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HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 2504-4596CITY OF PALO ALTO CITY COUNCIL Monday, June 09, 2025 Council Chambers & Hybrid 5:30 PM     Agenda Item     14.FIRST READING: Adoption of an Ordinance amending Section 15.04.410 (Definition of Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Area) to adopt and incorporate the 2025 CAL FIRE Fire Hazard Severity Zone (FHSZ) Map for the City of Palo Alto. CEQA status: Not a Project. City Council Staff Report From: City Manager Report Type: CONSENT CALENDAR Lead Department: Fire Meeting Date: June 9, 2025 Report #:2504-4596 TITLE FIRST READING: Adoption of an Ordinance amending Section 15.04.410 (Definition of Wildland- Urban Interface Fire Area) to adopt and incorporate the 2025 CAL FIRE Fire Hazard Severity Zone (FHSZ) Map for the City of Palo Alto. CEQA status: Not a Project. RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends that the City Council adopt Exhibit the CAL FIRE Fire Hazard Severity Zone (FHSZ) map, as recommended by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), for areas within the City of Palo Alto's jurisdiction. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CAL FIRE is mandated by state law to identify and map areas with significant fire hazards, and periodically revise and update its designation of zones. These maps, known as Fire Hazard Severity Zone (FHSZ) maps, categorize areas based on factors that influence fire likelihood and behavior. Updates in state law since 2021 now require that a local agency, including the City of Palo Alto, designate by ordinance the moderate, high, and very high FHSZs in its jurisdiction within 120 days of receiving recommendations from the State Fire Marshal. (Gov. Code 51179(a)). Recent updates to the state’s FHSZ maps were issued for the Bay Area, including Palo Alto, February 24, 2025.The City has provided opportunities for public review and comment on the CAL FIRE FHSZ map March 26 through April 30, 2025, and adoption of the CAL FIRE FHSZ map is a necessary next step to protect the City of Palo Alto from the increasing threat of wildfires. It ensures compliance with state law, enhances public safety, and promotes responsible land-use planning. Staff recommends that the City Council adopt the map as presented. Under state law, a local agency has discretion to add areas not identified by the State Fire Marshal or increase the fire hazard severity identified by the state, but not to remove areas or reduce the hazard severity level (Gov. Code 51179(b)). BACKGROUND •Wildfire Preparedness: They provide critical information for residents, property owners, and the City to understand the level of fire hazard in specific areas. •Building Codes: The maps inform building code requirements, particularly for new construction and renovations, to enhance structural resistance to wildfire. •Defensible Space: The maps guide the implementation and enforcement of defensible space regulations, which are crucial for protecting structures from approaching wildfires. •Emergency Planning: The maps assist in developing effective wildfire mitigation and response plans. •Designating areas where California’s defensible space standards and wildland urban interface building codes are required. •General plan considerations: Local governments may consider them in their general plans. 1. The Policy & Services Committee reviewed an audit completed by the City Auditor regarding wildfire preparedness2 and an expanded report outlining activities underway, this was approved unanimously and is scheduled for the Council Consent Calendar. In addition, the following items 1 Palo Alto Begins Wildfire Preparedness Public Discussions; https://www.paloalto.gov/News-Articles/City- Manager/Palo-Alto-Begins-Wildfire-Preparedness-Public-Discussions 2 Policy & Services Committee, are scheduled in June that continue the conversation around wildfire preparedness for the City of Palo Alto: •City Council will consider approval of an easement in the Palo Alto foothills to support the undergrounding of the electric transmission line (upon approval by Mid-Peninsula Open Space District). •Utilities Advisory Commission will review the 2025 Utilities Wildfire Mitigation Plan at their meeting on June 4. •The City’s Foothills Fire Management Plan updates and the Santa Clara County Community Wildfire Protection Plan, a combined effort will be finalized. •City Council will consider annual weed abatement orders involving private properties. ANALYSIS •Compliance with State Law: State law mandates that local agencies adopt the FHSZ maps. •Enhanced Public Safety: Adopting the map enables the City to better protect its residents and property from the increasing threat of wildfires. It provides a foundation for implementing effective mitigation measures and enforcing necessary regulations. •Improved Planning and Development: The map will inform land-use planning and development decisions, ensuring that new construction and infrastructure projects are designed to minimize fire risks. •Access to Funding: Adoption of the FHSZ maps may be a prerequisite for accessing certain state and federal funding for wildfire prevention and mitigation projects. •Understanding Fire Hazard Severity Zones: It is important to note that the Fire Hazard Severity Zone map evaluates "hazard," not "risk." "Hazard" is based on the physical conditions that create a likelihood and expected fire behavior over a 30 to 50-year period without considering mitigation measures. "Risk" is the potential damage a fire can do to the