PREPARED BY: Robert Gray
Chief Building Official
Reviewed by: Town Manager, Assistant Town Manager, Town Attorney, Finance Director, and Community Development Director
110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● (408) 354-6832 www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
MEETING DATE: 06/03/2025
ITEM NO: 9
ADDENDUM
DATE: Jun 2, 2025
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: Chris Constantin, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Consider the Introduction of an Ordinance and Adoption of a Resolution Approving the Fire Hazard Severity Zones Map to Comply with State Government Code Section 51178 and an Amendment of the General Plan Hazards and Safety Element to Incorporate the Fire Hazard Severity Zones Map. Adoption of this Ordinance and Resolution is Exempt Pursuant to CEQA, Section 15268, in that it is Required by the State. General Plan Amendment Application GP-25-01 and Town Code Amendment A-25-03. Project Location:
Town Wide. Applicant: Town Of Los Gatos.
REMARKS:
Attachment 9 includes the Verbatim Minutes of the May 28, 2025, Planning Commission Meeting. Attachment 10 includes the Santa Clara County Fire Presentation.
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachments previously received with the May 29, 2025, Staff Report:
1. Draft Ordinance, with Exhibit A, Los Gatos Fire Severity Zones Map
2. Draft Resolution, with Exhibit A, Los Gatos Fire Severity Zones Map
3. General Plan Committee Staff Report, May 14, 2025
4. General Plan Committee Draft Minutes, May 14, 2025
5. Planning Commission Staff Report, May 28, 2025
6. State Fire Marshal Fire Severity Zones Map
7. Los Gatos Fire Severity Map 2009
8. Los Gatos Fire Severity Map 2025
PAGE 2 OF 2
SUBJECT: General Plan Amendment GP-25-01 and Town Code Amendment A-25-03 DATE: June 2, 2025
Attachment received with this Addendum Report:
9. Planning Commission Verbatim Minutes, May 28, 2025
10. Santa Clara County Fire Presentation
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A P P E A R A N C E S:
Los Gatos Planning
Commissioners:
Emily Thomas, Chair
Kendra Burch, Vice Chair
Jeffrey Barnett
Susan Burnett
Joseph Sordi
Rob Stump
Town Manager: Chris Constantin
Community Development
Director:
Joel Paulson
Town Attorney: Gabrielle Whelan
Transcribed by: Vicki L. Blandin
(619) 541-3405
ATTACHMENT 9
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
CHAIR THOMAS: We will now move on to Item 3 on
our agenda, which is to consider making a recommendation to the Town Council to approve the Fire Hazard Severity Zone Map Ordinance and resolution to comply with the State
Government Code Section 51178, and an amendment of the
General Plan Hazards and Safety Element to incorporate the Fire Hazard Severity Zones Map. Adoption of the ordinance and resolution is exempt pursuant to CEQA, Section 15268, in that it is required by the State. General Plan
Application GP-25-01 and Town Code Amendment A-25-03.
I don’t need to ask for any disclosures, I guess,
because this is Town wide, and Mr. Gray, will you be
presenting the Staff Report for us?
ROBERT GRAY: I’m Robert Gray, Chief Building
Official. I’m going to defer to Chief Estrada from Santa Clara County Fire. He’s going to give a presentation
tonight, and then we’ll all be here for questions.
CHAIR THOMAS: Perfect. Thank you, Chief Estrada.
CHIEF ESTRADA: Thank you. Planning Commission,
I’d like to thank you for the opportunity to come out, and members of the public as well.
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The LRA map updates has been one of those things
that, quite honestly, hasn’t happened before, so there are a lot of questions. When it’s come down to the Town level, or to the incorporated city level, a lot of people don’t actually know even where to get information, so the way I’ve put together the presentation, I wanted to pretty much take no prisoners when it came down to it. I want you to know quite a few things, if possible.
The objectives for this would be that first, how
did this evolve? How did we get here? For a lot of folks, it seems like it just popped up, so I wanted to give some context, how long this has been in the works, and how it has come to the local level.
Then, what exactly is the LRA and what is a Fire
Hazard Severity Zone? There are also questions: what is it that we have to do from the Town level, local government, and individual parcel owners or homeowners? There are
questions about the science, methodology, and the process that was used in order to determine the zones. There are a lot of questions about that. There is a lot of information out there, but it can be very difficult to figure out, and it can also be a little bit difficult to actually put into context and understand.
