FISCAL IMPACT:
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, the State would incur approximately $300,000 one-time (General Fund) for the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) to complete the review of regional capacity required by this bill. CNRA indicates that it would need to contract out for this work because it does not have the capacity to absorb this workload at this time. There would also be additional cost pressure on the State to provide financial assistance to owners of eligible buildings to pay for costs of fire hardening (General Fund). To the extent that this bill encourages increased spending on defensible space and home hardening that reduces the occurrence of or damage from catastrophic wildfires from what otherwise would have occurred, this bill would result in unknown potential annual savings for the State for reduced fire suppression.
BACKGROUND:
At its September 9, 2019 meeting, the Legislation Committee of the Board of Supervisors (Burgis, Mitchoff) considered a recommendation from the Contra Costa Fire Protection District Chief and the Diablo Fire Safe Council to support AB 38 (Wood). The Committee voted unanimously to recommend its support to the Board of Supervisors.
AB 38 (Wood): The text of the bill is available here: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB38
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Author: |
Jim Wood (D-002) |
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Coauthor |
Levine (D), Stern (D) |
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Title: |
Fire Safety: Low Cost Retrofits: Wildfire Mitigation |
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Fiscal Committee: |
yes |
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Urgency Clause: |
no |
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Introduced: |
12/03/2018 |
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Last Amend: |
09/06/2019 |
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Disposition: |
Pending |
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Location: |
Senate Third Reading File |
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Summary: |
Requires the Natural Resources Agency to review the regional capacity of each county that contains a very high fire hazard severity zone to improve forest health, fire resilience, and safety. Requires a seller of real property located in a high or very high fire hazard severity zone to provide specified documentation to the buyer that the real property is in compliance with specified wildfire protection measures or a local vegetation management ordinance. |
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Status: |
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09/09/2019 |
In SENATE. Read second time. To third reading. |
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2019 CA A 38: Bill Analysis - 09/09/2019 - Senate Floor
SENATE RULES COMMITTEE AB 38
Office of Senate Floor Analyses (916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) 327-4478
THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 38
Author: Wood (D), et al.
Amended: 9/6/19 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE NATURAL RES. & WATER COMMITTEE: 8-1, 6/25/19
AYES: Stern, Allen, Borgeas, Caballero, Hertzberg, Hueso, Jackson, Monning
NOES: Jones
SENATE GOVERNMENTAL ORG. COMMITTEE: 13-1, 7/9/19
AYES: Dodd, Wilk, Allen, Archuleta, Bradford, Chang, Galgiani, Hill, Hueso, Nielsen, Portantino, Rubio, Wiener
NOES: Jones
NO VOTE RECORDED: Borgeas, Glazer
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 5-1, 8/30/19
AYES: Portantino, Bradford, Durazo, Hill, Wieckowski
NOES: Jones
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bates
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 70-2, 5/23/19 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Fire safety: low-cost retrofits: Fire Hardened Homes Revolving Loan and Rebate Fund: regional capacity review
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST:
This bill (1) requires the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) to review the regional capacity of each county that contains a very high fire hazard severity zone to improve forest health, fire resilience, and safety; (2) requires the seller of any real property located in a high fire hazard severity zone to provide prescribed disclosure notice to the buyer of information relating to fire hardening improvements on the property; and (3) authorizes formation of a joint powers agreement between the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) and the Office of Emergency Services (OES) to administer a comprehensive wildfire mitigation and assistance program for property owners.
Senate Floor Amendments of 9/6/19 make technical corrections to the definition of "structure hardening" and reduces the reporting obligations of CNRA regarding its review of the regional capacities of counties regarding improvements to forest health, fire resilience, and safety.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1) Requires the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection (BOF) to classify all lands within the state for the purpose of determining areas in which the financial responsibility of preventing and suppressing fires is primarily the responsibility of the state [known as the State Responsibility Area (SRA)].
2) Requires CalFire to identify certain areas outside the SRA as very high fire hazard severity zones (VHFHSZ) based on consistent statewide criteria and based on the severity of fire hazard that is expected to prevail in those areas.
3) Requires a person who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains a building or structure on land that is covered with flammable material in the SRA or VHFHSZ to maintain defensible space of 100 feet around the structure. Requires the most intense fuels management to be within 30 feet of the structure.
4) Requires a local agency to designate, by ordinance, VHFHSZ in its jurisdiction within 120 days of receiving recommendations from the Director of CalFire. Requires the State Fire Marshal (SFM) to prepare and adopt a model ordinance that provides for the establishment of VHFHSZ.
5) Requires, no later than January 31, 2020, the SFM, in consultation with the CalFire and the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to recommend building standards that provide for comprehensive site and structure fire risk reduction to protect structures from fire risk. Based on information learned from the 2017 wildfire season.
6) Requires, no later than January 31, 2020, the SFM, in consultation with CalFire and HCD to develop a list of low-cost retrofits that provide for comprehensive site and structure fire risk reduction to protect structures from fire risk. Requires CalFire to incorporate the list in its fire prevention education and outreach efforts.
