February 22, 2021 - The Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) reports last week RCRC, along with the California State Association of Counties and the Urban Counties of California, submitted comments to the Board of Forestry (BOF) on its latest draft of the State Fire Safe regulations, released February 8th.  The revised proposal was intended to address concerns expressed during regulatory workshops and in comment letters submitted to the BOF.  All public comments received by the BOF since the first workshop in November are now available for viewing on the BOF website and will be updated weekly.

The State Fire Safe regulations set forth basic wildfire protection standards for development in the State Responsibility Area and, beginning July 1, 2021, the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones of the Local Responsibility Area.  As reflected in our comments, the BOF proposal will have extremely detrimental impacts on rural areas of the state, essentially creating “no-build zones” in some communities, prohibiting all residential and commercial building construction, including disaster rebuilds.

The BOF has scheduled a public workshop for February 24 at 8:30 a.m. to discuss the revised draft rulemaking language.  For updates from the BOF on the Fire Safe Regulations and other activities of the BOF Resource Protection Committee, subscribe to email updates here.  
Source: Rural County Representatives of California