Then, finally, where does it apply?
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Those are the objectives that I have, and
hopefully I’ll be able to address all of those. This is about a 20-minute presentation; it’s about as short as I’ve been able to make it. I’ll try to keep it rolling, so if there are any questions at all, I’d be very happy to answer them afterwards.
The Fire Hazard Severity Zones, the first
questions are what is an SRA? What’s the LRA? What’s a Fire Hazard Severity Zone? Government Code 51178, which is
actually in the Staff Report as a reference, requires that the identification of Moderate, High, and Very High zones is identified. Next, it also indicates that you have to actually accept it from the local town level or the local government level, and there’s a time frame for that I’ll go into.
When we’re talking about LRA, Local
Responsibility Area, or SRA, State Responsibility Area, what this means in common terms is who pays for it and who shows up. Fire prevention or response, and then if there is any associated really cost of mitigating an emergency,
where does it go? State Responsibility Area are those areas where you have CAL FIRE, or previously they would have been the Board of Forestry. Local Responsibility Area, here, it would be us; it would County Fire.
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The Fire Hazard Severity Zones are the areas that
are designated in the area by the State Fire Marshal based on the severity of fire hazard expected to prevail in that area. What that means is for every area, topography, the geography, the weather, winds, those types of things that you can’t really control, are the things that actually
create what is known as the hazard. The things that you can control, or do you have an opportunity to mitigate against, would be how much vegetation do you have? It could be what characteristics does your home have with the construction type in order to resist any kind of fire? So, hazard is actually the primary focus of the Fire Hazard Severity
Zones that we’re dealing with.
This is a slide basically not to shock people,
but this is a good example of one house that has resisted the insult of fire embers and a wildfire, and what you see here is actually the hazard that existed in this area was significant. Fire came through with enough energy and force to pretty much clear this whole area. So, what is it about this specific home that made it resistant? The point is there are things that can be done to keep fire from getting close to a structure, and there are things that can be done in order to resist the insult of embers or firebrands
coming in, taking an opportunity, and catching that
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structure on fire. That’s the intent behind the Fire Hazard Severity Zones Maps, and then also some of the things that you see as recommendations for home hardening.
This effort has been going on for quite a long
time, and there’s a progression that you’ll see in some of the dates that I wanted to highlight here, and that is
there was an event, there was a legislative response, and then there was a direction to act, and that was usually to CAL FIRE to act.
The first event, November 24, 1980, Panorama Fire
in San Bernadino County burned 28,800 acres and destroyed 325 structures, and unfortunately there were four
fatalities. That was the event. The legislative response one year later in 1981 was the California Public Resources Code 4201-4204, and this mandated CAL FIRE to develop Fire Hazard Severity Zones Maps in SRA. So, in the State
Responsibility Areas where CAL FIRE was responding, the legislature required CAL FIRE to figure what is it about these zones, and identify these zones, that have a higher hazard. The first maps were completed in 1985, so it took about four years.
In 1991, the Tunnel Fire, or we call it the
Oakland Hills Fire, burned 1,600 acres, destroyed nearly 3,000 structures, and claimed 25 lives. That was the event.
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This made people realize that this could happen in our
urban environments, basically cities or neighborhoods that we live in, and the result in 1992 was AB 337, or the Bates Bill, which called for CAL FIRE to identify Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones in the LRA. So, now what you have is identify the zones at the State level, the State
Responsibility Areas, and identify in the local. So,
throughout the State, having an awareness of what these zones are and what the hazard level is was actually
achieved by 1991.
In 2007, the California Department of Forestry
Fire Protection finalized their statewide mapping and
modeling process in order identify these. This is the
actual base model that they used for the methodology to create what we currently know as our SRA and our LRA maps, and the three zones created Moderate, High, and Very High.
In 2011 the SRA modeling, the completion of the
Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone map being in the LRA, or the Local Responsibility Areas, was up to 38 counties and 200 cities, so they actually started making progress.
There was still a lot of work to go, but this was a work in progress.
