San Jacinto, CA Fire Regulations: Brush Clearance (2026)

Section 17.300.050 of the San Jacinto Development Code is the City's performance standard for fire hazards, and § 17.300.020 applies the chapter to all new and existing uses in all zones. Subsection A sends the use, handling, storage and transportation of combustibles and explosives to the California Fire Code and Title 19 of the California Code of Regulations (Public Safety). Subsection B covers wildland fire. A fire management plan must be prepared for all development located in or adjacent to wildfire prone areas, which the code describes as naturally vegetated hillsides. The plan is subject to review and approval of the Fire Chief.

The Fire Chief decides which measures the plan carries. The listed options are fire protection measures such as landscape or open space buffers, maintenance programs for weed and vegetation abatement, installation of fire resistant plants, and the use of noncombustible building materials, including roofing.

Brush and weed rules for existing lots sit elsewhere in the Municipal Code. Chapter 8.16 adopts by reference Riverside County Ordinance No. 787.11, which adopts the 2025 Edition of the California Fire Code and the 2025 Edition of the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code, as the Fire Code of the City of San Jacinto, except as modified by the chapter. Section 8.16.020 ties enforcement to the City's contract with the Riverside County Fire Department/Cal Fire, and § 8.16.030 provides that plan review and inspection fees are those set by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, paid directly to the County.

Separately, § 8.44.050 declares a public nuisance for weeds or other vegetation that are dangerous to public safety and welfare or detrimental to neighboring properties and visible from a public street. The listed examples include weeds that attain such a large growth as to become a fire menace when dry. The code calls these weeds seasonal and recurrent and says they shall not exist upon parkways, streets and private property within the city. Overgrown vegetation likely to harbor rats and vermin is a separate listed nuisance.