Rulemaking tracker

Where the Zone Zero regulation stands today

This page tracks the regulation through the emergency rulemaking process. Every deadline on this site counts from the day it is filed with the Secretary of State — and that day has not arrived.

The Board of Forestry adopted the Zone 0 regulation on August 19, 2026. It filed the package with the Office of Administrative Law on August 28, 2026. On September 8, 2026, before OAL ruled, the Board took it back. No statewide Zone 0 rule is in force, there is no effective date, and none of the compliance clocks have started.

This is not a rejection and it is not a cancellation. It is also not what most coverage still says: legal alerts published as recently as 15 September describe the package as pending at OAL. It is not pending. OAL's own record is the only place this appears.

What the record says

OAL publishes every action it takes on emergency filings. The entry reads:

Those section numbers match the Notice of Proposed Emergency Action exactly, so there is no ambiguity about which package this is.

The Board's own page disagrees, and is out of date. As of September 20, 2026 the Board of Forestry's defensible space page still said staff "continue to work with the Office of Administrative Law on a final review of the Zone 0 Regulations Rule Package." That statement and the OAL record cannot both be current.

We follow the OAL record. It is the register of what OAL actually did, maintained by the office that did it, and it is dated. The Board's page is a narrative summary with no date on the claim.

What has happened

What "withdrawn" means

A California regulation is not law when the agency votes for it. The package goes to the Office of Administrative Law, which reviews it — not for whether the policy is wise, but for whether the agency followed the process, whether the rule is clear enough to enforce, whether the statute actually authorises it, and whether the required record is complete. If OAL approves, it files the rule with the Secretary of State, and that filing is the moment it becomes law.

Withdrawn means the agency pulled the package back before OAL decided. OAL did not reject it. Nobody ruled on it.

Agencies do this routinely, and usually quietly. During review, OAL staff often signal that something in a filing is going to fail — a section too vague to enforce, a gap in the record, a mismatch between the rule text and the reasons filed with it, an emergency justification that will not hold. The agency can let a formal disapproval land on the public record, or withdraw, fix the problem, and refile. Most choose the second. Three other agencies withdrew packages from OAL in the same fortnight, one of them on the same day as this one.

So the withdrawal tells you the package is not becoming law this month. On its own, it tells you nothing else.

What we do not know

If you want an answer rather than a status, Jane Van Susteren is the contact listed on the OAL entry, at (916) 619-9705. We have not been able to confirm a reason and will publish one here if we get it.

What this means for your property

No statewide Zone 0 deadline applies to you today. Every date in the August package — the immediate items, the three years, the three-to-five — counts forward from an effective date that does not exist. Nothing has started.

What already applied still applies. Defensible space in Zone 1 (5–30 feet) and Zone 2 (30–100 feet) is enforceable now under Public Resources Code 4291 and Government Code 51182, as it has been for years. Roof and gutter clearance, dead branch removal and the ten-foot chimney clearance are in that existing statute — they are not new to Zone 0, and the withdrawal does not touch them.

Local ordinances are untouched. They are separate law and the state's process has no bearing on them. In the City of San Diego, Zone 0 has applied to new structures since 28 February 2026 under municipal code 512.0604, applies to existing structures from 28 February 2027, and the city asks for full compliance by 28 February 2029. If your jurisdiction has adopted Zone 0, that is your rule and your deadline, today. Check yours →

If you have already started, don't undo it. The fire science did not change on September 8, 2026. Embers landing in the first five feet remain the dominant pathway by which houses ignite, which is the finding the whole regulation was built on, and the same work earns insurance credit whether or not a rule compels it. How that works →

If you were about to spend money, you have time. The expensive items — fence sections, gate replacement, a re-landscaped perimeter — sit in the last tier, the one furthest from binding and the most likely to be revised if the package comes back. Waiting for refiled text before committing to that work is now a reasonable decision rather than a risky one.

What happens next

If the Board refiles, OAL conducts an expedited review under AB 1455 to determine whether the regulations satisfy the Administrative Procedure Act. Following the public comment period and OAL approval, the regulations become effective upon filing with the Secretary of State — not on a quarterly date, and not after any further waiting period. A refiled package gets a new OAL file number, which is how you will be able to tell it apart from this one.

One thing worth knowing about what happens if it does come back: even once the regulation takes effect, the requirements for new construction do not begin immediately. Public Resources Code 4291(g)(1) and Government Code 51186(b)(2)(A) hold them until the Board updates and posts its defensible space guidance document. What that means in practice →

Why this is an emergency rulemaking

AB 1455 required that if adopting through the regular APA process would inhibit compliance with the deadline in Executive Order N-18-25, the regulations must be adopted as emergency regulations, and OAL must treat them as necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety and general welfare.

Two consequences. There is no Initial or Final Statement of Reasons — the emergency equivalents are the Finding of Emergency and the Notice of Proposed Emergency Action. And unlike ordinary emergency regulations, these do not lapse: AB 1455 authorises readoption and makes adopted or readopted emergency regulations effective until revised by the Board. There is no 180-day cliff and no certificate of compliance treadmill.

Check it yourself

Three pages, none of them ours. We check them in this order and record the date whether or not anything changed:

1. OAL — recent actions taken on emergency regulations. Where the withdrawal appears now, and where an approval would appear. When a file moves here marked Approved, that date is the effective date.
2. OAL — emergency regulations under review. The pending queue. A refiling shows up here first, under a new file number.
3. The Board of Forestry's defensible space page. Slowest of the three — as of September 20, 2026 it had not caught up with the withdrawal — but it is where revised rule text and the guidance document would be posted.

Or call the Board contact below, or OAL's Reference Attorney, and ask directly.

Contacts

Board of Forestry contact: Jane Van Susteren, (916) 619-9705, [email protected] — named on the OAL entry for this package.

OAL Reference Attorney: (916) 323-6815, [email protected]

Sections affected

Adopted: 14 CCR 1298.01, 1298.02, 1298.03, 1298.04 — the Local Responsibility Area track.
Amended: 14 CCR 1299.01, 1299.02, 1299.03 — the State Responsibility Area track.

These are the sections the package would have adopted and amended. None of them are currently in the California Code of Regulations.

Sources: Office of Administrative Law, Recent Actions Taken on Emergency Regulations, file 2026-0828-03E, checked September 20, 2026; Office of Administrative Law, Emergency Regulations Under Review, checked September 20, 2026; Board of Forestry Notice of Proposed Emergency Action, August 20, 2026; Full Board Decision Memo, August 2026; AB 1455 (Chapter 731, Statutes of 2025).