By Hayley Smith : latimes – excerpt

A bill that sought to overhaul California’s system for wildfire hazard mapping has died in the state Assembly.

Senate Bill 610, introduced in June by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), sparked heated debate over its plan to eliminate the decades-old system of ranking state and local lands as “moderate,” “high” or “very high” fire hazard severity zones — designations that influence development patterns and building safety standards based on an area’s probability of burning.

The plan instead would have empowered California’s state fire marshal, Daniel Berlant, to create a single “wildfire mitigation area” classification for California, which supporters said would simplify the system and create a uniform set of standards for wildfire preparation and mitigation.

The bill was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee on Thursday…

Rose said he viewed Thursday’s decision as a victory for the more than 150 organizations that weighed in against the bill in a series of open letters to Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators… (more)