In August of 2020 CZU and the SCU Complex Fires
burned 86,000 acres, 1,450 structures were burned or lost, LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 5/28/2025, Item #3,
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and resulting, in 2021, was AB 642 and AB 63, which
required CAL FIRE to designate the Moderate, High, and Very High Fire Severity Zones, and then designate by ordinance the Moderate, High, and Very High.
So, this is where we are right now. Over the last
several year California has had its worst wildfires that I think we all remember, because every time you see them
every year it seems like there are more and more, and
they’re hitting neighborhoods just like this.
This is mainly just to show you graphically how
significant the increase of fires, the catastrophic fires, that we’ve had. Since 2020, most catastrophic fires that we’ve had, they’ve just increased. You’re having hundredyear fires happening, it seems, like every year now.
Now, with that, the maps were released in
February, and in the first 30 days they had to be posted, so we worked with Staff to make sure that that information was there. It was sent here and Los Gatos did post it and open it up for public comment. The posting deadline was March 25th. The adoption deadline is the one that we’re actually here for.
A lot of work has gone into trying to educate
folks, trying to get the information out there, and allow you to understand exactly what it is that we need. So, by LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 5/28/2025, Item #3,
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June 24th, and we’re on track for that, is the deadline in order to adopt, and then those maps have to be transferred over to the State.
One of the things that people seem to really need
to know about the maps is the difference between hazard and risk.
Hazard is based on the physical characteristics
and conditions that are in the likelihood of a fire to
actually burn very, very aggressively, very fast, and the conditions essentially would be wind, topography, those types of things that, once again, cannot be controlled, and they do not take into account those things that you do to mitigate the amount of extreme fire behavior that you might have.
That’s set aside as risk, and it’s a different
thing altogether. It doesn’t take into account home
hardening. It doesn’t take into account a wildfire that may have passed in the last few years, or fuel reduction
efforts, which I would say that we are making a lot of
effort to make improvements on all of those fronts. With that, these fire hazard maps are effectively you’re just identifying that hazard.
The risk models basically are the potential
damage that can happen to an area under the existing
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conditions. This is actually something that the insurance companies might take a closer look at in order to determine whether you’re insurable or whether you can get or retain your insurance, but it’s important for people to understand that this also does include effort, investment, and then also you may have to end up making some modifications to your home.
These maps for the LRA were finished in December
of 2024. We have approximately 450 jurisdictions that have the three designations. The last maps that were adopted came from draft maps that were finished in 2007 and they were adopted either in 2008 or 2009 by most, and that is usually only the Very High, so it is one type of
designation, but there were only about 200 jurisdictions that were identified there. As we developed the LRA
jurisdictional maps, they include cities and counties, but they do not include things like fire districts, so those pretty much had to be developed by the local fire districts in order to get that data.
The relevant codes. The Government Code 51179,
this is the option that we have. There really aren’t many.
The requirement is that the local agency cannot decrease the level of hazard designation that exists. They can,
though, increase. So, if there is a compelling reason for LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 5/28/2025, Item #3,
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the local government to raise a hazard level, for example, if you want to go to Very High, you might do so in order to support the strategic fire break. You might do something like that to protect a road or an evacuation route, but for a Very High fire designation there must be compelling and significant justification as presented to CAL FIRE in order to do that, so they don’t take this lightly, and it does take some effort.
These are some of the questions and common
concerns that we get. First, the science and the
methodology. A lot of people don’t really understand how these things came together, so rather than actually try to explain it all to you, I’ll just say that there are a lot of references out there, and some of them that you should take a quick look at. These links can all be provided for you to take a look, because some of them are actually
videos. CAL FIRE has done the extraordinary effort, as well as IBHS, the Insurance Commission. There are a lot of
different participating agencies and organizations that have done a lot to try to educate the communities, the
public, and local governments.
So, if you’re going to be looking for how did
these designations get created, I’ll point you to the Fire Hazard Severity Zones rollout video at CAL FIRE’s site.
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It’s about an 11–14-minute watch. They do go into a lot of detail: how the actual zones have been created, the
methodology, the science, and how they’ve changed from the last iteration. I would say to anybody in the community or any of you, start with something that you actually know as a solid foundation that is based in science and solid
methodology. There are a lot of folks who think that there wasn’t any effort, or they didn’t do a comprehensive job, but take a look at that, that’s the place to start, and go wherever you need to go after that is basically the
recommendation that I would have. Investigate and be
curious for any member of the public or yourselves if you do have questions, but there is quite a bit of information on those sites regarding the science and the methodology.
