January 2016

San Diego, California: A Unique Regulatory Approach To An Expansive Wildland-Urban Interface Challenge

Leaders in Wildfire Adaptation OVERVIEW

Wildfires across the American West Introduction are increasing in frequency, size, and severity. The impacts from climate The City of San Diego is intimately familiar with wildfire and its change and increasing growth within impacts. Located on the southern coast of California and bordering the region’s Wildland-Urban Interface Mexico, this city of nearly 1.4 million people has witnessed firsthand (WUI), further exacerbate the risks from the devastation from the Cedar Fire (2003) and Witch Creek-Guejito wildfires. Fire (2007), among many others. Although these catastrophic fires have led to important policy, planning, and response improvements, Urban areas in the West are the shrubland landscape, steep canyons, prolonged regional drought, increasingly responding to the and pockets of open space throughout the city remain an ongoing challenges of wildfire risk management concern for fast-moving wildfires. through unique land use planning tools which affect the pace, pattern, and scale of development. San Diego, California is one of five communities profiled by Headwaters Economics in a report identifying some of these innovative land use planning strategies, including: • A comprehensive brush management policy for any property containing a habitable structure and native vegetation. Homes that do not comply with the multiple zone management requirements and 100 foot defensible space, are billed the amount it costs for a private contractor to thin the property. • A close partnership with CAL FIRE to pursue mutual mitigation goals, such as open space management, post-fire recovery, defensible space Long and narrow “open space islands” extend throughout the City of San Diego, standards, and other wildfire risk creating a need for extensive brush management. Photo credit: Molly Mowery, reduction measures. Wildfire Planning International

headwaterseconomics.org | January 2016 | 1 Impacts of Wildfire on the City of San Diego Most of the available land within San Diego’s city limits has already been developed and is skirted The varying size and severity of wildfires occurring by a 500 linear mile stretch of Wildland-Urban throughout the city and surrounding areas have Interface (WUI). The thousands of structures and resulted in a number of different impacts, including: flammable brush within the WUI correspondingly makes managing this landscape the primary wildfire challenge. More than 42,000 properties are considered at risk due to their location—particularly where backyards meet dense stands of native or naturalized vegetation in canyons and other open space areas. Further exacerbating wildfire danger to the city, is the present and predicted impacts from climate change. For instance, climate scenarios for San Diego project an increase in average annual temperatures between 3.4-5.9°F by 2090.1 As such, the city has enforced strict brush management regulations as a way to augment defensible space standards and reduce wildfire risks to properties situated within the WUI.

Although the culture throughout California increasingly favors heightened wildfire awareness, the task to mitigate wildfire impacts to neighborhoods remains a daunting prospect for city fire officials and planners. While San Diego’s planning staff and fire personnel work to integrate science and experience with its wildfire risk reduction program, they must additionally factor in other environmental considerations into their decision making efforts, such as habitat preservation for endangered species, hillside erosion, and drought conditions. This requires coordination, communication, and the quest to provide proper guidance for a management framework where there is no “one size fits all” approach.

History of Wildfire in San Diego San Diego County has experienced three of the top 20 largest wildfires in California history, many of which have also affected the City of San Diego. In 1970, the Laguna Fire burned 175,425 acres, destroyed 382 structures and killed five people. The Cedar Fire that occurred in 2003 in both the City and County of San Diego remains the largest California wildfire to date; the fire burned 273,246 acres, destroyed 2,820 homes and claimed 15 lives. Four years later, the Witch Fire burned 197,990 acres, destroyed 1,640 structures and left two people dead.2 While these fires are most notable for their size and unfortunate consequences, numerous other wildfires have also affected this wildfire-prone region.

