Fire safety.

(1) Existing law requires each planning agency to prepare and the legislative body of each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of the county or city containing specified elements, including a housing element and a safety element for the protection of the community from any unreasonable risks associated with, among other things, wildland and urban fires, as prescribed. Existing law requires that upon the next revision of the housing element of the plan on or after January 1, 2014, the safety element be reviewed and updated as necessary to address the risk of fire for land classified as state responsibility areas, as defined, and land classified as very high fire hazard severity zones, as defined. This bill would instead require that the above-described safety element be reviewed and updated as necessary to address that fire risk concurrent with each revision of the housing element of a plan on or after January 1, 2019, and would authorize a local jurisdiction to review and update the safety element upon being classified as a very high fire hazard severity zone without revision of the housing element. (2) The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the State Air Resources Board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for greenhouse gas emissions reduction activities. The Budget Act of 2018 appropriated specified amounts of moneys payable from the fund to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to be used for specified resource management and fire prevention activities. This bill would require that the sum of $2,500,000 of the funds appropriated to the department pursuant to a specified item of the Budget Act of 2018 be made available to the University of California to be used to place science advisors in underserved counties located in, or adjacent to, a state responsibility area, to build capacity to deliver structural hardening, defensible space, forest fire resiliency, and carbon sequestration, in consultation with all interested public and private entities, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to require supplemental reporting on the use and outcomes of those moneys as a condition of release of the funds. (3) Existing law requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to adopt regulations implementing minimum fire safety standards related to defensible space that are applicable to state responsibility area lands and lands under the authority of the department, and specifies that these regulations apply to the perimeters and access to all residential, commercial, and industrial building construction within state responsibility areas approved after January 1, 1991. This bill would also require the board to adopt regulations implementing minimum fire safety standards that are applicable to lands classified and designated as very high fire hazard severity zones and would require the regulations to apply to the parameters and access to all residential, commercial, and industrial building construction within lands classified and designated as very high fire hazard severity zones, as defined, after July 1, 2021. The bill would further require the board to, on and after July 1, 2021, periodically update regulations for fuel breaks and greenbelts near communities to provide greater fire safety for the perimeters to all residential, commercial, and industrial building construction within state responsibility areas and lands classified and designated as very high fire hazard severity zones after that date. The bill would require the board, on or before July 1, 2022, to develop criteria and maintain a "Fire Adapted Community" list of local agencies located in a state responsibility area or a very high fire hazard severity zone that meet best practices for local fire planning.