Finally, finding and retaining insurance, I’ll
point you towards the California Department of Insurance with Commissioner Lara. He has put together a lot of
information, and there’s a lot of legislation that’s going through the process now to try to help people with
insurance, getting and retaining it, and then really acts or things that you can do in order to make your situation better.
Insurance companies, once again, use risk models,
not hazard models. They take into consideration the short- LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 5/28/2025, Item #3,
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term factors, and they do not take into consideration, or they do not work on, hazard models. You’re going to see some similarities though, because they do have variables that overlap, so they use some of the same things,
especially when they take a look.
Next, a really good one is the Safer from
Wildfire link. That’s a CAL FIRE link, and if you go there, there is a lot of information for individual homeowners to be able to take a look and make some kind of effort to
really come up with a game plan, because this is going to be a multiyear effort for a lot of folks as you start
dealing with your home, the defensible space around it, and then also as you start making those changes, really the whole neighborhood will become a little bit safer.
Finally, one of the things that is coming back in
the feedback throughout the West Valley cities is this is going to require costly upgrades to my home. Once again, there are a lot of ways that you can start to protect your home from the direct flame, radiant heat, the insult from flying embers, and a lot of those things can actually be found on the readyforwildfire.org site, and that is a CAL FIRE site that talks a lot about hardening your home. One of the things that you can find there is Ten Easy Ways to LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 5/28/2025, Item #3,
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Harden Your Home, and anyone can pick the top three things and start working on them right away.
What does it mean for me? The building standards,
if you’re in a Very High zone you’re going to have to make some changes to your construction type if you’re going to be in one of these zones. That means you’ll have to have a certain type of roof, you may have the type of siding that you have on your house, there are different features that you’re going to have to actually use, and that would be through Building Code standards or the Chapter 7A standards that we use in order to harden a home against wildfire.
The Natural Hazard Real Estate Disclosure. These
are the AB 38s. That means that there’s a disclosure; it’s part of the sale process. Those evaluations are actually done by us, as well as they can be done by Fire Safe.
The 100-Foot Defensible Space. That’s for the
Very High zone. If you get an inspection, the thing that would probably be the closest related, or the change would be if you get a WUI inspection from County Fire right now, you’ll continue or you will actually get one of those, and it will basically be really no change to you at all.
Property Development Standards. This is a 4290.
If you’re in a Very High zone, this is going to be the
folks that get impacted the most. Road standards, water and LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 5/28/2025, Item #3,
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access standards, things like that come into play, and
those are the ones that are sometimes the hardest to meet for some of the new construction projects that we see.
Then finally, City and County General Plan
Inclusion. This is really not new. There are a lot of
things that are hitting or triggering updates or inclusion into the General Plans and the safety elements, so this is just mandating that for the designated areas.
This is just a graphic. This one is available
from CAL FIRE, so if anybody is asking is it going to
affect me, you can see that on the right side the LRA there is a big impact on somebody who is in the Very High zone that wasn’t before. There were some areas for Los Gatos that came down in a designation. Some other areas actually increased quite a bit, but the situation here is a little bit different than that.
So, with that, you’ll see that probably the most
significant are the Fire Safe regulations; that’s the 4290 standards that I talked about. You don’t see that in the High or the Moderate zones. The Chapter 7A building
standards you do see in the High, but not in the Moderate.
Then the hazard disclosure is the AB 38. So, for
a High or a Moderate zone there really isn’t that much
impact. For the Very High, it’s likely that they were in LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 5/28/2025, Item #3,
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the Very High before if it was part of the map here, but those folks are going to be the most impacted, but that has been going on for quite a while, at least since I’ve been the Fire Marshal here.
Really, the message is as you move forward in
this process it’s really important to communicate to
everyone in the communities that are out there that are concerned about the wildfire risk that we have. One of the best ways to do it is to get a FireWise community going. If you can do that, then people start working from a
neighborhood level, they start educating themselves, and they start working as a neighborhood or a community, and that’s actually the way to probably provide the most impact to an area for region, because it really does go beyond the house, and it will also start to create relationships with fire crews and other folks that are going to be in the area to take a look and help out.
