Models for Mitigating Wildfire Hazards Through Zoning
Zoning Practice — March 2005
By James Schwab, FAICP, Stuart Meck, FAICP
Wildfires have a nasty habit of grabbing the entire nation's attention with televised images: forests aflame, conflagrations licking at and then overwhelming communities at the urban edge, people returning to a home that has been reduced to rubble. If zoning even enters the discussion as people react, it is often as they ask, "Why are those people living out there anyway?"
Both zoning and subdivision ordinances can address wildfire hazards by implementing a number of policy options to curb the problem. Most important are the community's criteria for designating the wildland/urban interface.
This issue of Zoning Practice profiles model ordinances and local regulations aimed at protecting communities from the dangers associated with development in wildfire areas.
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About the Authors
James Schwab, FAICP
Jim Schwab is currently an "allegedly retired" planning consultant after leaving the APA Research Department in 2017, where he served as Manager of the Hazards Planning Center from 2008. He previously had been assistant editor of Planning Magazine and senior research associate. He led the development of numerous PAS Reports on hazard-related and environmental topics as well as training programs both in the U.S. and overseas. Since 2008, he has been adjunct assistant professor in the University of Iowa School of Planning and Public Affairs, and more recently has been a certified instructor for FEMA's Emergency Management Institute.
Stuart Meck, FAICP
My website: http://bloustein.rutgers.edu/meck/