AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JULY 2, 2026

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 11, 2026

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

97

Introduced by Senators Stern and Becker

February 20, 2026

An act to add and repeal Chapter 1.8 (commencing with Section 4240) to of Part 2 of Division 4 of the Public Resources Code, relating to wildfire.

Vote: majority   Appropriation: no   Fiscal committee: yes   Local program: no

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

Existing law establishes in the Natural Resources Agency the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which is known as and may be referred to as CAL-FIRE. Existing law establishes in CAL-FIRE the Office of the State Fire Marshal and requires that office to establish the Community Wildfire Mitigation Assistance Program to coordinate regional and local efforts with state policies, strategies, and programs for community wildfire mitigation in order to improve wildfire preparedness and prevention, with an emphasis on the most vulnerable communities.

This bill would require that, notwithstanding any other law, any state-level environmental and resource permits, approvals, consultations, and reviews required for a covered wildfire mitigation project, as defined, be consolidated into a single coordinated review by a project review team, as defined, and administered jointly by the consolidated review agencies, defined as the Natural Resources Agency and in coordination with the California Environmental Protection Agency. The bill would require an applicant seeking authorization to undertake a covered wildfire mitigation project to submit a single, consolidated application package to the consolidated review agencies. The bill would require the consolidated review agencies to establish timelines to complete their review and issue a determination on a complete application. The bill would require the project to be approved an authorization to be rendered by the consolidated review agencies within 60 calendar days of receipt, as provided, and would authorize the applicant and the consolidated review agencies to agree to extend these timelines the 60-day timeline if both parties agree more information is required. The bill would require the determination authorization to be in writing and to include specified information, including, among other things, a description of the project and a list of permits, agreements, consultations, or authorizations covered by the waived by the review agencies’ authorization.

The bill would further provide for an expedited authorization, as defined, issued pursuant to these requirements, which would waive the requirement that the covered wildfire mitigation project comply with statutes, rules, regulations, and requirements, within the jurisdiction of boards, departments, commissions, and agencies within the consolidated review agencies. The expedited authorization would replace any other permit, agreement, or authorization required by state statutes, rules, regulations, and requirements that fall falls within the jurisdiction of boards, departments, and offices within the consolidated review agencies. The bill would require covered wildfire mitigation projects to be conducted in compliance with specified requirements and would impose a civil penalty not to exceed $10,000 for each intentional, knowing, or negligent violation, as provided. The bill would require covered wildfire mitigation projects to be less than 3,000 acres limited in project size based on the type of project, as specified, and completed within 2 years of approval by the consolidated review agencies. The bill would further require CAL-FIRE to conduct a risk reduction cost per unit for all publicly funded projects.

The bill would also require, on or before July 1, 2029, the consolidated review agencies to review specified state requirements, as provided, review projects and conduct inspections and monitoring of a subset of projects to develop recommendations required pursuant to those state requirements, and post the review and recommendations on the internet websites of the consolidated review agencies. report to the Legislature on, among other required things, the implementation of all wildfire mitigation projects that were permitted pursuant to the above-described provisions, as provided.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) Accelerating critical wildfire prevention projects, while at the same time protecting public health and the environment, is critical for climate resiliency as well as maintaining utility operations.

(b) The California Earthquake Authority’s report, “Enhancing California’s Resiliency to Natural Catastrophes,” prepared pursuant to Chapter 119 of the Statutes of 2025 (Senate Bill 254), identifies the escalating risk and cost of catastrophic wildfires and calls for expanded community wildfire risk reduction, including streamlining environmental review and permitting for priority mitigation projects while maintaining appropriate environmental safeguards.

(c) Catastrophic wildfire risk and damages arise from interacting factors, including climate-driven extreme conditions, accumulated fuels, development in high-risk areas, and a range of ignition sources, and that reducing wildfire risk requires urgent, coordinated mitigation actions by communities, public agencies, tribes, resource conservation districts, nongovernmental organizations, fire safe councils, utilities, and professional land managers.

(d) To implement these risk-reduction priorities at the necessary pace and scale, it is necessary to enable the Secretaries of the Natural Resources Agency and for Environmental Protection to expedite eligible fuels reduction and ignition-risk reduction projects, conditioned on compliance with best management practices and measures in the Statewide Fuels Reduction Environmental Protection Plan to protect public health, water and air quality, cultural resources, and sensitive species and habitats.

SEC. 2.

Chapter 1.8 (commencing with Section 4240) is added to Part 2 of Division 4 of the Public Resources Code, to read:

Chapter 1.8. Wildfire Mitigation Projects: Consolidated and Expedited Review

4240.

For purposes of this chapter, all of the following definitions apply:

(a) “Consolidated review agencies” means the Natural Resources Agency and in coordination with the California Environmental Protection Agency, acting jointly Agency to provide coordinated environmental and regulatory review of covered wildfire mitigation projects.