With that, I will take any questions that you may
have, and I will make sure that all of those links are
available so that you can go back and take a look.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you very much. That was very
thorough and very helpful. Commissioner Stump, I think, has a question for you.
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COMMISSIONER STUMP: Just a quick question about
defensible space. Los Gatos was entirely a red map the last time around; we were all Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, so being introduced to Moderate and High is a new thing for us, so I guess I wanted to verify with you that still in the High Fire Hazard Severity Zone defensible
space requirements are 100 feet.
CHIEF ESTRADA: The 100-foot standard is usually
with the Very High. What we do typically, or what we do by practice here, and then we have been doing for a while, is that if you’re in a Moderate or a High zone, you get the 30-foot, but you still get the same assessment and the
recommendations and the information that comes out of it.
One of the things that could be done is through
ordinance or through some other process you can get the 100-foot standard, or to the properly line if you choose to do that. That can be done in addition or after the map
adoption, so the map really designates the (inaudible)
zones, and then the ordinance that comes with it could
identify whether you want a 100-foot space or a 100-foot compliant zone for defensible space, and we do have a code update coming up too, so there will be another opportunity to do that if you wish to.
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CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you for that information.
I’m sure our Staff will be on top of that. Commissioner Burnett.
COMMISSIONER BURNETT: Thank you, Chair. I notice
here you have CEQA in the column under your severity, the local and the State.
CHIEF ESTRADA: In that table?
COMMISSIONER BURNETT: Yes. Could you comment?
How do you work with CEQA? It’s come up quite a bit
CHIEF ESTRADA: Great question. Thank you for the
question. For us, basically the building process, the
permitting process, would start and everyone would take their specific role, so the CEQA process would just go
through the normal… Maybe Robert could talk more directly to it, but for CAL FIRE, we would potentially we looking at the CEQA document that comes to us, especially for a large project, but we would be really focusing on access, water supply, signage, and all of the things that actually are in alignment with the Fire Code, so it would be the overall process that pulls CEQA into evaluation of the project.
COMMISSIONER BURNETT: Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Commissioner Stump.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: I guess I’m still reeling
from the 30-foot of defensible space in the High Fire
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Hazard Severity Zones. Is that locally selectable? I mean, if it’s not 100 feet, it’s got to be something, and that’s going to be a total mindset change for people in this area.
CHIEF ESTRADA: If I understand the question,
we’ve had people here that are used to being in the Very High and they have the 100-foot standard. Now changing it to a 30-foot standard because they happen to be in the
Moderate or the High will be a difference or a change for them. That’s why I was saying that through an ordinance or through direction we can make those folks… Because I think the WUI inspections are pretty benign, and when it comes down to it there’s not a lot of impact, they’re done from the public right-of-way, they identify really the red flags and the things that come up, and then our processes are to pick them up, so that would be an option that could be
figured out.
We go through the process of we’re going to have
to this year because the LRA maps reevaluate who is getting what by parcel level, so if you do desire to have a 100- foot standard, it’s not unusual for us to do that really through coordination. So, if you want to lock it in and actually make it part of the ordinance and say this is our standard, you can even do that.
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COMMISSIONER STUMP: This would be a question for
Staff. Does this actually go into our ordinance that Los Gatos is now primarily, when there is still some Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones, but it’s mostly High and some Moderate? Are we now going to put in our ordinance 100- foot, 30-foot defensible space based on zone?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: I’m happy to start. I think
the Chief was pretty clear that when we come through for the code updates, which is going to be both Building and Fire, there is an opportunity for the Town, if it should choose, to designate that in the Moderate and High, or just the High, whatever designation, that the 100-foot
defensible space is what we’re applying at a local level.
That’s going to be coming forward to Council before the end of the year, because the new codes go into effect January 1st of next year.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: Thank you.
CHIEF ESTRADA: Through the Chair, just one thing
to add. For us to enforce, there has to be an ordinance.
They work together, so for the direction, we can do it and we’ll hit the standard that you’re looking for, but if we go out and we only have authority for the 30-foot, then there could be a gap, and for that matter we would just make sure that hits… It’s actually not that difficult. It’s LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 5/28/2025, Item #3,
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just one of the things that we would put through and work with Staff to make sure that it’s covered. We do it in
alignment with any of our served jurisdictions, so to get a 100-foot standard, if that’s what you wish, is something that we could definitely work toward.
