Monterey, CA Fire Regulations: Wildfire Zones (2026)

Section 13-7(a) designates fire hazard severity zones as recommended by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) under Government Code Section 51178, incorporating the "City of Monterey Fire Hazard Severity Zones" map as Appendix A to the ordinance by reference, with a live version also posted through the City's ArcGIS web map. Section 13-7(b) then sets a split-parcel rule: when a single lot carries more than one fire hazard severity zone on the Appendix A map, the stricter designation governs the entire property, and the highest zone on that lot is administered and enforced for the whole parcel rather than splitting the lot by zone line.

Both provisions were added by Ordinance 3704 Section 3 in 2025, making this recently updated local text rather than a stale reference. A zone designation is not itself a construction standard; it is the trigger that pulls a property into the wildland-urban interface building and fire-protection requirements carried elsewhere in the adopted 2025 California Fire Code and California Building Code, covering items like ignition-resistant construction, vegetation clearance and ember-resistant vents. It is also distinct from a seller's separate state-law disclosure duty at property transfer; Section 13-7 governs how the City itself administers and enforces construction requirements once a parcel's zone is set, and a homeowner in a higher zone owes both the transfer disclosure and the locally enforced defensible-space or building-code obligations through the Fire Code Official.