimously to adopt the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) 2025 Fire Hazard Severity Zone (FHSZ) maps for the city, a state-mandated step that triggers local building-code and defensible-space requirements.

Planning manager Cliff Jones and Community Development Director Larry Longnecker told the council the maps classify areas as moderate, high, or very high hazard and that state law requires cities to adopt the maps without lowering hazard designations. "State law mandates adoption of the map," Jones said during the presentation. Staff explained that the maps inform where Chapter 7A home-hardening building standards and disclosure requirements apply to property sales.

The council heard about the city's public outreach: the maps were posted on the city website when released March 24, a public workshop was held May 12, and a town hall with insurance and building-industry experts was hosted May 19. Staff recommended and sought introduction of an ordinance to adopt the maps without revision.

Several residents raised concerns during public comment about how the map designations affect home insurance costs and asked whether local mitigation could lower hazard designations. Staff and the fire chief answered that the maps reflect long-term hazard modeling and that mitigation reduces risk but does not change the state's hazard designation until the maps are redrawn. City staff also said the city secured a Cal Fire grant of $2,000,000 to treat high and very-high fire-hazard areas on public property.

Mayor Pro Tem Bucknam moved to adopt the state-mandated maps; the motion was seconded and passed unanimously. The City Attorney then read the ordinance language adopting the State Fire Marshal's 2025 FHSZ maps pursuant to California law. The ordinance was introduced and will be processed per the city's standard ordinance adoption steps.