california legislature—2025–26 regular session
ASSEMBLY BILL No. 2517
Introduced by Assembly Member Calderon
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Lackey)
February 20, 2026
An act to amend Sections 51178, 51179, and 51181 of the Government Code, relating to fire safety.
legislative counsel’s digest
AB 2517, as introduced, Calderon. Fire safety: fire hazard severity zones.
Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal to identify areas in the state that are not state responsibility areas, commonly known as local responsibility areas, 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. Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal to periodically review and make recommendations relative to very high fire hazard severity zones within local responsibility areas. Under existing law, this review is required to coincide with review of state responsibility area lands every 5 years and, when possible, fall within the timeframes for each county’s general plan update. Existing law requires a local agency to designate, by ordinance, moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones in its jurisdiction within 120 days of receiving the recommendations from the State Fire Marshal. Existing law authorizes a local agency to, at its discretion, include areas within its jurisdiction not identified as very high fire hazard severity zones by the State Fire Marshal as very high fire hazard severity zones and areas not identified as moderate and high fire hazard severity zones by the State Fire Marshal as moderate and 99 Attachment 2
high fire hazard severity zones. Under existing law, a local agency is required to transmit a copy of an adopted ordinance to the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection within 30 days of adoption. Existing law provides that changes made by a local agency to the recommendations made by the State Fire Marshal are final.
This bill would require the State Fire Marshal to, no fewer than 180 days before finalizing the designation of local responsibility areas as moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones, post specified information on its public internet website, conduct regional public workshops to receive oral public comments and consider those comments, host a 30-day public comment period to receive written comments from interested stakeholders and respond to all written comments by local agencies within 30 days of the end of the public comment period, and coordinate with other state agencies to help educate the public during the public workshops, as specified. The bill would also require, on or before January 1, 2030, and every 5 years thereafter, the State Fire Marshal to review the local responsibility area lands designated as moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones and to recommend changes. The bill would no longer require this review to, when possible, fall within the timeframes for each county’s general plan update. The bill would authorize a local agency to, at its discretion, increase the level of fire hazard severity applicable to a parcel in its jurisdiction if a parcel contains 2 or more designations, so that the higher level of fire hazard severity would apply to the entire parcel. The bill would require the State Fire Marshal to publish within 60 days the local ordinance transmitted to the board, as described above, on its internet website.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
line 1 SECTION 1. Section 51178 of the Government Code is line 2 amended to read:
line 3 51178. (a) The State Fire Marshal shall identify areas in the line 4 state as moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones line 5 based on consistent statewide criteria and based on the severity of line 6 fire hazard that is expected to prevail in those areas. Moderate, line 7 high, and very high fire hazard severity zones shall be based on line 8 fuel loading, slope, fire weather, and other relevant factors 99 AB 2517 — 2 —
line 1 including areas where winds have been identified by the Office of line 2 the State Fire Marshal as a major cause of wildfire spread. line 3 (b) The State Fire Marshal shall, no fewer than 180 days before line 4 finalizing the designations pursuant to subdivision (a), do all of line 5 the following:
line 6 (1) Post draft maps of preliminary designations on its public line 7 internet website to ensure the preliminary designations are line 8 available for public review and comment.
line 9 (2) Post the data inputs, model, and methodology used to line 10 develop the preliminary designations on its public internet website. line 11 (3) (A) Conduct regional, public workshops on the draft maps, line 12 before initiating the public comment period pursuant to paragraph line 13 (4), to receive oral public comments.
line 14 (B) Provide at least one online virtual option for public line 15 participation in a workshop pursuant to subparagraph (A) of this line 16 paragraph.
line 17 (C) Consider, within 30 days of a public regional workshop line 18 pursuant to subparagraph (A) of this paragraph, all oral public line 19 comments received.
line 20 (4) (A) Host a 30-day public comment period for interested line 21 stakeholders to provide written comment on the draft maps. line 22 (B) Respond to, within 30 days of the end of the public comment line 23 period pursuant to subparagraph (A) of this paragraph, all written line 24 comments received from local agencies regarding land use and line 25 zoning matters.
