Covered wildfire mitigation projects: consolidated and expedited review., the official text

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

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 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 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 the 60-day timeline if both parties agree more information is required. The bill would require the 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 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 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 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 provide that the above-described provisions do not preclude compliance with applicable local and federal statutes, rules, and regulations.
The bill would also require, on or before July 1, 2029, the consolidated review agencies to 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.
This bill would make these provisions inoperative on December 31, 2030, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2031.

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:
1.8.
Wildfire Mitigation Projects: Consolidated and Expedited Review4240.
For purposes of this chapter, all of the following definitions apply:
(a) “Consolidated review agencies” means the Natural Resources Agency in coordination with the California Environmental Protection 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:
(A) Required by law.
(B) Identified in a utility’s wildfire mitigation plan or in a community wildfire preparedness plan.
(C) In a plan proposed by the department.
(2) Activities that qualify as a covered wildfire mitigation project include any of the following:
(A) Removal of hazardous, dead, or dying trees.
(B) Removal of vegetation for the creation of strategic fuel 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 of up to 300 feet from a structure.
(D) Removal of vegetation along roadways, highways, and freeways 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 consistent with Section 4293, poles consistent with Section 4292, and rights-of-way consistent with General Order 95 to reduce the risk of wildfire.
(H) Notwithstanding any plan inclusion, prescribed or cultural fire in an ecosystem with a fire deficit.
(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.
(d) “Project review team” means an interdisciplinary team led by the department, including, but not limited to, representatives from the appropriate regional water quality control board, the State Water Resources Control Board, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the California Geological Survey, and the California Coastal Commission. Further, “project review team” refers to a team that is tasked with evaluating proposed covered wildfire mitigation projects and assisting the consolidated review agencies in the determination of project conformance with the State Environmental Protection Plan.
(e) “State Environmental Protection Plan” means the Statewide Fuels Reduction Environmental Protection Plan (EPP), issued May 2025, and any subsequent updates.

4241.
(a) 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.
(b) (1) Timber operations, as defined in Section 4527, shall comply with the Z’berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 (Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 4511)) and the Forest Practice Rules (Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 895) of Division 1.5 of Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations).
(2) This chapter does not affect any stipulated agreement issued by an administrative law judge for an electrical corporation or public utility regarding applicability of the Forest Practice Act Rules (Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 895) of Division 1.5 of Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations) to that utility’s operations.
(c) The consolidated review agencies shall use the application process established under the State Environmental Protection Plan for entities to submit a complete consolidated application package.
(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) An authorization shall be rendered by the consolidated review agencies within 60 calendar days of receipt, provided an application is complete. The applicant and the consolidated review agencies may agree to extend 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 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 compliance with the State Environmental Protection 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.
(h) The consolidated review agencies may require additional environmental protection measures where the measures are reasonably necessary to protect the resources present in the project area or mitigate the impact on those resources.
(i) Covered wildfire mitigation projects shall be limited to the following sizes and completed within two years of approval by the consolidated review agencies.
(1) Projects that maintain powerline right-of-way and maintain existing fuel breaks along utility infrastructure shall be less than 3,000 acres.
(2) Projects in forests, and projects to improve ecosystem health on chaparral, shrubland, grassland, and coastal sage scrub lands, including, but not limited to, replacement of ignition-prone nonnative fuels or flashy fuels with less flammable vegetation, shall be less than 500 acres.
(3) Projects in chaparral, shrubland, grassland, and coastal sage scrub lands other than those specified in paragraph (2) shall be less than 50 acres.
(j) Except where conversion to bare ground or mowed vegetation is the desired project outcome, project activities in southern California that could lead to type conversion where native chaparral and coastal sage scrub are present shall be avoided.
(k) For all publicly funded projects, the department shall conduct a risk reduction cost per unit.
(l) This section does not preclude compliance with applicable local and federal statutes, rules, and regulations.

4242.
On or before July 1, 2029, the consolidated review agencies shall, in accordance with Section 9795 of the Government Code, report to the Legislature on the implementation of all wildfire mitigation projects that were permitted in compliance with the Statewide Environmental Protection Plan as authorized by this chapter. The reports shall contain all of the following information:
(a) Information about instances in which any project failed to comply with the Statewide Fuels Reduction Environmental Protection Plan.
(b) Information on violations of permit requirements and details of enforcement actions, including any challenges with exercise of state authority to protect resources.
(c) Information on adequacy of staff resources to implement the program, and the impact on other department and agency priorities by redirecting internal staff resources.
(d) Information on all projects authorized to use herbicides, including location and herbicide type.

4243.
This chapter shall become inoperative on December 31, 2030, and, as of January 1, 2031, is repealed.