Palm Desert, CA Fire Regulations: Brush Clearance (2026)

Brush clearance in the City of Palm Desert, Riverside County, California, runs through Palm Desert Municipal Code § 15.16.020, which amends the 2025 California Wildland-Urban Interface Code that § 15.16.010 adopts for the city. Section 604.6 of that code, as the city wrote it, says all improved parcels declared a Public Nuisance shall be cleared entirely of combustible material. If the Fire Code Official determines total clearance is impractical, the owner can follow Section 604.7 instead, which governs clearance of fuels and vegetative growth from structures.

Section 604.7.1 puts the duty on any person owning, leasing, controlling, operating or maintaining a building or structure in, upon or adjoining a fire hazard severity zone, and on anyone owning, leasing or controlling land adjacent to those buildings. They must at all times maintain 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 Fire Code Official can increase that distance after a site-specific analysis based on local conditions, or when a Fire Protection Plan calls for it. The 100-foot rule does not apply to single specimens or stands of protected tree species, or to ornamental landscape and ground covers that are well-pruned, maintained and spaced and do not carry fire between nearby vegetation and a structure or interrupt the advance of embers toward a structure.

Timing matters for construction. Section 604.7.2 requires the clearance to be completed before vertical construction of any new building or addition. For existing sites, Section 604.3.1 lets the Fire Code Official require retrofitting, and approved work can be spread over a two to four year period. Section 604.7.3 adds clearance around freestanding photovoltaic systems: 10 feet for clusters up to 1,500 square feet of combined panel area, 30 feet for larger clusters, and 20 feet between clusters. The hazard zones themselves come from the State Fire Marshal maps the city adopted under Ordinance No. 1429.