Residential property insurance: wildfire risk.

Assembly Member Connolly’s measure reframes wildfire resilience as a core consideration within the state’s property-insurance framework, establishing a formal, periodic process to reassess and potentially expand the building-hardening measures that influence insurers’ rating plans. The proposal adds a new article that directs the Department of Insurance to review the Safer from Wildfires regulations on a defined cadence, with the aim of incorporating additional property-level hardening measures and communitywide wildfire mitigation programs if warranted by the evaluation.

Key mechanisms set by the measure include a schedule that requires the department to consider updates no later than January 1, 2030 and then every five years thereafter, and to consult with the Office of Emergency Services, CAL FIRE, the Public Utilities Commission, and the Office of Planning and Research, along with relevant stakeholders. The department must also deploy a formal public participation process that includes at least one public meeting, a preliminary list made available for public review and comment, and a final list published before any Administrative Procedure Act rulemaking commences. If a final list is published, the department must initiate APA rulemaking within 30 days to amend the Safer from Wildfires regulations.

Definitional and cross-referential provisions anchor the process to existing programs, defining Building Materials Listing as the biennial list maintained by the Office of the State Fire Marshal and Safer from Wildfires regulations as the rules governing insurer rating plans for wildfire mitigation. The measure contemplates that, if updates proceed, the first consideration may include incorporating Building Materials Listing materials or aligning with the most recent building standards provisions, thereby connecting insurance-regulatory decisions to state building-materials and code frameworks. Importantly, the bill does not create new funding or penalties; it does not alter current statutory obligations for insurers to reflect specified wildfire-mitigation measures in rating plans, but it does establish a pathway for future regulatory amendments through a transparent, multi-agency, public process.

In policy terms, the proposal introduces a structured governance mechanism for revisiting wildfire-risk mitigation within insurance regulation, emphasizing public participation and interagency coordination. It situates potential changes within broader state efforts to promote fire-resilient construction and to align insurance incentives with building-materials programs and building standards updates. The outcome would depend on future regulatory actions following the mandated reviews, including any amendments to how wildfire-mitigation measures are reflected in insurance rating plans and how Building Materials Listing and building-code considerations are integrated into the department’s regulatory framework.