Chino Hills, CA Fire Regulations: Wildfire Zones (2026)

Chino Hills maps its wildfire risk area as the Fire Hazard Overlay District under Chapter 16.22 of the Development Code, adopted by Ordinance No. 329 in 2018. Section 16.22.010(A) states the intent directly: the overlay exists to mitigate against the threat of wildland fires, giving firefighting vehicles access into the wildland interface and preventing structures from becoming a barrier between firefighting equipment and personnel and wildland areas. The district boundary is not fixed by the ordinance text itself; it is tied to Figure 5-10 of the General Plan Safety Element and updated using data from Cal Fire and the Chino Valley Fire District (CVFD), per § 16.22.010(B).

Section 16.22.020(A) sets the trigger for compliance: the chapter applies to all new construction in the overlay, and to any addition to an existing structure that increases its size by fifty percent or more. Every project inside the overlay must also meet whatever standards CVFD has separately adopted. The core physical requirement is in § 16.22.030: construction has to comply with Section 7A of the Building Code, the state's wildland-urban interface material and construction standard, and structures on separate lots need at least a thirty-foot exterior wall separation from any structure on an adjoining lot, clear to sky with no roof or overhang bridging the gap. A property owner can substitute an alternate protection measure for the 30-foot gap only with sign-off from both CVFD and the Community Development Director. Where the Fire Hazard Overlay's rules are more restrictive than the citywide fire-resistive design standards in § 16.06.160, the overlay controls.