New Fire Hazard Severity Zones Explained in Plumas Supervisors Meeting

QUINCY — In a presentation at the March 11 meeting of the Plumas County Board of Supervisors, County Planning Director Tracey Ferguson explained what has changed in the state’s Fire Hazard Severity Zone assignments and what it will mean for county residents.

The new hazard zone assignments, she said, apply to the areas of the county that are in a so-called Local Responsibility Area (LRA), where local agencies are responsible for fighting wildfires. Most of Plumas County is in the Federal Responsibility Area (FRA), where wildfires are the responsibility of the Forest Service, or the State Responsibility Area, where Cal Fire has primary responsibility. The LRAs in Plumas County are the City of Portola, the unincorporated towns of Quincy, East Quincy and Chester, and Sierra Valley. The zones assigned to these areas have changed as a result of a 2021 state law, Senate Bill 63, that requires the State Fire Marshall to classify fire hazard severity in Local Responsibility Areas using the same approach already applied in the State Responsibility Area. The law also adds “high” and “moderate” hazard severity zones to local areas previously classified as very high hazard or non-wildland.

Ferguson distributed a table illustrating the effects these changes will have on the ground. The table shows that 100% of real estate parcels in Quincy and East Quincy will be classified as very high or high hazard, compared to 58% very high hazard and 42% non-wildland under the previous classification. The changes in Chester are less extensive but still significant: where 98% of parcels were formerly classified as non-wildland, only 7% will remain in that zone, while 77% will be in the high or very high-hazard zones.In Sierra Valley, all of which was previously classified as non-wildland, 40% of parcels, mainly around the edges where private property borders wildlands, will be in high or very high hazard zones.

The main practical implications of the new zone assignments, Ferguson said, are that state building codes for the Wildland-Urban Interface and requirements for maintaining defensible space will be triggered in the high and very high-hazard zones within LRAs. Owners will also be required to disclose a high or very high hazard zone assignment if they sell their property. Information presented at the meeting is available on the Planning Department web page: https://www.plumascounty.us/3354/LRA-Fire-Hazard-Severity-Zones-FHSZ-Map.

Next steps for the county discussed at the meeting include discussions with the chiefs of fire protection districts in the LRAs and outreach to realtors to inform them of the new disclosure requirements. The law also requires a public hearing on the matter, but Board members and Director Ferguson agreed that the hearing would be essentially for information, as the law does not appear to give local jurisdictions or property owners the means to change zone assignments beyond requesting assignment to a higher zone.

The City of Portola will have a separate process for responding to the new state requirements, as it is an independent LRA.