Berkeley Moves to Require Vegetation Removal Near Homes in Fire Zones

Updated at 4:15 p.m. April 16

The Berkeley City Council unanimously approved a proposal Tuesday night to require a 5-foot buffer zone around houses, decks and outbuildings in a section of the Berkeley Hills with the highest wildfire risk — making it one of the first cities in the state to adopt such stringent landscaping rules.

If the council signs off on the second and final reading of the ordinance next month, which is all be assured, some 900 hundred homes in neighborhoods bordering Tilden Regional Park will have to remove nearly all vegetation and other flammable materials from their immediate perimeters by January, when the new rules take effect.

Contrary to the expectations of many observers — this reporter included — the meeting remained largely positive and non-confrontational, with most public commenters voicing support for the proposed rules.

Under what’s known as the EMBER proposal, drafted by the city’s fire department, Berkeley would change its fire code to require residents living in areas with the highest fire risk to remove most vegetation within 5 feet of their homes.

The proposed rules, prompted by the catastrophic fires in Los Angeles in January, would initially apply to homes mostly between Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Wildcat Canyon Road, as well as the Panoramic Hill neighborhood. The rules would also likely extend in the coming year to adjacent neighborhoods a bit further down the hill.

Supporters argue the 5-foot buffer zone — referred to as “zone zero” — is essential to help prevent embers from igniting homes during the kind of wind-driven wildfires that incinerated LA’s Pacific Palisades and Altadena communities.

“We’re trying to prevent the embers that fly out in these ember storms from igniting anything near your house that will then catch the house on fire and create a structure-to-structure fire,” said Brent Blackaby, a Berkeley City Council member who worked closely with the city’s fire department on the ordinance.

He noted that wildfire danger in the area has grown dramatically in recent decades amid a longer, hotter dry season and the rapid accumulation of fuels in the neighboring forest.

“The reality has changed,” Blackaby told KQED. “The facts of where we are in terms of climate change are not going to change. The only thing that can change is our response and our preparedness to it.”

The latest version of the proposal, introduced last week, would also require homeowners in the area to remove all combustible materials within zone zero, including wood or vinyl fences, playsets, trellises, trash bins and attached window boxes. Trees in the zone would also have to be torn out unless they are taller than the house and their lowest branches are at least 10 feet above the roof.

Berkeley Fire Chief David Sprague called the proposal a science-based, “holistic community” approach to reducing the risk of wind-blown embers igniting combustible material.

“When those receptive fuel beds have connectivity to a structure, the structure is far more likely to burn,” he said in a statement to KQED, citing separate wildfire-mitigation studies.

In a previous draft (PDF) of the proposal, Sprague said the city had “a moral imperative to shift our focus away from only the response,” noting that the hills around Berkeley experience a “significant wildfire” about once every 20 years — and are well past due for another.

“It is time to voraciously engage with what we know will save homes and lives,” he wrote.

The proposed new rules would go into effect next January, with the city offering some financial and physical assistance to help lower-income residents comply, Blackaby added.

“The great part is if we pass this here, we’ve got at least six months of preparation time and ramp-up time until the new standards officially go into place. I think of this more about providing lots of carrots as opposed to sticks,” he said. “Yes, there will be enforcement … yes, there will be fines. But my hope is that we don’t get to that point.”

But that comes as cold comfort to some residents in the high-risk zone, many of whom have lived there for decades and lovingly nurtured the bougainvillea vines, camellia trees and other foliage that fringe the homes of their leafy, affluent neighborhoods.

Ruth Langridge was among the slew of residents who wrote letters to the City Council opposing the proposal. The focus, she argued, should be on “not letting the fire happen in the first place” through better fire management in Tilden and more brush removal near power lines.

“If my wonderful pear tree remains in zone 0 and next to a stucco wall (a tree that I have nurtured for over 20 years and supplies me with abundant delicious pears each year), it will not be the cause of my house burning down in a fire,” she wrote.

Janice Thomas, vice president of the Panoramic Hill Association, said the proposal was developed without adequate public input and goes well beyond what’s required in the state fire code.

“This is really extreme,” she told KQED, arguing that stripping out vegetation in the 5-foot zone would also create serious drainage issues.

“We’re a hillside neighborhood. And if you have no vegetation 5 feet from the house, there’s a real concern about where that water will go and how it flows and what you have to do to capture it,” she said.

However, Cindy Rosenthal, who lives in nearby Park Hills and is president of its neighborhood association, said she supports the proposal because the situation calls for collective action, no matter how unpleasant that may be.

“The reality is that we can do everything possible to try to protect our homes, but if our neighbors are not also doing the things that they need to do to mitigate risk, then no one is safe,” she said.

Henry DeNero, president of the Berkeley FireSafe Council, whose group has agreed to help some residents remove their plants, said the proposed rules are essential first steps in a longer series of actions to manage vegetation and harden homes in the highest-risk neighborhoods.

“One of the number one causes of a structure igniting is vegetation burning right next to the structure that eventually ignites the structure,” said DeNero, who lives in the hills just below the targeted zone. “It’s the most important element to prevent houses from igniting in an ember storm, which is what happened in Altadena and Pacific Palisades.”

And regardless, DeNero added, insurance companies may soon insist that homeowners do it anyway if they want to keep their policies.

“It’s highly likely that these measures will be required in order to maintain your insurance in the near future,” he said. “That’s one of the things I think people aren’t thinking about. The Berkeley Fire Department’s trying to get out ahead of this, and I applaud them for that.”

Blackaby is hardly surprised by the opposition the proposal has generated, particularly in a city where many residents are passionate about their flora.

“I mean, look, this is a hard ask. I get it,” he said. “I’ve lived in the same home for 20 years. I’m in this zone, so I’ll have to be doing the same kind of defensible space work around my home.

“Sometimes, change is hard.”

KQED’s Samantha Kennedy contributed reporting.