Butte County, CA Property Maintenance: Vacant Lot Maintenance (2026)

Section 38A-6(a)(10) applies the county's defensible space and firebreak standards to 'urban parcels' as defined in Section 38A-4(u): land inside the spheres of influence of Biggs, Chico, Gridley, Oroville and Paradise, land in subdivisions with lots six acres or smaller where at least half the lots are already developed, and specific mapped areas of Palermo and the North Chico Specific Plan. Urban parcels must meet every general firebreak requirement in Section 38A-6, and unimproved urban parcels carry an additional duty: on a vacant lot of one and one-quarter acres or smaller, the entire parcel must be kept clear as a firebreak; on a larger vacant urban lot, a thirty-foot-wide firebreak is required along all boundary lines instead of the whole parcel.

The same urban-parcel subsection also requires a ten-foot firebreak around utility generators, privately owned power poles and petroleum-based fuel sources, and a ten-foot clearance around unmaintained power poles and overhead lines, extending to any tree limb that could fall on the wires. Outside the urban-parcel category, Section 38A-6(a)(9) still lets the Fire Chief require a thirty-foot firebreak along a boundary line on any parcel, improved or not, where accumulated vegetation creates a significant fire hazard to a neighboring property. An unimproved lot that fails to meet these standards is declared a public nuisance under Section 38A-5, and the Department of Development Services Code Enforcement Division can issue a Notice to Abate Fire Hazard giving the owner at least thirty days to clear the lot before further enforcement follows.