Lakewood, CA Fire Regulations: Brush Clearance (2026)

The 100 feet is measured off the building, not off the parcel. The section requires the owner to maintain defensible space of 100 feet from each side and from the front and rear of the structure, so a Lakewood house set at an angle on its lot has its own clearance envelope traced around the walls rather than a uniform setback from the street.

The envelope has a hard outer limit. The requirement runs "but not beyond the property line, except as provided in subparagraph (B)." On a Lakewood parcel where the house sits closer to a side or rear boundary than the full distance, the obligation ends at the line. The statute does not ask an owner to clear a neighbor's yard, and it does not authorize doing so.

What the section demands inside that envelope is a result, not a fixed cutting list. It states that the amount of fuel modification necessary shall consider the flammability of the structure as affected by building material, building standards, location, and type of vegetation, and that fuels shall be maintained and spaced in a condition so that a wildfire would be unlikely to ignite the structure. Two Lakewood homes on the same block can therefore owe different amounts of work. A building whose materials and construction make it easier to ignite, or one carrying heavier or more flammable plantings, needs more modification than a neighbor with the same lot dimensions. Note the phrase "maintained and spaced." Separation between plants counts alongside removal, and maintenance is ongoing rather than a one time cleanup.

The section then spares individual plants. The clearance subparagraph does not apply to single specimens of trees or other vegetation that are well-pruned and maintained so as to effectively manage fuels and not form a means of rapidly transmitting fire from other nearby vegetation to a structure or from a structure to other nearby vegetation. The transmission test runs both directions, so a Lakewood specimen tree qualifies only if it can neither carry fire into the house nor carry fire from the house out to surrounding vegetation.