area under existing conditions, accounting for modifications such as fuel reduction projects, defensible space, and ignition-resistant construction. Key elements of the Fire Hazard Severity Zone model: The fire hazard severity model for wildland fire has two key elements: 1) probability of an area burning and 2) expected fire behavior under extreme fuel and weather conditions. The zones reflect areas that have similar burn probabilities and fire behavior characteristics. •Factors considered in determining fire hazard within wildland areas are fire history, flame length, terrain, local weather, and potential fuel over a 50-year period. •Outside of wildlands, the model considers factors that might lead to buildings being threatened, including terrain, weather, urban vegetation cover, blowing embers, proximity to wildland, fire history, and fire hazard in nearby wildlands. •FHSZs are not a structure loss model, as key information regarding structure ignition (such as roof type, etc.) is not included. •The model places an emphasis on the spread of embers. Embers can travel long distances in the wind and ignite vegetation, roofs, attics, and decks. •Areas immediately adjacent to wildland receive the same FHSZ score as that wildland where fire originates, and the model then produces lower scores as the distance to the wildland edge increases. •In wildland areas, zone edges are a result of the way zones are delineated. Zones represent areas of similar slope and fuel potential. How Fire Hazard Severity Zones are determined: CAL FIRE used the best available science and data to develop and field-test a model that served as the basis of zone assignments. The model evaluated the probability of the area burning and potential fire behavior in the area. •Many factors were included, such as fire history, vegetation, flame length, blowing embers, proximity to wildland, terrain, and weather. •A 2 km grid of climate data covering the years 2003-2018 is being used in the update. The previous model used stock weather inputs across the state to calculate wildland fire intensity scores. The updated model adjusts fire intensity scores based on the most extreme fire weather at a given location, considering temperature, humidity, and wind speed. •Ember transport is being modeled based on local distributions of observed wind speed and direction values instead of using a generic buffer distance for urban areas adjacent to wildlands. •Classification of a wildland zone as Moderate, High, or Very High fire hazard is based on the average hazard across the area included in the zone, which have a minimum size of 200 acres. •In wildlands, hazard is a function of modeled flame length under the worst conditions and annual burn probability. Classification outside of wildland areas is based on the fire hazard of the adjacent wildland and the probability of flames and embers threatening buildings. State Responsibility Area (SRA): SRA is the area where the state has financial responsibility for wildland fire protection and prevention. Incorporated cities and federal ownership are not included in SRA. CAL FIRE is responsible for fire prevention and suppression within the SRA. Local Responsibility Area (LRA): Local Responsibility Areas (LRA) are incorporated cities, urban regions, agricultural lands, and portions of the desert where the local government is responsible for wildfire protection. CAL FIRE uses an extension of the state responsibility area Fire Hazard Severity Zone model as the basis for evaluating fire hazard in Local Responsibility Area. •The Local Responsibility Area hazard rating reflects flame and ember intrusion from adjacent wildlands and from flammable vegetation in the urban area. •CAL FIRE’s Land Use Planning Program provides support to local governments by providing fire safety expertise on the State’s wildland urban interface building codes, wildfire safety codes, as well as helping in the development of the safety elements in general plans. •CAL FIRE uses the same modeling data that is used to map the State Responsibility Area for Local Responsibility Areas. •New legislation, Senate Bill 63 (Stern, 2021), now requires the adoption of all three Fire Hazard Severity Zone classes in the Local Responsibility Area. Previously only Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones were required for adoption in Local Responsibility Areas. FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW ATTACHMENTS APPROVED BY: NOT YET APPROVED Attachment A 1 027051925 Ordinance No. ____ Ordinance of the Council of the City of Palo Alto Amending Section 15.04.410 (Definition of Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Area) of the Palo Alto Municipal Code to adopt and incorporate the 2025 Fire Hazard Severity Zone Map Issued by the State Fire Marshal The Council of the City of Palo Alto does ORDAIN as follows: SECTION 1. Findings and Declarations. The City Council finds and declares as follows: A. To better prepare for wildfires, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) is required to periodically review its recommended classifications of fire hazard severity zones throughout California. The state legislature has found that the prevention of wildfires is a matter of statewide concern, not a municipal affair. B. The State released updated 2025 Fire Hazard Severity Zone (FHSZ) maps, and requires all local jurisdictions, including Palo Alto, with moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zone recommendations to designate those zones by ordinance within 120 days from receiving recommendations from the State