Is urban shade the price of fire safety?

'Zone zero' rule to create buffer around buildings comes with drawbacks, critics say.

- JEANETTE MARANTOS

BEACHWOOD CANYON residents would have to remove all plant materials within five feet of their homes under the state proposal.

Depending on whom you talk to, the proposed new defensible space rules for “zone zero” will help save homes in very high fire hazard severity zones, or decimate much of Southern California’s urban tree canopy without really deterring the types of wildland fires that destroyed much of Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Malibu this year.

Either way, the state Board of Forestry and Fire Protection's Zone 0 Advisory Committee will probably get an earful of comments during its public meeting Thursday at the Pasadena Convention Center. The committee will be presenting its proposed rules for creating “fire defensible spaces” or “ember-resistant zones” within five feet of buildings in very high fire hazard severity zones protected by city and county firefighters as well as all areas protected by state firefighters. These five-foot-wide buffers are now widely known as “zone zero.”

The Board of Forestry and Fire Protection was initially tasked with creating specific zone zero regulations in 2020, after the Legislature passed Assembly Bill 3074, said Yana Valachovic, a technical advisor to the board who serves as the county director and forest advisor for both the UC Cooperative Extension in Humboldt and Del Norte counties, as well as for the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.

But on Feb. 6, in the wake of the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires, Gov. Gavin Newsom gave the board until Dec. 31 to finalize the regulations.

Here are the main points in the proposed zone zero regulations, published in August and now up for public comment: