Zone Zero in Los Angeles: fences, brush clearance and rebuilds

Zone Zero in Los Angeles will reach homes in mapped Very High fire hazard zones, in the city and in county areas: the first 5 feet of any fence or gate that meets the house will have to be noncombustible. Neither the city nor the county has its own Zone 0 ordinance, so the state rule sets the dates (when they start). What LA owners must do now is brush clearance, enforced by the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) in the city and LA County Fire outside it.

If you are replacing a fence or gate at the house anyway, build that 5 foot section in metal. Other cities are compared on Zone 0 rules by city.

Which parts of Los Angeles will Zone Zero cover?

The state rule follows the fire hazard maps. In local areas it covers occupied structures “in a Local Responsibility Area (LRA) within a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone” (14 CCR 1298.01), and separately it covers every building in the State Responsibility Area (14 CCR 1299 et seq.). For a typical LA house on city or county land, the question is whether the parcel sits in a Very High zone.

• City of Los Angeles. LAFD’s Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone was “first established in 1999.” LAFD counts about 155,000 parcels in its annual brush clearance inspection program (MySafe:LA, 23 October 2026). CAL FIRE issued new recommended maps for the city on 24 March 2025, and state law requires the city to adopt them by ordinance.
• Unincorporated LA County and contract cities. The Board of Supervisors adopted the 2025 maps on 22 July 2025. County Fire estimated that “approximately 100,000 parcels will be added to the LRA” maps, now split into Moderate, High and Very High. Only the Very High parcels fall under the state Zone 0 rule.
• Other cities, including those with their own fire departments such as Pasadena, adopt the maps by their own ordinance (Government Code 51179 puts that duty on each local agency) and are outside this page.

Where is the Zone Zero Los Angeles map?

There is no separate Zone Zero layer. To check a parcel:

1. Use our address check, or open CAL FIRE’s Fire Hazard Severity Zone and Local PIO Viewer and search the address. It shows the State Responsibility Area and the 2025 recommended local zones.
2. If the parcel is in the city, compare it with LAFD’s Fire Zone Map. LAFD said in April 2025 that it would align the state boundaries to streets and property lines, so the city’s version can differ slightly at the edges.
3. If it is in unincorporated county land, the county’s adopted map in Title 32, Appendix PP, is the one that counts.

Am I in Zone Zero walks through the viewer in more detail.

What will the state rule mean for an LA fence or gate?

The adopted text says that “all fences and gates that are attached to an Occupied Structure, or come within one (1) foot of contact” with it, “shall have a five (5) foot Noncombustible span from the point of attachment” (14 CCR 1298.04(b)(9)(A)). No new combustible fence or gate can go within 5 feet after the effective date (1298.04(b)(9)(B)), and repairs to existing ones can use combustible replacement materials.

In the city’s Very High zone, existing homes get 3 years from the effective date, or up to 5 on a timeline set by the local fire agency (1298.04(c)(4)). In the city that agency is LAFD, which has not set one. Fence details are on Zone 0 fence requirements, and the fire case for doing it anyway is on do wood fences spread fire to houses. LA County Fire already tells owners to “use non-combustible fencing to protect your home during a wildfire.”

What does LAFD enforce right now?

Brush clearance. LAFD’s 2026 Annual Defensible Space and Brush Clearance Program sets these rules for parcels in the zone:

• Grass and native brush cut to 3 inches “within 200-feet of structures and/or 10-feet of roadside surfaces or combustible fence.”
• Trees over 18 feet trimmed so no foliage is within 6 feet of the ground, nothing within 10 feet of a chimney outlet, and 5 feet of vertical clearance over roofs.
• Compliance due 1 May 2026, with initial inspections from 1 May to 30 June 2026.
• Fees, “subject to change”: $31 for the first inspection, $758 after a failed second one, and $1,740 plus the contractor’s bid if the city clears the lot. Parcels affected by the Palisades fire may be exempt from the $31 fee.

The program rests on Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) 57.1.603.5, which already treats a combustible fence as something that needs a 10 foot cleared strip beside it. It says nothing about a 5 foot ember-resistant zone or fence materials. The City Attorney’s July 2026 draft rewrite of the city’s wildland-urban interface code (Council File 25-1363) keeps the 200 foot clearance and the 10 foot fence strip and has no Zone 0 section.

Is Los Angeles writing its own Zone 0 rule?

Yes, and nothing is final. On 13 January 2026 the City Council voted 13 to 0 (CF 25-1428) to instruct LAFD “to promulgate its own Zone 0 rules” that allow potted plants and well-maintained trees. On 13 October 2026 the Planning and Land Use Management Committee, on a new motion (CF 25-1428-S1), asked staff to report within 60 days on choices the council must make “prior to the drafting of an implementation ordinance,” including “the deadline by which the City must adopt its own regulations,” compliance cost estimates and an exemption policy for historic structures or gardens. Neither motion addresses fences or gates.

Any LA version must meet AB 1455: Government Code 51182(f) allows local alternatives only “if the alternative practices provide for substantially similar practical effects” as the Board’s rule. The October motion asks staff whether the January approach passes that test. MySafe:LA estimated in October 2026 that Zone 0 could cost LA property owners nearly $500 million.

What about Pacific Palisades and Altadena rebuilds?

The Palisades is in the City of Los Angeles; Altadena is unincorporated county land. Only 0.1% of structures destroyed in the Palisades fire were outside Very High zones, while 83% of the more than 9,400 destroyed in the Eaton fire were outside them. Those were the maps in force before the 2025 update, so check each parcel.

By 7 January 2026 more than 2,600 residential permits had been issued across both areas, about one for every five of the nearly 13,000 homes lost.

The rule counts a building as “existing” if it was “constructed, under construction, or for which the building permit application for initial construction had been submitted” before the effective date (14 CCR 1298.02(c)). A rebuild whose permit application went in before that date fits the definition and gets the existing-home timeline; the rule has no separate provision for rebuilds, so confirm with the plan checker. Neither the city nor the county requires Zone 0 fencing on fire rebuilds today, but a rebuild is the cheapest moment to put metal at the house.

What should an LA homeowner do now?

1. Pass this year’s brush inspection. It is enforced now, with fees.
2. Check the parcel on CAL FIRE’s viewer and LAFD’s or the county’s map.
3. If the parcel is Very High, price the 5 feet where each fence or gate meets the house, and do it in metal whenever that section is replaced.