Lake Elsinore, CA Fire Regulations: Brush Clearance (2026)

LEMC § 15.58.020(K) adds Section 604.7.1 to the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code, requiring any person owning, leasing, controlling, operating, or maintaining a building or structure in, upon, or adjoining a Fire Hazard Severity Zone, and any person controlling adjacent land, to maintain an effective firebreak by removing and clearing away all combustible material for a distance of not less than 100 feet from all portions of the building. The Fire Code Official may increase that distance based on a site-specific analysis or a required Fire Protection Plan, though the rule exempts single specimens or well-pruned, spaced ornamental trees and landscaping that do not readily transmit fire.

Section 604.6 separately requires that any improved parcel declared a public nuisance be cleared entirely of combustible material, with Section 604.7 covering more targeted clearance of fuels and vegetative growth from structures under Sections 604.7.1 through 604.7.4. New buildings must complete this clearance before vertical construction begins under Section 604.7.2, and freestanding photovoltaic panel clusters have their own clearance rules, from a 10-foot clearance for clusters up to 1,500 square feet to a 30-foot clearance for larger clusters, with panels kept 30 feet from any building unless the standard defensible-space clearance is otherwise provided.

These amendments were adopted under authority of Health and Safety Code Sections 17958, 17958.5, 17958.7 and 18941.5, which let the City modify the state Wildland-Urban Interface Code for local climatic and topographic conditions, and are enforced by the Fire Chief, Chief Deputy or their designee through the Riverside County Fire Department, which is authorized to enforce fire prevention and hazard-elimination ordinances.