Highland, CA Fire Regulations: Wildfire Zones (2026)

Highland Municipal Code Chapter 15.16 adopts the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code, 2025 Edition (Part 7 of Title 24), with the city's own amendments in § 15.16.030. The stated purpose in § 15.16.020 is to reduce the likelihood of life and property loss from wildfire through construction and development requirements in fire hazard severity zones in local responsibility areas designated as very high, and to help buildings in wildland-urban interface areas resist flames and burning embers. The building official administers the code.

The local definition of FIRE SAFETY AREAS ties the code to a map: Fire Safety Review Areas correspond to the Fire Hazard Severity Zones and appear on the City's Fire Safety Overlay under the General Plan.

Section 602.3.3 lets the city require a final fire protection plan and fuel modification area around development adjacent or exposed to hazardous fire areas. The responsible Fire Authority and the Fire Department set the width, but it is never less than 100 feet measured from the development structure perimeter. Width turns on natural ungraded slope, fuel loading, access, on-site firefighting water, and continual maintenance. Phased projects can be required to provide temporary fuel modification areas.

Slope rules in Section 609.2.8 apply to slopes over thirty percent and thirty feet high. Vegetation within 200 feet of proposed structures on such slopes is treated as a fuel modified area, maintained for the entire slope, 100 feet, or to the property line, whichever is less. Structures must sit at least 30 feet back from the edge of graded areas next to such slopes.

Other local amendments require vehicular access at least 12 feet wide to within 10 feet of any static water source, prohibit eave-type attic ventilators, and require two points of vehicular ingress and egress for development projects, with a 24-foot all-weather surface. Under Section 604.6 the fire code official can suspend enforcement of vegetation clearance and require alternative measures for difficult terrain, erosion danger, protected species or heritage trees.