TREES AND SHRUBS were the topic of a hot debate this week as the Berkeley City Council adopted new fire code amendments.
The adoptions included new state and local maps that designate Fire Hazard Severity Zones — areas that state and local fire officials determine to have moderate, high or very high risk of fire — and a new local wildfire mitigation ordinance called Effective Mitigations for Berkeley Ember Resilience or EMBER.
At issue was whether the city of Berkeley should proactively establish a line of fire-resistant homes that might help protect it from the type of wind-blown fire storms that recently engulfed neighborhoods in Los Angeles, and who should pay for it.
Approved by a unanimous vote of the City Council, the new EMBER ordinance includes home landscape mandates only for those homes in the zone the Berkeley Fire Department designated as being Very High risk. The locally designated Very High zone is actually smaller than the Very High zone designated by Cal Fire in February, but the local map adds an area along Panoramic Hill.
Initially, the ordinance will apply to about 900 to 1,000 homes in Panoramic Hill and the Grizzly Peak fuel break area, and neighborhoods adjacent to Tilden Regional Park.
Berkeley is one of the first cities to enact the new regulations ahead of new statewide standards set to come out in 2026.
In February, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to accelerate the adoption of “Zone 0” regulations, requiring an ember-resistant buffer within 5 feet of structures in the state’s highest fire severity zones. That buffer includes trees and bushes, perpendicular wood fences, and combustible landscaping. Embers from burning planted materials were found to have ignited many homes in the Los Angeles fires in January.
The state Board of Forestry and Fire Protection and the State Fire Marshal are charged with making the Zone 0 rules public by Dec. 31. If the state adopts the changes into the California fire code by that date, enforcement for new construction projects in Very High zones will begin right away statewide. Existing homes will be required to comply by 2029. All buildings in the entire Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone will be required to enforce Zone 0 regulations.
Berkeley’s new rules are the same, but on a slightly tighter schedule. Berkeley’s Zone 0 buffer requirements will go into effect Jan. 1, the same time the state is expected to release its standards, but enforcement starts earlier.
According to Berkeley Fire Chief David Sprague, inspections will start around May of next year, and any enforcement action would start in the following months.
“Our regulatory philosophy has always been education first,” said Sprague. “If residents are taking meaningful steps to comply, even if it’s an iterative process and they are not fully compliant with the code, we’re not going to cite people.”
Councilmember Brent Blackaby, whose district includes the hills above UC Berkeley, sponsored the EMBER ordinance. He listed several amendments he has made following months of community engagement to ensure the focus is on education, support and guidance for neighbors, not citations and penalties.
“We are assembling more than $1 million in grant funds for Zone 0 vegetation management, available to neighbors aged 65 plus and/or below median income, as well as a transfer tax credit with additional financial support on the way,” Blackaby said. “We’re providing neighbors plenty of time to begin work at least 12 months before inspections begin, and even more time to continue improving.”
Blackaby said the city has asked its fire department to ensure that the ordinance will allow the staging of work and address the cost of compliance without triggering citations.
“We know vegetation management alone won’t solve this problem,” he said. “That’s why the department is offering free wire mesh to screen vents and cover gutters. I’ve asked the department to create a working group of Berkeley Fire Department staff and neighbors to conduct a more detailed review of the vegetation management section of the code.”
Blackaby said the city is identifying and training local landscapers and contractors who can assist neighbors in meeting the new Zone 0 defensible space standards.
Assistant Fire Chief Dave Winnacker presented an overview of Zone 0 requirements at the council meeting.
“No wood or combustible items, such as patio furniture or anything of that nature, or metal furniture with combustible cushions could be left within 5 feet of the structure on a high fire danger date,” Winnacker said. “They would be permissible on other days, but on high fire danger days they need to be moved. Home hardening measures, such as gutter shields and fire-resistant roofing, are not mandated.”
Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps are created using data on topography, vegetation, climate, fire weather and past fire history to estimate the likelihood and potential severity of wildfires in different regions. This year’s statewide maps expand wildfire building codes for High risk zones to approximately 1.16 million new acres, and they expand building code and local planning requirements in the Very High zones to approximately 247,000 new acres.
After receiving the new maps, local governments have 120 days to adopt local ordinances that incorporate state recommendations. That deadline for Berkeley is June 24, which was met at Monday’s meeting.
“Every municipality has the ability to designate a larger area so we can be more restrictive,” said Sprague.
Berkeley has historically designated a much larger area as the Very High fire hazard severity zone, he said, pointing to a second map that displays a potential plan for the future extension of the Very High zone across Berkeley.
Dozens of residents spoke during public comment at Tuesday’s meeting, both in favor and against the adoption of the EMBER ordinance.
One public comment came from an individual named Richard, who said insurance companies use fire maps to make decisions, even though Cal Fire emphasizes that their maps are not directly used by insurance companies. He said he was impacted by Berkeley’s extended Very High zone designation.
“The truth is that many of the areas that were Very High fire zone or High fire zone would now be Moderate according to Cal Fire maps,” he said. “But as the chief said, you are now making them High. That’s not good for anyone.”
Many of the public commenters had lived in their homes for 30 or 40 years. Opponents said the ordinance was vague, and they expressed concern over the fire department’s enforcement powers. They urged the council to consider the costs for compliance, which they said could add up to tens of thousands of dollars.
EMBER does give the Berkeley Fire Department new enforcement powers. If violations are found, property owners will have a minimum of 60 days to comply before fines are issued — escalating to as much as $500 per day for repeat or ongoing violations. There’s also potential for misdemeanor charges in cases of long-term noncompliance.
The new ordinance has been determined by city staff to be exempt from the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act. The mitigation would help prevent wildfires and not involve the removal of healthy, mature trees or the taking of any endangered or threatened plant or animal species.
The city agenda package included letters of endorsement for EMBER from the Sierra Club, League of Women Voters, the Berkeley Disaster and Fire Safety Commission, and the Berkeley FireSafe Council.
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