Oakland Zone Zero: what it means for hills fences and gates

Oakland Zone Zero will apply to occupied homes across the whole Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fire Area, because Ordinance 13851, passed in June 2025, expanded the city’s Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone to cover all of it. Oakland has no Zone 0 ordinance of its own, so under the state rule any fence or gate that meets a hills house needs a 5 foot noncombustible span (when the deadlines start).

If you are replacing a fence or gate at the house, build that section in metal now. New wood within 5 feet will be barred from the state rule’s effective date.

Does Oakland have a Zone 0 ordinance?

No. Oakland will start from the state rule. The Oakland Fire Department (OFD) is “poised to start public education and inspections once regulations are established,” and the city’s Wildfire Prevention Commission, in its year-one report to the City Council (draft dated 14 May 2026), recommended that Oakland then “promptly establish Zone Zero regulations that are as strong or stronger than the state regulations.”

What did Ordinance 13851 do?

It changed the hazard map. CAL FIRE’s new maps would have made Oakland’s Very High zone smaller. “The Oakland City Council approved this change on June 17, 2025, in Ordinance 13851,” OFD says, expanding the Very High zone to cover the entire WUI Fire Area. “Local governments cannot make these zones smaller, but they can make them larger based on local conditions.” A July 15, 2025 council item (file 25-0791) then aligned the Planning Code’s definition of the Very High zone with the adopted map.

Ordinance 13851 sets no Zone 0 requirements or dates of its own. The map is why it matters: the state rule applies to occupied structures in Very High zones in local areas (14 CCR 1298.01), so a bigger local zone means more Oakland homes in scope.

How will the state rule apply to an Oakland fence?

From its effective date, the state rule covers occupied homes in Oakland’s Very High zone, with OFD as the local agency that enforces it and sets part of the schedule. The fence provisions in 14 CCR 1298.04(b)(9) require:

• a 5 foot noncombustible span on any fence or gate that is attached to the house or comes within 1 foot of it, measured “from the point of attachment or the point closest to” the house;
• no new combustible fences or gates within 5 feet, “whether attached or parallel,” from the effective date;
• repairs to an existing combustible fence may use combustible materials.

For existing homes, the fence, gate and plant items in (b)(6) to (10) are due “within three (3) years of the effective date,” or within five years “on a timeline set by the local agency responsible for fire protection” (14 CCR 1298.04(c)(4)). In Oakland that agency is OFD, so the city decides whether hills owners get 3 years or up to 5. The ban on combustible mulch and bark within 5 feet is due within 3 years under (c)(3), which is stricter than Oakland’s current 12 inch mulch limit.

AB 1455 (Government Code 51182(f)) also lets Oakland adopt its own version, including a stricter one, which is what the commission urged. Cities that already have one are compared on Zone 0 rules by city.

What does the Oakland Fire Department inspect today?

OFD’s Vegetation Management Unit inspects “around 26,000 parcels” in the WUI Fire Area every year. The 2026 season began in June 2026 and runs until every parcel has been inspected. Owners who fail pay a re-inspection fee under the city’s Master Fee Schedule, and unpaid inspection fees can become a lien on the property.

The standards come from the Oakland Fire Code (Ordinance No. 13870, adopted December 2025). OFD’s checklist covers 30 feet of defensible space (Zone 1), up to 100 feet (Zone 2), no vegetation within 10 feet of the roofline, firewood away from structures, and wood chips or mulch no more than 12 inches deep. It has no Zone 0 item and nothing on fences.

These inspections “are based on what is visible from public rights of way,” the commission noted, so a wood fence tied into the back of a house may never be seen. It recommended drones and a public re-inspection request process.

How is Oakland different from Berkeley next door?

Berkeley adopted its own rules before the state finished. They have applied since 1 January 2026 in the Grizzly Peak and Panoramic Hill mitigation areas, and Berkeley’s code bans “new or replacement sections of combustible fence” within 5 feet, which goes further than the state rule’s allowance for repairs. Oakland has no comparable local text. An Oakland owner can repair a wood fence at the house today, and under the state text can keep repairing it until the noncombustible span comes due. Details are on Berkeley’s EMBER Zone 0 ordinance.

What should Oakland hills owners do now?

1. Confirm the parcel is in the Very High zone on OFD’s map. Ordinance 13851 made the city’s zone larger than CAL FIRE’s new map, so the state viewer alone can mislead. Am I in Zone Zero explains the map layers.
2. Measure fences and gates that touch the house or come within 1 foot of it. Those sections need 5 feet of noncombustible material.
3. Skip new wood within 5 feet. An attached wood section would need replacing within the 3 to 5 year window, and after the effective date no new combustible fence is allowed within 5 feet at all.
4. Ask OFD’s Vegetation Management Unit whether existing homes will get 3 years or up to 5, and whether the city plans its own Zone 0 ordinance. No compliance date for Oakland exists until the state rule takes effect.

The full fence wording is on Zone 0 fence requirements, and the date math is on when Zone Zero takes effect.