CHAIR THOMAS: I’m curious what Monte Sereno and
Saratoga and stuff will be doing too. You serve Saratoga too, right?
CHIEF ESTRADA: We do.
CHAIR THOMAS: You’re County, yes. Okay.
CHIEF ESTRADA: Everybody is different, so what
we do is for each jurisdiction we have up to three,
potentially four, letters, so depending on the zone,
they’ll get either 30- for 100-foot.
Then we also do courtesy notices to people who
are in the unincorporated areas, because we do
unincorporated Santa Clara County. So, for example, if
we’re in Los Altos Hills, because they don’t have a map we have everybody at one level, and so we do actually make modifications depending on the desires of the served
jurisdictions, and so we can tailor it to fit whatever it is you want if we’re talking specifically about which
letter they get, so that they have a clear understanding of what they need to achieve, and then if we catch anything on LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 5/28/2025, Item #3,
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an inspection, then we also know what we’re enforcing
towards.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you for explaining that;
that’s helpful. I did have one question just about the
difference in the maps, because they obviously have
changed, and so I just want to confirm that mainly these changes are just because there has been more data
collected, better modeling can happen, and so now we have more granular data to look at?
CHIEF ESTRADA: Yes, that’s exactly it. What we
have essentially is that our first maps were done, if you think about it, they were in 2007, we’re talking about 18 years, so with that a few things have changed.
One of the biggest and most significant changes
that we had… I mean, if we had the same question. When we saw this area in Monte Sereno, we were also surprised, so we asked what happened, and we talked to CAL FIRE and we went through the process and we just said okay, what is it that’s going on?
What I’ll start with first is that the modeling
and the data, the methodology and the data that was used, including the technology that was actually used, that all evolved; they improved and became much more precise.
Weather data though is probably the most significant thing, LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 5/28/2025, Item #3,
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and they said for us, because they were actually aware of this area, they said the coastal influence. Because we have 17 coming in there is this effect, and I would imagine that if we looked into a little bit more, the source of the
information is actually not the State weather data, it’s now the roster of the local data.
Then also for LRAs in the… This is also an
excellent document, the FAQ sheet from CAL FIRE. Basically, it says that the LRA are an extension of the State
Responsibility Area Fire Hazard Severity Zone models as a basis for evaluating fire hazard in Local Responsibility Areas. The LRA hazard area rating reflects flame and ember intrusion from adjacent wildland and from flammable
vegetation in urban areas. They take the ember cast and the potential for how many embers are in the air that are
flying towards your structure. That’s actually additionally in there, so when it comes down to how much is being cast out, and these fires that go out in advance of the fire line are called spot fires, so in an area like this they’ll be flying out and they can go up to a mile, so with that it might be the aspect that you have here, and it probably has a lot to do with the coastal influence and then the actual weather became much more precise. So, the areas that were painted earlier might have been a little bit larger than LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 5/28/2025, Item #3,
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they are today, or if you took the same technology, you did the same analysis, and you just turned back the clock, I would expect that you would find probably more similarity with 2025 data or 2024 data than you do with the 2007 data.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you for explaining that; it
is very interesting from an environmental scientist
perspective, but to think about even though, obviously, climate change has gotten worse since these original maps have been made. Commissioner Stump, I think, has a question or comment.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: For anyone with an
environmental science background, the one link that the Chief shared, a 14-minute video, is very worthwhile. By the end of the 14-minute video my eyes were sort of rolling in my head because of all of the data that they were providing and the methodology, so for somebody who has got the pompoms out for the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, I guess what I would say to you is I’m willing to trust the science, and so while it’s a change for us, it’s kind of embrace the change.
CHIEF ESTRADA: Thank you, Commissioner Stump.
CHAIR THOMAS: Commissioner Barnett, do you have
a question?
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COMMISSIONER BARNETT: I have two questions. The
first one is that at the GPAC level I asked if there was a comparison map from the 1970s map and the current map, and I guess that’s too difficult to put together?
CHIEF ESTRADA: Thank you for the question. We
were not able to get a really clear map when we overlayed them. What we did provide is one map that showed the
outline of the 2009 adopted map. Is it possible to bring that map up, Mr. Mullin?
