Eastvale, CA Environmental Rules: Defensible Space (2026)

Eastvale Municipal Code § 110.22.020 adds Section 604.7.1 to the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code, requiring that any person owning, leasing, controlling, operating, or maintaining a building in, upon, or adjoining a Fire Hazard Severity Zone "shall at all times maintain around and adjacent to such Building, an effective firebreak made by removing and clearing away, all combustible material on their property for a distance not less than 100 feet from all portions of the Building." The duty falls on the building owner and on anyone owning or controlling adjacent land, and the Fire Code Official can require an even wider clearance based on a site-specific analysis or a Fire Protection Plan.

The rule carries a narrow landscaping exception for single specimens or stands of protected tree species, ornamental landscaping, and ground covers that are well-pruned, properly spaced, and maintained so they cannot rapidly carry fire between surrounding vegetation and the structure. Section 604.7.2 requires this 100-foot clearance to be completed before vertical construction begins on any new building or addition. Section 604.7.3 sets narrower, separate distances for freestanding solar equipment near a covered building: a 10-foot clearance around panel clusters up to 1,500 square feet, a 30-foot clearance for larger clusters, 20 feet of separation between clusters, and clusters may not sit within 30 feet of a covered building unless the underlying 100-foot clearance is instead measured from the panel array's perimeter. Riverside County Fire Department inspectors, acting as the city's Fire Code Official under contract, verify this clearance during plan review and field inspection.