California's Zone 0 is on hold. Use the pause to design the first five feet. The ember-resistant five-foot rule was adopted in August, then pulled back for edits. What it asks for, and why it belongs on the elevation drawing rather than in a cleanup list.

On August 19, 2026, the California State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection voted 8-0 to adopt emergency "Zone 0" rules under AB 3074: an ember-resistant strip within five feet of a house. The Board filed them with the Office of Administrative Law on August 28. On September 8 the filing (2026-0828-03E) was withdrawn. The Board calls that procedural, a round of technical edits before it refiles, and has not published a date. So right now there is no statewide Zone 0 in force, and no clock running.

The pause is useful. If you are planning a new custom home or a facade redesign in a fire hazard zone, you have a window to design the five-foot strip on purpose instead of retrofitting it later with a shovel and a dumpster.

What the adopted text asks for

According to the summary by the law firm Best Best & Krieger, the rules would cover every building in State Responsibility Areas and occupied structures in Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones in Local Responsibility Areas. Inside the five feet:

• no combustible mulch, wood chips, bark, leaves or needles;
• no firewood;
• clean roofs and gutters, and nothing growing under decks, balconies or pergolas;
• combustible fences and gates may not attach directly to the house, and new combustible fencing in the zone is out, although existing fences can still be repaired;
• outbuildings under 120 sq ft must be entirely noncombustible.

Limited, maintained nonwoody plants may stay. New structures would comply once the Board updates its fuels guidance, up to a year after adoption. Existing homes get a phased schedule of several years, while clearing roofs and gutters and cutting dead branches would apply from day one.

Why this is a facade question, not a landscaping one

Almost every item on that list sits where the wall meets the ground: the planting bed along the foundation, the wood gate that ties into the corner of the garage, the cedar trellis bolted to the stucco, the little storage shed tucked against the side wall. Exactly these details are what that make a front elevation feel finished. Strip them out after the fact and the house often looks bare, like a model with the staging removed.

In our experience the fix is to treat the first five feet as part of the exterior design, drawn on the elevation together with the siding and trim. Gravel or pavers in a color picked from the stone veneer. A gate that stops a hand's width short of the wall on a steel post. A trellis in powder-coated metal instead of wood. None of this is expensive if it is decided before the landscaper and the fence crew arrive. It becomes expensive when three trades each redo their own piece.

We don't recommend ripping out everything now based on the August draft. The text may change on refiling, and San Diego County already has its own Zone 0 ordinance with a February 28, 2029 compliance date, so local rules can land before or apart from the state version. Check your county first.

We have not seen how the final wording will treat wood siding and wood trim in the zone itself. The adopted summary covers plants, fences and small sheds, not wall cladding, and wall materials remain a building code matter (Chapter 7A). We would still expect the insurers to read it more strictly than the regulators do.

If you are working with an exterior design service for custom homes, ask for the five-foot strip on the drawings and in the photorealistic rendering of the house exterior before building, not just the facade above it. It is the cheapest fire detail you will ever buy, and right now nobody is forcing you to rush it.