line 26 (5) Coordinate with other state agencies to help educate the line 27 public during the public workshops pursuant to paragraph (3) on line 28 the following topics related to the preliminary designations:
line 29 (A) Mitigation activities.
line 30 (B) Fire insurance.
line 31 (C) Other related maps and models.
line 32 (c) After the process described in subdivision (b), the State Fire line 33 Marshal shall finalize the designations and transmit the maps line 34 identifying the fire hazard severity zones, pursuant to subdivision line 35 (a), to the appropriate local agency.
line 36 SEC. 2. Section 51179 of the Government Code is amended line 37 to read:
line 38 51179. (a) A local agency shall designate, by ordinance, line 39 moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones in its 99 — 3 — AB 2517
line 1 jurisdiction within 120 days of receiving recommendations from line 2 the State Fire Marshal pursuant to Section 51178. line 3 (b) (1) A local agency may, at its discretion, include areas line 4 within the jurisdiction of the local agency, not identified as very line 5 high fire hazard severity zones by the State Fire Marshal, as very line 6 high fire hazard severity zones following a finding supported by line 7 substantial evidence in the record that the requirements of Section line 8 51182 are necessary for effective fire protection within the area. line 9 (2) A local agency may, at its discretion, include areas within line 10 the jurisdiction of the local agency, not identified as moderate and line 11 high fire hazard severity zones by the State Fire Marshal, as line 12 moderate and high fire hazard severity zones, respectively. line 13 (3) A local agency may, at its discretion, increase the level of line 14 fire hazard severity applicable to a parcel in its jurisdiction if a line 15 parcel contains two or more designations, so that the higher level line 16 of fire hazard severity would apply to the entire parcel. line 17 (3)
line 18 (4) A local agency shall not decrease the level of fire hazard line 19 severity zone as identified by the State Fire Marshal for any area line 20 within the jurisdiction of the local agency, and, in exercising its line 21 discretion pursuant to paragraph (2), may only increase the level line 22 of fire hazard severity zone as identified by the State Fire Marshal line 23 for any area within the jurisdiction of the local agency. line 24 (c) The local agency shall transmit a copy of an ordinance line 25 adopted pursuant to subdivision (a) to the State Board of Forestry line 26 and Fire Protection within 30 days of adoption. line 27 (d) Changes made by a local agency to the recommendations line 28 made by the State Fire Marshal shall be final and shall not be line 29 rebuttable by the State Fire Marshal.
line 30 (e) The State Fire Marshal shall publish within 60 days the line 31 local ordinances transmitted pursuant to subdivision (c) on its line 32 internet website to ensure they are publicly available. line 33 (e)
line 34 (f) The State Fire Marshal shall prepare and adopt a model line 35 ordinance that provides for the establishment of very high fire line 36 hazard severity zones.
line 37 (f)
line 38 (g) Any ordinance adopted by a local agency pursuant to this line 39 section that substantially conforms to the model ordinance of the 99 AB 2517 — 4 —
line 1 State Fire Marshal shall be presumed to be in compliance with the line 2 requirements of this section.
line 3 (g)
line 4 (h) A local agency shall post a notice at the office of the county line 5 recorder, county assessor, and county planning agency identifying line 6 the location of the map provided by the State Fire Marshal pursuant line 7 to Section 51178. If the agency amends the map, pursuant to line 8 subdivision (b) or (c) of this section, the notice shall instead line 9 identify the location of the amended map.
line 10 SEC. 3. Section 51181 of the Government Code is amended line 11 to read:
line 12 51181. The On or before January 1, 2030, and every five years line 13 thereafter, the State Fire Marshal shall periodically review the line 14 areas in the state identified as review the local responsibility area line 15 lands in the state, including areas identified as moderate, high, line 16 and very high fire hazard severity zones pursuant to this chapter, line 17 and as necessary, shall make recommendations relative to very line 18 high fire hazard severity zones. recommend changes in accordance line 19 with Sections 51178 and 51179. This review of local responsibility line 20 area lands shall coincide with the review of state responsibility line 21 area lands every five years and, when possible, fall within the time line 22 frames for each county’s general plan update. Any revision of line 23 areas included in a very high fire hazard severity zone shall be line 24 made in accordance with Sections 51178 and 51179. years.
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99 — 5 — AB 2517