SEAN MULLIN: Is that Exhibit 6?
CHIEF ESTRADA: I think so.
CHIEF ESTRADA: Yes, I can bring it up.
CHIEF ESTRADA: It shows the new map as we look
at it today, and then it has an outline that shows the
existing 2009 map that’s adopted. That’s not the one.
SEAN MULLIN: Exhibit 3, then?
CHIEF ESTRADA: That’s the current.
SEAN MULLIN: How about this one, Mr. Gray?
CHIEF ESTRADA: There you go. Thank you, Mr.
Mullin. This map shows the current proposed as required by the State Fire Marshal, and then the darker red, maroon colored line to the exterior that you can really see to the north, that is the outlay of our existing map that we work off of today.
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COMMISSIONER BARNETT: That’s very helpful. The
last question I had was in your reference to Building Code standards. You’re not referring to changes to existing
structures, just to new ones that come into the Building Code?
CHIEF ESTRADA: It would be any project that
actually from the adoption forward would end up being…
Because one of the qualifying factors, whether you’re using the 4290 of the Chapter 7A standards, is what’s the Hazard Severity Zone designation? So, the day after adoption
everything potentially would end up being…that would be in a Very High would have that standard required, or the High.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Everything in the future?
CHIEF ESTRADA: Yes.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Okay, got it.
CHIEF ESTRADA: And it usually goes by the date
of the Building Permit.
ROBERT GRAY: It’s correct. The date of the
application is when we would determine what code is
required. But I think, if I may, maybe talking a little bit about, just for a clarification, existing structures that are not undergoing any type of renovation or updating or anything like that, they’re not being made to comply with LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 5/28/2025, Item #3,
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this code. It’s part of a voluntary construction project, just to clarify.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Got it. Thank you.
CHIEF ESTRADA: The other thing that will be
coming is the Zone Zero, so that’s something that should be addressed at some point, and I think we’d be happy to come back and provide any information, because the direction from Executive Order this year was that this workgroup has been meeting and their charge is to have a standard that’s set and ready to be effective on the first of 2026, so with that, that’s where you’re going to actually see, and none of those are…
These things are not going to be retroactive, but
there are going to be some things that would be subject to change on replacement of certain features for your home, like wooden fences or gates that connect directly to your home. There will be a phase-in period as well for a lot of these, and the direction that conversation has been going is that they recognize that there are going to be a lot of challenges when it comes to things like decks or fences or these types of things that we’re used to. There is a lot of back and forth and debate going on. That is available to the Board of Forestry’s website too, if you’re interested LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 5/28/2025, Item #3,
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in that, and we can provide information on how you get to that if you’d like it.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Are there any
additional questions for Chief Estada?
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: No questions, but we need
a motion.
CHAIR THOMAS: I think we need to close this
portion and then do public comment.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Right. Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: And then we can jump on your
motion. Okay, thank you. That was very educational and
helpful; really appreciate it.
We will now move on to public comment. Is there
anyone in the chamber? No. Anyone on Zoom?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: No, no one on Zoom.
CHAIR THOMAS: No one is on Zoom at all? We will
now close the public portion of this hearing on Item 2, and I do think that we kind of did most of our discussion
during our questioning and discussion with Chief Estada, so is there a motion? Commissioner Stump.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: Since there are three
Commissioners that were or are on GPC, this came before GPC at its last meeting, I think it was on May 14th, and lots of discussion took place and GPC passed a motion to recommend LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 5/28/2025, Item #3,
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the Planning Commission make their recommendation to the Town Council to approve this map. I just thought it would be helpful to know. Chair Thomas is on GPC, Commissioner Barnett is on GPC, as well I am on GPC, so I guess if you can trust us, you’ll have a little bit of time back.
CHAIR THOMAS: Yes, nothing has changed my mind
since then, so does anyone want to make a motion? Just to forward a recommendation of approval to Town Council, so you don’t even have to make any findings. Vice Chair Burch.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: I will move that we forward a
recommendation to the Town Council to approve the Fire
Hazard Severity Zones Map Ordinance and Resolution to
comply with State Government Code Section 51178, an
amendment of the General Plan Hazards and Safety Element to incorporate the Fire Hazard Severity Zones Map.
