Fire prevention fee: fee reduction.

Existing law requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to adopt emergency regulations to establish a fire prevention fee to be charged on each habitable structure, as defined, on a parcel that is within a state responsibility area. Existing law requires that the fee be levied upon the owner of a habitable structure identified by the department as located within the state responsibility area, if that person owns the habitable structure on July 1 of the year for which the fee is due. Existing law authorizes the board to exempt from the fire prevention fee any habitable structure that is subsequently deemed inhabitable as a result of a natural disaster during the year the fee is due, if certain conditions are met. This bill would require the board to reduce the amount of the fee to be charged on a habitable structure by an amount equal to the amount paid by the owner of the structure to a local fire district for fire prevention services during the year for which the fee is due, if the owner of the structure provides the board with written documentation of the amount paid to the local fire district for those services. The bill would require the board to adopt guidelines to clarify the type of written documentation the owner of a structure is required to provide to the board to receive a fee reduction pursuant to those provisions.