Chelan County, WA Fire Regulations: Brush Clearance (2026)

72 creates the Icicle Valley design review overlay district (IVOD) for the area described by section and township ranges northwest of Leavenworth, applying to any land use or development under county jurisdiction there except residential footprint expansions under fifty percent. 070's minimum development standards fold in a set of wildfire-hardening rules for 'Residential and Other Structures' that go well beyond the county's general building code. Every residence or other principal structure needs a cistern, well or pond holding at least five hundred gallons, plus a powered pump and at least two hundred feet of hose.

All stilted foundations must be enclosed, and roofs must use noncombustible materials as described in the International Building Code. Chimneys must carry an approved spark arrestor, and any tree branch within fifteen feet of a chimney has to come down. The brush-clearance rule itself: weeds and combustible debris, aside from small scattered ornamentals, must be cleared for at least thirty feet around each structure. Beyond that ring, trees within one hundred feet of a residence or other principal structure must be thinned so their crowns no longer touch, and pruned of limbs within ten feet of the ground.

Livestock enclosures must sit at least two hundred feet from the mean high-water mark of any surface water or well. 050 before any of this construction begins.