CHAIR THOMAS: Can I get a second? Commissioner
Stump.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: Second.
CHAIR THOMAS: Any discussion? All those in
favor, please raise your hand, and the motion passes
unanimously. Thank you very much, Staff and Chief Estrada for coming.
(END)
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Updated Fire Hazard Severity Zone
Map in the LRA
Santa Clara County Fire Department
Assistant Chief, Hector Estrada
ATTACHMENT 10
FIRE HAZARD SEVERITY ZONES IN LRA
Government Code 51178
The State Fire Marshal shall identify areas in the state as moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones based on consistent statewide criteria and based on the severity of fire hazard that is expected to prevail in those areas. Moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones shall be based on fuel loading, slope, fire weather, and other relevant factors including areas where winds have been identified by the Office of the State Fire Marshal as a major cause of wildfire spread.
Government Code 51179
(a) A local agency shall designate, by ordinance, moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones in its jurisdiction within 120 days of receiving recommendations from the State Fire Marshal pursuant to Section 51178.
KEY TERMS
LRA - Local Responsibility Areas: Includes incorporated cities and urban regions where local government has wildfire responsibility.
SRA - State Responsibility Areas: State has financial responsibility for wildland fire protection and prevention.
FHSZ - Fire Hazard Severity Zones: Designation of an area by State Fire Marshal based on severity of fire hazard expected to prevail in that area.
Moderate High Very High
(yellow) (orange) (red)
LEGISLATIVE TIMELINE
February 24, 2025: Maps Released
Posting Deadline (30 Days): March 25, 2025
Adoption Deadline by local (120 Days): June 24, 2025
LRA MAP ROLLOUT TIMELINE
FIRE HAZARD SEVERITY ZONES (FHSZ)
FIRE HAZARD
“Hazard” is based on the physical
conditions that create a likelihood and
expected fire behavior over a 30 to 50-year
period without considering mitigation
measures such as home hardening, recent
wildfire, or fuel reduction efforts.
FIRE HAZARD SEVERITY ZONES (FHSZ)
WILDFIRE RISK
“Risk” is the potential damage a fire can
do to the area under existing conditions,
accounting for any modifications such as
fuel reduction projects, defensible space,
and ignition resistant building
construction.
FIRE HAZARD SEVERITY ZONES (FHSZ)
MAP DEVELOPMENT
Completed on December 1, 2024
• Approximately 450 jurisdictions (M, H, VH)
• 2007 – Over 200 jurisdictions in Very High
FHSZ
Developed LRA jurisdictional Maps for Cities
and Counties and statewide LRA data - Not
Fire Districts
FIRE HAZARD SEVERITY ZONES (FHSZ)
GOV. CODE 51179
A local agency shall not decrease the level of
fire hazard severity zone as identified by the
State Fire Marshal for any area within the
jurisdiction of the local agency, and, in
exercising its discretion pursuant to
paragraph (2), may only increase the level of
fire hazard severity zone as identified by the
State Fire Marshal for any area within the
jurisdiction of the local agency.
COMMON CONCERNS & QUESTIONS
Science and Methodology
Visit CAL FIRE to learn understand the process and how it evolved. FHSZ Model on CAL FIRE site Fire Hazard Severity Zone Rollout - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy8X3BCreXY Finding or Retaining Insurance
CDI - Insurance Commissioner - Ricardo Lara
https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/200-wrr/
Insurance companies use Risk models not Hazard models that take into consideration short term factors not included in hazard modeling.
Safer from wildfire link - https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/200-wrr/Safer-from- Wildfires.cfm Costly Home Upgrades (Home Hardening)
Learn to protect your home from direct flame, radiant heat, flying embers. Low-cost retrofitting list https://readyforwildfire.org/prepare-for-wildfire/hardening-your-home/ WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR ME?
Building standards - CBC Chapter 7A
Natural Hazard Real Estate Disclosure - AB 38
100-foot Defensible Space requirements - CA GOV 51182
Property Development Standards (MFSR) - CA PRC 4290
City and County General Plan inclusion - CA GOV 65302
FIRE HAZARD SEVERITY ZONES – NEW UPDATES
CREATE A FIREWISE COMMUNITY
THANK YOU
QUESTIONS?