Fire Marshal. C. State law also requires that the City post the maps indicating CAL FIRE’s FHSZ recommendations publicly for comment within 30 days of receipt, which the City conducted from March 26 - April 30, 2025. D. After consideration of public comments, the City will rely on the latest recommendations of CAL FIRE in its published FHSZ maps, notwithstanding local discretion to impose more restrictive fire and public safety requirements. E. As a result of adopting the updated FHSZ map for Palo Alto, the City’s Municipal Code definition of the wildland-urban interface in Section 15.04.410 needs to address zones designated as moderate and high fire hazard severity, in addition to those zones designated as very high fire hazard severity. SECTION 2. Section 15.04.410 Section 4902.1 Definition of wildland-urban interface fire area is hereby amended to read as follows (additions in underline format and deletions in strikethrough format): 5.04.410 Section 4902.1 Definition of wildland-urban interface fire area. The definition of "wildland-urban interface fire area" in Section 4902.1 is amended to read as follows: WILDLAND-URBAN INTERFACE FIRE AREA (WUI) A geographical area identified by the State of California as a "Fire Hazard Severity Zone" in accordance with Public Resources Code Sections 4201 through 4204 and Government Code Sections 51175 through 51189, or other areas designated by the enforcing agency to be at a significant risk from wildfires. Within the city limits of the City of Palo Alto, "Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Area" shall also include all areas west of Interstate 280, and all other areas recommended as a “Moderate,” “High,” and "Very High” Fire Hazard Severity Zone" by the Director of the California Department of Forestry. The map, approved by the Council of the City of Palo Alto, is hereby incorporated by reference, and entitled, “Fire Hazard Severity Zones in Local Responsibility Area - City of Palo Alto”, dated February 24, 2025 (Exhibit A). NOT YET APPROVED Attachment A 2 027051925 SECTION 3. Effective Date. This Ordinance shall be effective on the thirty-first date after the date of its adoption. SECTION 4. CEQA. The City Council finds and determines that this Ordinance is not a project within the meaning of section 15378 of the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) Guidelines because adoption of the state FHSZ map and updating a statutory definition involves no action with potential for resulting in physical change in the environment, either directly or ultimately. In the event that this Ordinance is found to be a project under CEQA, it is subject to the CEQA exemption contained in CEQA Guidelines section 15061(b)(3) because it can be seen with certainty to have no possibility of a significant effect on the environment in that this Ordinance simply clarifies existing local regulations. INTRODUCED AND PASSED: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: ABSTENTIONS: ATTEST: __________________________ _____________________________ City Clerk Mayor APPROVED AS TO FORM: APPROVED: __________________________ _____________________________ City Attorney or designee City Manager _____________________________ Fire Chief, Palo Alto Fire Department City and County boundaries as of 10/22/24 (CA Board of Equalization) CAL FIRE State Responsibility Areas (SRA25_1) CAL FIRE Fire Hazard Severity Zones (FHSZSRA23_3, FHSZLRA_25_1) Data Sources: Daniel Berlant, State Fire Marshal, CA Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Joe Tyler, Director/Fire Chief, CA Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Wade Crowfoot, Secretary for Natural Resources, CA Natural Resources Agency Gavin Newsom, Governor, State of CaliforniaThe State of California and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy of data or maps. Neither the State nor the Department shall be liable under any circumstances for any direct, special, incidental, or consequential damages with respect to any claim by any user or third party on account of, or arising from, the use of data or maps. and other relevant factors including areas where winds have been identified by the Office of the State Fire Marshal as a major cause of wildfire spread. statewide criteria and based on the severity of fire hazard that is expected to prevail in those areas. Moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones shall be based on fuel loading, slope, fire weather, Government Code section 51178 requires the State Fire Marshal to identify areas in the state as moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones based on consistent Waterbody Federal Responsibility Area (FRA)Unzoned LRA Incorporated City Projection: NAD 83 California Teale Albers Scale: 1:97,000 at 11" x 17" 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7Km 0 1 2 3 4Mi Very High High Moderate Fire Hazard Severity Zones in State Responsibility Area (SRA), Effective April 1, 2024 Very High High Moderate Fire Hazard Severity Zones (FHSZ) in Local Responsibility Area (LRA), as Identified by the State Fire Marshal Palo Alto UNINCORPORATED SAN MATEO CO. UNINCORPORATED SANTA CLARA CO. elCam i n o Real 101 82 35 ATHERTON CUPERTINO EAST PALO ALTO FREMONT LOS ALTOSLOS ALTOS HILLS MENLO PARK MOUNTAIN VIEW NEWARK PORTOLA VALLEY REDWOOD CITY SAN CARLOS SAN JOSE SAN JOSE SANTA CLARA SARATOGA SUNNYVALE WOODSIDE ALAMEDA CO. SANTA CLARA CO . SAN MAT E O CO. SANTA CLARA C O . February 24, 2025 As Identified by the State Fire MarshalLocal Responsibility Area Fire Hazard Severity Zones CITY OF PALO ALTO – SANTA CLARA COUNTY Exhibit A