headwaterseconomics.org | January 2016 | 2 • Community-scale devestation. Many of San Diego’s catastrophic wildfires have heavily impacted entire neighborhoods. The losses that occurred during the Cedar Fire and Witch Creek Fire, for example, destroyed hundreds of homes in relatively small geographic areas of the city. This led to communities such as Scripps Ranch, Tierrasanta, and Rancho Bernardo bearing the brunt of devastation and requiring long-term rebuilding efforts. • Death, injuries, and displacement. Due to the To help property owners better understand brush management regulations and landscape widespread chaparral landscape, standards, the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department worked with planning staff to issue an wildfires in the San Diego region in-depth policy guide. This guide clarifies existing requirements and includes descriptive spread quickly and residents can illustrations such as the one above. Image source: City of San Diego FBP Policy B-08-1 easily become trapped. While several of San Diego’s wildfire Management Agency (FEMA) improve appearances of the built incidents have resulted in death, assistance, property loss, medical environment; and reduce the risk mass evacuations are more costs, and fire suppression costs.4 of fire through site design and common. For instance, during the management of flammable 5 the Witch Creek Fire, more than How San Diego Is Addressing vegetation. 500,000 people were evacuated; The city’s comprehensive brush Wildfire Risk Through Land 200,000 of them within the city. 3 management regulations apply to More recently, the 2014 wildfires Use Planning and Regulations any property containing a habitable in San Diego County resulted The State of California is known structure and native or naturalized in a number of evacuations for its robust wildfire protection vegetation. These properties are and school district closures. In requirements, as primarily required to follow a two-zone addition, injuries and illnesses addressed in the California Fire approach, where activities such as associated with fire and smoke Code and Building Code. San Diego weed control, vegetation thinning, (e.g., burns, asthma, and has not only adopted both of these and tree removal occur according to respiratory distress) are difficult codes into their Municipal Code, each zone. to quantify, but can have real and but made them more stringent due The San Diego Fire Marshal’s office long-lasting effects on victims. to local environmental concerns and inspects properties to ensure they decades of wildfire incidents. Brush • Far-reaching economic are in compliance with brush management regulations are chief impacts. Following the Cedar management requirements. If an among their wildfire mitigation Fire, Otay Fire, and other inspection reveals that the property wildfires in 2003, San Diego State approaches. does not meet the requirements, University conducted a study to the legal due process can take up to highlight the actual economic Brush Management Regulations a total of 70 days for compliance. costs of wildfire. The researchers San Diego Municipal Code’s If the property owner still fails to concluded that the 2003 fires cost comply, the city will hire a private approximately $2.45 billion in Landscape Regulations seek to fulfill multiple objectives: minimize contractor and send the bill to the suppression and recovery costs. property owner. Failure to pay may Estimates included lost business erosion of slopes and disturbed lands; conserve energy by shading result in a lien (special assessment economic activity, watershed tax) being placed on the property. restoration, Federal Emergency streets and other paved surfaces;

headwaterseconomics.org | January 2016 | 3 sprinklers, highest rated ember- protective vents, and heat-resistant windows).

