Sonoma, CA Fire Regulations: Wildfire Zones (2026)

005(M), to state that the code's purpose is establishing minimum regulations for safeguarding life and protecting property from wildland fire exposure, fire spreading between adjacent structures, and structure fires spreading into wildland fuels, with regulation intensity tiered to the level of hazard present. The section makes clear that unrestricted use of property in wildland-urban interface areas threatens life and property from fire and resulting erosion, so this code supplements the city's existing building and fire codes with special regulations for those areas. Critically, the ordinance designates specific geography: the boundaries of the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones (VHFHS) in the City of Sonoma, as adopted by the city council, are set out on a map attached as Exhibit A to Ordinance 08-2025 and kept on file with the city clerk's office.

The fire department is required to maintain an official copy of the most current VHFHS zones map in its administrative offices, open for public inspection during regular business hours, so a property owner can confirm whether a specific parcel falls inside a mapped zone. Because state law, not this chapter, sets defensible-space obligations for State Responsibility Area land under Public Resources Code § 4291, a Sonoma property owner should check both the city's VHFHS map and the applicable defensible-space authority for their parcel. This provision is current through Ordinance 13-2025 of December 3, 2025.