May 26, 2026
The Honorable Buffy Wicks
Chair, Assembly Appropriations Committee
1021 O Street, Suite 8220
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: AB 2517 (Calderon) Fire safety: Fire hazard severity zones - SUPPORT Dear Chair Wicks,
The City of San Marcos is pleased to support AB 2517 (Calderon), which would improve the Fire Hazard Severity Zone (FHSZ) designation process conducted by the Office of the State Fire Marshal by ensuring consistent and timely updates to the local responsibility area FHSZ maps and establishing a more transparent, publicly accessible process at the state level for developing and releasing these designations, which ultimately inform wildfire mitigation efforts to reduce fire risk.
The threat of wildfires are of growing concern across California, as communities have witnessed the increase in frequency and severity of catastrophic wildfires in the past decade. Under current law, fire hazard severity zone designations are released by the Office of the State Fire Marshal and applied in both the state and local responsibility areas to provide the state’s best available science of environmental conditions, such as slope, vegetation, and wind patterns, that can spread a wildfire.
The local responsibility area (LRA) FHSZ designations are only required to be periodically re-reviewed every five years and existing statute does not require comprehensive updates to the designations. Prior to the most recent release in 2025, the LRA FHSZ maps had not been updated over the past 15 years. Important concerns were raised last year when the maps were updated, including the accuracy of land use information, including split parcels with multiple designations and the classification of developed areas such as parking lots and bodies of water being designated as very high fire hazard severity zones. These issues create challenges for local jurisdictions who are required to adopt these maps by ordinance and host public comment locally without the ability to respond to the public concerns regarding the model and data.
AB 2517 would address these concerns by clarifying how and when the LRA FHSZ maps are updated, including how stakeholders can engage meaningfully in the process. The bill would establish a five-year update cycle for the LRA FHSZ maps, a preliminary public release of the maps, require the disclosure of the data, models, and methodology used to develop the designations, and provide opportunities for local agencies and stakeholders to engage with OSFM before maps are transmitted locally for local ordinance adoption. These steps are critical to ensuring public transparency and consistency in how these maps are updated to help protect communities from the threat of wildfires.
For these reasons, the City of San Marcos supports AB 2517.
Sincerely,
Rebecca D. Jones
Mayor
2 City Council
[email protected]