7) Requires, before July 1, 2020, the Office of Planning and Research (OPR) to update the guidance document entitled "Fire Hazard Planning General Plan Technical Advice Series" and update not less than once every eight years.
8) Establishes CNRA as the entity within which is housed CalFire, the SFM, and BOF.
This bill:
1) Makes various findings to address the widely varying vegetation and development characteristics of our diverse state, and the importance of providing the expertise, authority, and funding to reduce the threat of wildfires on all lands, public and private, in the wildland urban interface and elsewhere in the state.
2) Requires, on and after July 1, 2021, that a seller of real property in a VHFHSZ both in and out of the SRA to provide a standardized disclosure notice to a buyer that includes which features of the home may be vulnerable to wildfire and flying embers and which retrofits approved by the SFM have been completed.
3) Requires, on and after July 1, 2021, that a seller of real property in a VHFHSZ shall provide to the buyer a certificate that the property is in compliance with defensible space requirements of state law or local vegetation management ordinances, as specified.
4) Requires CalFire and OES to enter into a joint powers agreement to establish the California Wildfire Mitigation Financial Assistance Program to assist property owners with structural hardening, retrofitting, and vegetation management all of which could reduce fire risk.
5) Requires the CNRA and others to review the regional capacity of each county that contains a very high hazard severity zone to improve forest health, fire resilience, and safety. The review will: identify the local or regional entities engaged in fire prevention work, review the fire prevention organizational or capacity deficits in each county, recommend projects and grants within each county, and recommendations to improve regional capacity. The review would be available to the public on the agency Web site.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, approximately $300,000 one-time (General Fund) for CNRA to complete the review of regional capacity required by this bill. CNRA indicates that it would need to contract out for this work because it does not have the capacity to absorb this workload at this time. Additional cost pressure to provide financial assistance to owners of eligible buildings to pay for costs of fire hardening (General Fund). To the extent that this bill encourages increased spending on defensible space and home hardening that reduces the occurrence of or damage from catastrophic wildfires from what otherwise would have occurred, this bill would result in unknown potential annual savings for reduced fire suppression (General Fund).
SUPPORT: (Verified 9/9/19)
Allstate Insurance Company
California Association of Resource Conservation Districts
California Fire Chiefs Association
California League of Conservation Voters
Federal Alliance for Safe Homes
Fire Districts Association of California
Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety
Pacific Association of Domestic Insurance Companies
Pacific Forest Trust
Personal Insurance Federation of California
Sierra Club California
Southern California Edison
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company
Stronger California
The Nature Conservancy
OPPOSITION: (Verified 9/9/19)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to the author, wildfires have grown larger and have increased in intensity over the last several decades. As compared with 1986, wildfires in the Western United States have occurred nearly four times more often, burning more than six times the land area, and lasting almost five times as long. Through the end of 2017, 11 of the 20 most destructive wildfires in California have occurred in the last 10 years. In 2018, we witnessed the most destructive wildfires in California history in terms of the loss of life and structures. Wildfires impacting occupied areas have resulted in enormous human and financial costs.
More than two million California households, approximately one in four residential structures in California, are located within, or in wildfire movement proximity of, "high" or "extreme fire risk" areas as identified by the CalFire.
Overwhelming data suggest the two most important factors in protecting homes from wildfire are selection of building materials and the maintenance of vegetation and other flammable materials in order to establish adequate defensible space.
While existing building codes and standards ensure that newly constructed buildings utilize appropriate fire resistant materials, there are millions of homes in California that were built before these standards were established.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 70-2, 5/23/19
AYES: Aguiar-Curry, Arambula, Bauer-Kahan, Berman, Bigelow, Bloom, Boerner Horvath, Bonta, Burke, Calderon, Carrillo, Cervantes, Chau, Chen, Chiu, Chu, Cooper, Daly, Diep, Eggman, Flora, Frazier, Friedman, Gabriel, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Gipson, Gloria, Gonzalez, Gray, Grayson, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Kalra, Kamlager-Dove, Kiley, Lackey, Levine, Limon, Low, Maienschein, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, O'Donnell, Patterson, Petrie-Norris, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Reyes, Luz Rivas, Robert Rivas, Rodriguez, Blanca Rubio, Salas, Santiago, Smith, Mark Stone, Ting, Voepel, Waldron, Weber, Wicks, Wood, Rendon
NOES: Melendez, Obernolte
NO VOTE RECORDED: Brough, Choi, Cooley, Cunningham, Dahle, Fong, Eduardo Garcia, Mathis
Prepared by: William Craven / N.R. & W. / (916) 651-4116
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For the Fire Hazard Severity Zones Maps, please see: https://osfm.fire.ca.gov/divisions/wildfire-prevention-planning-engineering/wildland-hazards-building-codes/fire-hazard-severity-zones-maps/