Defensible space
This is the topic where we see the most confident misinformation, usually from companies with something to sell. So here is the careful version.
Executive Order N-18-25 required the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to complete its Zone 0 rulemaking by 31 December 2025. That deadline passed without a final rule in force. That is the durable fact and it does not change.
Zone 0 regulations have been through draft stages, and the phase in period has already moved between drafts, from a three year timeline in an earlier version to a five year education first rollout in a later one. Board adoption of a final draft is not the same thing as a rule being in force: adoption starts a review by the Office of Administrative Law, and that review can take months.
For that reason we do not quote a Zone 0 compliance deadline to anyone, and we would treat any contractor who does with caution. If someone tells you there is a date you must comply by, ask them which filed regulation they are reading.
The concept is an ember resistant zone in the first five feet around a structure, with combustible material removed from it. A wooden fence that runs up to and attaches to the wall of a house is a path for fire to travel along, and that is the specific thing the proposal addresses.
Regardless of what the final rule says, a non combustible section where a wood fence meets the house is good practice and cheap to build. A short run of metal fencing, or a masonry section at the attachment point, breaks the path without changing how the rest of the fence looks.
Both Gilroy and Morgan Hill publish their own fire hazard severity zone maps, and those are worth checking for your address whatever happens with Zone 0.
We will build a fence that separates properly from the structure whether or not a rule eventually requires it. What we will not do is tell you a deadline exists when it does not.
Sources: Board of Forestry, defensible space zones · City of Gilroy fire hazard severity zone maps
More guides
Free estimate
We will come out, measure, and give you a real number. No charge, no obligation, and usually the next day.
Most jobs can start within three days. Call us or send the form and we will come and measure.