Equally important, fire officials see education as part of the solution. “Defensible space compliance is driven by codes and public education,” emphasizes Eddie Villavicencio, Supervising Deputy Fire Marshal for San Diego Fire- Rescue Department. City fire officials believe that the best defense against wildfire is through brush management and in doing so, actively engage in ongoing efforts to meet with homeowners’ associations, attend workshops, CAL FIRE maintains state and local responsibility area maps that show fire hazard severity and educate property owners about zones, as required by state law. The City of San Diego is currently designated as being within a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, and therefore their upcoming General the importance of wildfire safety Plan Safety Element update will require a more comprehensive set of review and policy through defensible space. recommendations to incorporate wildfire. Image Source: CAL FIRE ( fire.ca.gov) New Effects from CAL FIRE Evolving Standards and resources. Property owners that Further Promote Land Use Alternative Means “over clear” (i.e., remove too much Planning vegetation, even with the best of San Diego’s brush management Every county and city in California intentions) may be fined thousands is required to adopt a General Plan, requirements are complicated by of dollars to repair environmental a host of factors. For example, the which is a comprehensive planning damage to these sensitive document that provides a blueprint city’s Land Development Code landscapes. requirements related to brush for a community’s long term management originated in 1989, and have already been modified eight times. The definition of Property owners who do not comply with the 100 zones has changed over time, foot brush management standards are the billed the from using three zones and a total length exceeding 100 feet of amount it costs to hire a private contractor to thin brush management to a modern the property’s vegetation. Failure to pay may result in adoption of two zones totaling 100 a lien on the property. feet or less. This means that older established communities have been grandfathered in to comply with Finally, some homeowners simply future growth. General Plans must one code while newer, post-1989 may not have enough property to address land use, conservation, homes fall under a different set of satisfy the required 100 total feet safety, circulation, noise, open code requirements. of brush management. In this case, space, housing, and other applicable the fire department must sign off issues. The California State Board Requirements are also detailed and on the “alternative means” allowed of Forestry and Fire Protection strict—brush management must be during the development application recently rolled out a new initiative done in a manner that both reduces process—that is, property owners to ensure that communities are the local fire hazard and minimizes may still develop in wildfire-prone adequately addressing wildfire as impacts to undisturbed vegetation areas if they incorporate additional part of each community’s General to protect sensitive biological structural hardening features (e.g., Plan.6 Through this process,

headwaterseconomics.org | January 2016 | 4 The City of San Diego, along with other communities throughout southern California, has also been experiencing prolonged drought and other changes in precipitation patterns. Due to the severity of the drought, the city has been mandated by the state to cut its collective water use by 16 percent between June 1, 2015 and February 13, 2016.8 As mandatory water use restrictions have taken effect, fire officials have reviewed and updated relevant brush management practices to ensure all recommendations are compatible with both wildfire risk reduction and water conservation. It is, however, an ongoing concern that will continue to be evaluated and updated accordingly.

Expanding development within San Diego’s WUI and an extensive surrounding chaparral landscape requires a compreshensive approach towards vegetation thinning and Key Takeaways management. Photo source: Molly Mowery, Wildfire Planning International. Implementing and enforcing regulations can result in California’s Department of Forestry wildfire hazards and community measurable risk reduction. and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE)— protection. Significant wildfire tragedies have which oversees wildfire prevention, shaped San Diego’s past while resulting in sophisticated brush education, and mitigation programs San Diego Prepares for across the state—works with local management regulations and other planning and fire departments to Wildfire Risks and the proactive approaches to improve ensure that the Safety Element of Impacts of Climate Change wildfire response and public safety. a General Plan includes specific The State of California maintains The city’s detailed mitigation goals, policies, and references “Cal-Adapt,” a website providing approach considers many diverse related to land use planning and climate data and information factors, such as reducing flammable protection against wildfire. Specific from the scientific and research vegetation while protecting topics may include development community to help users sensitive habitat, conserving water, codes, conservation and open space, understand how climate change and controlling for erosion. It circulation and access, defensible might affect California at the also achieves something rare: the space, emergency services, and local level. For instance, a local ability to regulate and enforce fire post-fire safety recovery and climate snapshot provided by risk reduction on all properties maintenance. Counties and cities Cal-Adapt suggests that future threatened, not just those that will have different requirements temperature ranges for San Diego may be undergoing development. depending on their fire hazard will significantly increase, as much Tracking more than 42,000 homes severity zone rating assigned by the as 6˚F by 2090, and precipitation at risk is no small feat, but staff state. Including this information in patterns will become increasingly are successfully implementing and the General Plan helps prioritize unpredictable.7 Future wildfire risk enforcing regulations across the wildfire as a planning directive is additionally expected to increase city. The ability to implement a for the local community and also in terms of area burned, particularly comprehensive set of landscaping offers the opportunity for the local for the eastern part of the city where requirements may be a formidable agencies to mutually engage with wildfires are already a threat from responsibility to consider for less state agencies about transboundary neighboring county lands. regulatory-friendly communities. headwaterseconomics.org | January 2016 | 5 However, San Diego provides a successful example of what can be achieved when regulations are part of the community wildfire reduction approach.

