Local planning: fire hazard impacts.

(1) Existing law authorizes the Office of Planning and Research (OPR) to furnish information and technical and professional advice on the preparation, adoption, amendment, and implementation of specified plans, including general plans, when requested by a local or regional agency. This bill would require OPR, on or before January 1, 2011, to update its "Fire Hazard Planning" document prepared as part of the General Plan Technical Advice Series and issued in November of 2003. (2) The Planning and Zoning Law requires that a city or county general plan consist of various elements, including, among other things, land use, circulation, housing, open space, conservation, and safety elements, which are required to meet specified requirements. The safety element is for the protection of the community from unreasonable risks associated with, among other things, the effects of seismically induced surface rupture, ground shaking, ground failure, tsunami, seiche, dam failure, and wild land and urban fires. The safety element includes requirements for state responsibility areas and very high fire hazard severity zones. This bill would revise the safety element requirements for state responsibility areas and very high fire hazard severity zones, as specified, and require the safety element, prior to January 1, 2015, and thereafter upon each revision of the housing element, to be reviewed and updated as necessary to address the risk of fire for land classified as state responsibility areas and very high fire hazard severity zones. The bill would require the review to include consideration of the advice contained within the most recent publication of the OPR's "Fire Hazard Planning" document and other specified information. The bill would also require the city or county to establish a set of goals, policies, and objectives based upon specified information regarding fire hazards, and to establish a set of feasible implementation measures designed to carry out those goals, policies, and objectives. By imposing new duties on local officials for the adoption of a general plan, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. (3) The Planning and Zoning Law requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection and the local agency to review the draft or existing safety element and to report its written recommendations to the planning agency within 60 days of its receipt of the draft or existing safety element. The State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection and the local agency are authorized to offer written recommendations for changes to the draft or existing safety element regarding uses of land, policies, and methods for wildland fire risk reduction and prevention in state responsibility areas and very high fire hazard severity zones. This bill would instead require the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, and authorize the local agency, to review the draft or existing safety element and recommend changes to the planning agency regarding uses of land, policies, and methods for wildland fire risk reduction and prevention in state responsibility areas and very high fire hazard severity zones within 60 days of the receipt of the draft or existing safety element. (4) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project, as defined, that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment, or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA requires OPR to prepare and develop proposed guidelines for the implementation of CEQA by public agencies. This bill would require OPR, on or after January 1, 2010, at the time of the next update of guidelines implementing CEQA, in cooperation with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, to prepare, develop, and transmit to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency recommended proposed changes or amendments to the initial study for the inclusion of questions related to fire hazard impacts for projects located on lands in state responsibility areas, as defined, and on lands classified as very high fire hazard severity zones, as defined. The Natural Resources Agency would be required to certify and adopt the recommended proposed changes or amendments prepared and developed by the OPR in accordance with these provisions. (5) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.