Sandy, UT Fire Regulations: Wildfire Zones (2026)

Sandy City Code § 18-1-3 amends the International Building Code by adding a new Appendix L specifically for construction in the city's Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Areas, the foothill and canyon-adjacent parcels near Little Cottonwood Canyon and the Wasatch bench where wildfire exposure is highest. 1 puts the Fire Marshal in charge of determining fire hazard severity for a given site using Section 502 of the 2006 International Wildland-Urban Interface Code, and that severity rating then dictates which ignition-resistant construction requirements from Chapter 5 of the IWUIC apply to the project, covering exterior wall coverings, roofing assemblies, vents, decking, and glazing.

1, which ties some of those construction requirements directly to how much defensible space surrounds the structure, and it deletes two subsections of Section 505 for Class 2 ignition-resistant construction outright. Because these standards are folded into the IBC adopted at § 18-1-1, a WUI designation is checked and enforced as part of ordinary building permit review, not a separate approval track: plans for new construction or major remodels in a mapped WUI area must show compliance with the applicable ignition-resistant construction class before the Building Division issues a permit.

Disputes over how the Fire Marshal classified a property or applied Appendix L go to the seven-member Board of Appeals created under § 18-1-2, which is authorized to hear and decide appeals arising under the IBC and this chapter.