Incorporating wildfire education as part of the risk reduction process. Even as the city has boosted its ability to respond to and reduce the likelihood of large wildfires throughout its WUI, it still faces a number of small but high-risk open space pockets throughout its jurisdiction. These areas leave a number of neighborhoods vulnerable to fast- moving brush fires. As fire officials have emphasized, regulations are only part of the overall approach to risk reduction. Efforts also must include public education to counteract apathy resulting from fewer recent wildfire losses on a local scale. As part of this education, extensive outreach is involved, including engaging with the public at workshops, forums, door- to-door site visits, and through educational handouts. Together, the holistic mitigation strategy of fuel management, outreach, regulations, and enforcement is helping San Diego become an increasingly fire- adapted community.

headwaterseconomics.org | January 2016 | 6 San Diego Municipal http://docs.sandiego.gov/ KEY CONTACTS Code, Chapter 14: municode/MuniCodeChap- General Regulations, ter14/Ch14Art02Division04. Doug Perry Article 2: General pdf#page=25 Deputy Chief/ Fire Marshal Development San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Regulations, Division, 1010 Second Avenue, Suite 300 4: Landscape San Diego, CA 92101 Regulations 619-533-4304 The City of San http://www.sandiego.gov/ [email protected] Diego, Clarification fire/pdf/brushpolicy.pdf of Brush Management Eddie Villavicencio Policy and Landscape Supervising Deputy Fire Marshal Standards San Diego Fire-Rescue Department 1010 Second Avenue, Suite 300 San Diego, CA 92101 Other Resources 619-533-4470 Brush Management http://www.sandiego.gov/ [email protected] and Weed Abatement, fire/services/brush/severity- Very High Fire Hazard zones.shtml Jeannette DeAngelis Severity Zones, Very Program Manager, Entitlements Division—Develop- High Fire Hazard ment Services Department Severity Zone Map City of San Diego cal-adapt, Exploring http://cal-adapt.org/ 1222 First Avenue, MS 301 California’s San Diego, CA 92101 Climate Change 619-446-5212 Research [email protected] CAL FIRE http://www.fire.ca.gov/ Terry Lien California Office of the http://osfm.fire.ca.gov/ Associate Planner, Entitlements Division—Develop- State Fire Marshal ment Services Department City of San Diego References 1222 First Avenue, MS 301 1. Temperature range depends on a low versus high San Diego, CA 92101 emissions scenario. Additional details and information 619-446-5327 available online: http://cal-adapt.org/. [email protected] 2. Source: CALFire, Top 20 Largest California Wildfires, published 9/11/2015. Available online: http:// www.fire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/fact_ Key Resources sheets/20LACRES.pdf. Development Services http://www.sandiego.gov/ 3. As described under the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department development-services/index. Department website, Major Fires and Incidents. shtml Available online: http://www.sandiego.gov/fire/about/ Fire-Rescue http://www.sandiego.gov/ majorfires/index.shtml. Department fire/ 4. Diaz, John M. Southern Fire Exchange, Economic Water (Public Utilities) http://www.sandiego.gov/ Impacts of Wildfire (SFE Fact Sheet 2012-7). Available water/ online: http://www.southernfireexchange.org/SFE_ Publications/factsheets/2012-7.pdf. Documents 5. San Diego Municipal Code, Chapter 14 General Brush Management http://www.sandiego.gov/ Regulations, Article 2: General Development Guide fire/pdf/brushpdf.pdf Regulations, Division 4: Landscape Regulations.

headwaterseconomics.org | January 2016 | 7 6. In accordance with California Government Code Section 65302.5. 7. Temperature range depends on a low versus high emissions scenario. Additional details and information available online: http://cal-adapt.org/. 8. Source: City of San Diego Public Utilities, Drought Information and Resources. Available online: http:// www.sandiego.gov/water/conservation/drought/.

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