(b) (1) “Covered wildfire mitigation project” means any one of the following categories of activities undertaken for the purpose of reducing wildfire risk and for which the wildfire risk reduction achieved by the activity, and its cost per unit of risk reduced, has been quantified either in risk:

(B) Identified in a utility’s wildfire mitigation plan, plan or in a community wildfire preparedness plan, by the department, or by another government agency using tools approved for that quantification by the Office of the State Fire Marshall: plan.

(A) Removal of hazardous, dead, or dying trees or vegetation. trees.

(B) Removal of vegetation for the creation of strategic fuel breaks as identified by approved fire prevention plans, including, but not limited to, department unit fire plans or community wildfire preparedness plans. breaks. A fuel break in chaparral, shrubland, grassland, and coastal sage scrub lands where less flammable or native vegetation is removed and replaced with ignition-prone or nonnative vegetation shall not be permissible pursuant to this chapter. Fuel break treatments shall not exceed 300 feet in width.

(C) Removal of vegetation for community defensible space. space of up to 300 feet from a structure.

(D) Removal of vegetation along roadways, highways, and freeways to create up to 100 feet, as measured from the center line of the roadway, for a public roadway identified as an egress and evacuation route for a community for the creation of safer ingress and egress routes for the public and first responders and to reduce roadside ignitions.

(E) Removal of vegetation in forests, or the removal of vegetation in chaparral, shrubland, grassland, and coastal sage scrub lands when the desired project outcome is the replacement or modification of ignition-prone or nonnative fuels with less flammable vegetation, using cultural or traditional ecological knowledge for cultural burning or prescribed fire treatments for fuels reduction.

(F) Maintenance of previously established fuel breaks as part of fuel modification projects.

(G) Removal of vegetation around electrical utility lines, poles, lines consistent with Section 4293, poles consistent with Section 4292, and rights-of-way consistent with General Order 95 to reduce the risk of wildfire and fire-related service outages. wildfire.

(c) “Expedited authorization” means a written decision by the Secretary for Environmental Protection or the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency authorizing a covered wildfire mitigation project and requiring the covered wildfire mitigation project to comply with the State Environmental Protection Plan, the issuance of which waives the requirements that the covered wildfire mitigation project comply with state statutes, rules, regulations, and requirements within the jurisdiction of the boards, departments, and agencies within the consolidated review agencies.

(e) “State Environmental Protection Plan” means the Statewide Fuels Reduction Environmental Protection Plan (EPP), issued May 2025, as it may be updated periodically. and any subsequent updates.

4241.

(a) Notwithstanding Without limiting any other statutory exemption or categorical exemption, and notwithstanding any other law, and consistent with Executive Order No. N-38-25, any state-level environmental and resource permits, approvals, consultations, and reviews required for a covered wildfire mitigation project shall be consolidated into a single coordinated review by a project review team and administered jointly by the consolidated review agencies.

(d) (1) An applicant seeking authorization to undertake a covered wildfire mitigation project shall submit a single, consolidated application package to the consolidated review agencies.

(2) The projects shall be approved An authorization shall be rendered by the consolidated review agencies within 60 calendar days of receipt, provided an application is complete within the timelines established by the consolidated review agencies pursuant to paragraph (1). complete. The applicant and the consolidated review agencies may agree to extend these timelines the 60-day timeline if both parties agree more information is required.

(e) If the consolidated review agencies authorize a project under this section, the authorization shall be in writing and shall include all of the following:

(1) A description of the project.

(2) The basis for eligibility.

(3) A list of permits, agreements, consultations, or authorizations covered waived by the review agencies’ authorization.

(4) The required environmental protection measures, including documentation of compliance with the State Environmental Protection Plan.

(f) An expedited authorization issued pursuant to this chapter waives the requirement that the covered wildfire mitigation project comply with state statutes, rules, regulations, and requirements, within the jurisdiction of boards, departments, commissions, and agencies within the consolidated review agencies, and replaces any other permit, agreement, or authorization required by state statutes, rules, regulations, and requirements that fall within the jurisdiction of boards, departments, and offices within the consolidated review agencies. This section does not apply to any applicable pesticide requirement under Division 6 (commencing with Section 11401) or Division 7 (commencing with Section 12500) of the Food and Agricultural Code or the implementing regulations. Pesticide applications shall comply with all applicable pesticide use reporting requirements under Division 6 (commencing with Section 11401) and Division 7 (commencing with Section 12500) of the Food and Agricultural Code and Title 3 (commencing with Section 1) of the California Code of Regulations.

(g) Any covered wildfire mitigation project shall be conducted in accordance compliance with the State Environmental Protection Plan. Plan and the associated best management practices. Any person who intentionally, knowingly, or negligently violates any provision of the State Environmental Protection Plan is subject to a civil penalty imposed by a court in an amount not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000) for each violation. For purposes of this section, natural resource damage that occurs over multiple days that results from a single action shall not be considered a continuing violation.

(i) Covered wildfire mitigation projects shall be limited to the following sizes and completed within two years of approval by the consolidated review agencies.