How California’s Zone Zero Became Controversy and Delay

Late last month, California fire officials appealed to Los Angeles for justice.

The state’s proposed zero-zone ordinance, which would require homeowners to create a pile-resistant zone around their homes — initially planned to go into effect nearly three years ago — has caused confusion in the area. It was time for damage control.

Officials from both Cal Fire and the state Board of Forestry and Fire Protection visited Brentwood, the epicenter of the outbreak, and Altadena, where homeowners are trying to figure out how best to rebuild, but did little to assuage the concerns of the most vocal critics of the Zone Zero proposals.

Both groups repeatedly targeted houses that seemed to support their claims. Sufficient, conflicting hypothesis evidence provided no consensus for a pathway. For example, in the area of ​​the Eaton burn, officials showed residents a house they claimed had been spared due to the nearby vegetation being destroyed, but residents noted a house across the street with many plants also surviving.

It was an example of what has become a never-ending debate about what homeowners in LA’s fire-ravaged areas need to do to limit the damage from future disasters.

An initial effort by the board to create zero-zone regulations, as required by the 2020 law, quietly failed after fire officials and experts disagreed on how to agree on a lack of documented evidence about which strategies actually help protect homes — and what it was reasonable to ask of residents.

The January 1, 2023, deadline for rulemaking came and went with little fanfare. A month after the January fires, however, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order reviving the effort and ordering the board to finish the rules by the end of the year. As the board tried to restart and speed up earlier efforts through a series of public meetings, many Californians became concerned. They felt the draft Zone Zero requirements — which would be the strictest statewide defensible space rules on the books — were a step too far.

“The science tells us it doesn’t make sense, but they ignore it because they have to come up with something.” Thelma Waxman, president of the Brentwood Homeowners Association, said she is working to certify neighborhoods in her area as fire safe. “If I go to my members and say, ‘Well, you need to spend $5,000 to protect your house,’ it’s not going to be to remove hydrated plants.”

Instead, he hopes the government will focus on housing resilience, which has compelling research to support its effectiveness.

Tony Anderson, the board’s executive director, emphasized that his team wants to keep the requirements evidence-based and reasonable for homeowners. “We’re listening; we’re learning,” he said.

The zone is zero One of the many fire safety regulations Associated with the fire danger severity map developed by Cal Fire, which, While incompleteAttempts to identify areas in California that are likely to see severe wildfires.

Since 2008, all new homes in California in areas mapped as having a very high fire risk are required to have multiple-paned or fire-resistant windows that are less likely to break in extreme heat, mesh covers on all windows so flying insects can’t get in, and fire-resistant roofing and siding.

of the government Defensible Space Regulations Divide the area around the house into several zones. Zone Two is within 100 feet of the house; In that area, homeowners should remove dead vegetation, keep grass under 4 inches and ensure there is at least 10 feet between trees. The first zone is within 30 feet of the structure. Residents here cannot store firewood. Zone zero, within 5 feet, must be “amber resistant” – basically meaning there is nothing that could land in the middle of a fire.

The problem is that it is not clear how best to create an “amber resistance” zone. For starters, there isn’t much scientific evidence to show which techniques are effective in limiting fire damage. This is especially true for the most controversial ground zero proposal: the removal of healthy vegetation.

“We have very few publications that look at home damage and vegetation patterns in the subzero zone,” said Max Moritz, a UC Santa Barbara and wildfire dynamics researcher. UC Cooperative Extension Program.

Further complicating the problem, the board must also consider whether it is appropriate to ask homeowners. Critics of the current proposal point out that while wooden walls and buildings are prohibited, wooden decks and gates are still fine — not because they can’t burn, but because asking residents to replace them is too much of a financial burden and they fall outside the scope of “defensible space.” And while many in the LA area argue that they should be allowed to keep plants if they are well-watered, the board cannot unilaterally mandate water use for ornamental plants across the state.

To deal with the spiraling complexity, the state began in 2021 with a small task force that included Cal Fire officials, local fire departments and scientists. The task force slowly grew to include more local leaders and came closer to finalizing regulations with the board as it approached the Legislature’s Jan. 1, 2023, deadline. But as the parties stalled on the final details, the deadline came and went. Zone Zero slowly scrapped the meeting schedule and agenda and essentially nothing happened for two years.

Then, LA burned.

In February 2025, Newsom signed an executive order prompting the board to end the rule by December 31. As the board began hosting public hearings on the regulations, shock and dismay arose among Californians.

To add insult to injury, Newsom’s executive order also pressured Cal Fire to release new hazard maps that the Legislature had also mandated. When the agency did so in the spring, many Californians were dismayed to learn that the map added more than 300,000 acres — mostly in developed areas — to the classification where Zone Zero would apply.

At the (now somewhat discredited) Zone Zero meeting at the Pasadena Convention Center in September—the only meeting to be held in Southern California—public comments lasted more than five hours. They included several speakers who were more accustomed to receiving public comments than making them: the mayor of Agoura Hills, a representative for LA City Council members and the chairman of the LA Community Forest Advisory Committee.

Despite marathon public meetings, the board received more than 4,000 letters about the rules.

at the A September report To the L.A. City Council, the Los Angeles Fire Department and the city’s Forestry Committee board for failing to consult with the city during the process and only holding its Pasadena meeting “after sustained pressure from local advocates … six months into the legislative process.” Also refer to this 2025 study He found that many home-hardening techniques played a more important role in protecting homes than defensible space.

Many of Zone Zero’s recommendations have generally gained agreement or at least acceptance among the public: no wood mulch, no wooden walls attached to the house, no dead plants and buildings made only of non-combustible materials. But two issues quickly took center stage in the conversation: trees and shrubs.

Residents have become increasingly concerned about the prospect of cutting down their trees after a task force began discussing how to manage them. However, current proposals would not require residents to remove trees.

“It’s very structured,” Anderson said. Well maintained trees will be allowed in the zero zone; However, the appearance of a well-maintained tree “still needs to be discussed.”

What to do about plants within the first 5 feet of houses, such as shrubs, bushes, and grasses, has proven to be very troublesome.

Some fire officials and experts argue that residents should remove all vegetation in the zone, citing examples of burning houses that burn vegetation. Others say the board should continue to allow well-watered plants in zone zero, citing examples where plants appear to block access to homes or the water stored inside them reduces the intensity of fires.

“A hydrated plant absorbs radiant heat until it ignites, and then it’s part of the fire’s progression,” Moritz said. The question is, across a wildly complex array of fire scenarios, when exactly has that point been reached?

In October, the advisory committee drafting the rules took a step back from its proposal to require the removal of all live vegetation in zone zero and indicated that it would allow well-preserved vegetation.

As the committee remains in the weeds, it looks more likely that the board will miss its deadline (for the second time).

“It’s more important that we get it right rather than having a tight schedule,” Anderson said.