Santa Clarita, CA Fire Regulations: Wildfire Zones (2026)

Section 118, added to the City Building Code by Ordinance 25-5, defines Fire Hazard Zones as the areas CAL FIRE, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, has designated and that the city displays on its Geographic Information System under a layer labeled "Fire Zone"; that map is declared part of the code and takes effect on the date of designation. The section applies to new construction on individual lots or parcels within a Fire Hazard Zone whenever a permit application is submitted, and it requires any building or structure erected, altered, added onto, or moved into the zone to meet every applicable provision of the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code as adopted locally.

2. Replacing more than 50 percent of an existing building's exterior wall covering within any one-year period pulls the whole wall, new and old, into full CWUIC compliance, and replacing more than 50 percent of a building's windows or doors in the same one-year window does the same for every window and door on the structure. These 50-percent thresholds are cumulative, so a series of smaller repairs within a year can still trigger full compliance once they add up past the halfway mark.