HomeMy WebLinkAboutAB 2517 (Calderon) Fire Hazard Severity Zones - City of SLO - SUPPORTCity of San Luis Obispo, Office of the City Council, 990 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93401-3249, 805.781.7114,
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April 6, 2026
The Honorable Lisa Calderon
Member, California State Assembly
1021 O Street, Suite 4650
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: AB 2517 (Calderon) Fire Hazard Severity Zones.
Notice of SUPPORT (As Introduced on February 20, 2026)
Dear Assemblymember Calderon,
The City of San Luis Obispo is pleased to support AB 2517 (Calderon), which would improve the Fire
Hazard Severity Zone (FHSZ) designation process by ensuring consistent updates to Local
Responsibility Area (LRA) maps and establishing a more transparent, publicly accessible process for
developing and releasing these critical designations.
Under current law, fire hazard severity zone designations are applied in both state responsibility
areas and local responsibility areas to reflect the state’s best available science regarding
environmental conditions such as slope, vegetation, and wind patterns, that influence wildfire
spread. While LRA FHSZ maps are required to be periodically reviewed, statute does not require a
comprehensive update, and prior to the most recent release in 2025, the LRA maps had not been
updated for more than 15 years.
With the 2025 release, significant concerns were raised regarding the accuracy of underlying land
use information, including split parcels with multiple designations and the classification of developed
areas such as parking lots and bodies of water as very high fire hazard severity zones. Cities are
required to adopt these maps by ordinance and conduct public hearings locally yet currently have no
formal opportunity to meaningfully engage in or respond to concerns about the state’s model, data,
or methodology before adoption.
AB 2517 would clarify how and when FHSZ maps are updated and ensure meaningful public
engagement prior to local adoption. Specifically, the bill would establish a five-year update cycle for
LRA FHSZ maps, require a preliminary public release of updated maps, mandate disclosure of the
data, models, and methodology used to develop the designations, and provide opportunities for
regional workshops and public comment before the maps are transmitted to local agencies for
ordinance adoption.
For cities like San Luis Obispo, a clearer and more collaborative framework for developing FHSZ maps
would help ensure that local expertise is incorporated into the designations to more accurately
reflect historical fire conditions. These improvements would create greater transparency and
predictability in the FHSZ process, improve public trust, enhance local implementation, and ensure
that wildfire risk designations are based on accurate and up-to-date information before being
codified into local law.
For these reasons, the City of San Luis Obispo supports AB 2517 (Calderon).
Sincerely,
Erica A. Stewart
Mayor
City of San Luis Obispo
cc. Senator John Laird
Assemblymember Dawn Addis
Dave Mullinax, Cal Cities
League of California Cities, cityletters@cacities.org