Why California Keeps Putting Homes Where Fires Burn
2/4/2025 | 2mVideo has Closed Captions
Wildfires expose risks of building in fire-prone areas, but California keeps rebuilding.
As wildfires devastate communities, California faces tough choices on rebuilding. Nearly half of new homes in recent decades were built in fire-prone areas. Despite calls for stricter regulations, development continues, fueling debates over safety and housing policy.
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SoCal Matters is a local public television program presented by PBS SoCal
Why California Keeps Putting Homes Where Fires Burn
2/4/2025 | 2mVideo has Closed Captions
As wildfires devastate communities, California faces tough choices on rebuilding. Nearly half of new homes in recent decades were built in fire-prone areas. Despite calls for stricter regulations, development continues, fueling debates over safety and housing policy.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipCalifornia has a wildfire problem.
It also has a housing shortage.
The fires that have burned through Los Angeles show that trying to solve one crisis can make the other one worse.
Once the smoke clears after a fire, rebuilding in the same place, often in the same way, is the historic norm.
The vow to rebuild is part of a familiar California cycle as predictable as the Santa Ana's.
Between 1990 and 2020, nearly 45% of the homes built in California have broken ground in what researchers and firefighters call the wildland-urban interface.
That's the hillsides, ravines, and canyons where the residential development meets and merges with the state's forests, scrublands, and grasses.
Over the last few years, a handful of state lawmakers have proposed sharp limits on whether and how homes can be built in high-fire risk areas.
None have become law.
California does have strict fire-wise regulations on new construction in wildfire country.
Molly Mowery, Executive Director of the Community Wildfire Planning Center, said, no other state has as many wildfire requirements in place.
The Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles County is considering a new community wildfire protection ordinance that would codify and enhance some of these same statewide requirements.
It would apply in many areas that have recently burned, but the rules would only apply to future development, not to the homes already there.
Though there are no outright bans on development in these areas, environmental preservationists, anti-development activists, and even the state's attorney general have turned to the California Environmental Quality Act to block construction projects.
Experts say it's likely to be used more in the future to curtail development in high-risk areas.
The law requires governments to study and publicly report the environmental consequences of a development before approving it.
In October, a California appellate court held that wildfire risk is one of those consequences that may deserve a special consideration.
For CalMatters, I'm Ben Christopher.
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SoCal Matters is a local public television program presented by PBS SoCal