Amid high temperatures and fires burning along Highway 101, the Santa Barbara City Council voted Tuesday to approve new high fire hazard areas in the city and require homeowners to take action to protect their homes.

The council voted unanimously 7-0 to incorporate the changes, which were required by the state fire marshal and issued in March.

The changes require that all new construction in designated high fire hazard areas comply with the California Building Code and defend lives and property against ember intrusion during wildfires and lower the risk of building-to-building transmission of fire.

In addition, vegetation within Santa Barbara’s high fire hazard areas, native or otherwise, “must be maintained to create an effective fuel break by thinning dense vegetation and removing dry brush, flammable vegetation and combustible growth from areas within 30 to 150 feet of all buildings or structures.”

High fire hazard areas would be considered during future development in conjunction with the city’s general plan, according to the vote.

The city also agreed to pay $100,000 for the Fire Department to hire a consultant to begin the process of developing a Coastal Wildland Fire Suppression Assessment District.

Santa Barbara already has a Community Wildfire Prevention Plan. Fire Chief Chris Mailes said the department looked at the state’s maps along with its own prevention plan to identify areas.

“We took a very common-sense approach to expanding as little as we possibly could,” Mailes said.

Santa Barbara Approves City Budget

Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse and City Councilmen Eric Friedman and Mike Jordan found themselves in the awkward position of voting against the city’s $577 million budget because they opposed pulling $2 million from reserves to fund affordable housing.

The vote was 4-3 to approve the budget, which included setting aside $2 million from reserves in 2026 and 2027 to go toward affordable housing.

Finance Director Keith DeMartini showed a slide for the first time after nearly two months of budget discussions that showed projected budget deficits of $6 million in 2026 and $8.4 million in 2027.

The council members agreed with every other line in the budget, but were forced through process to vote on the whole budget rather than taking separate votes on that specific item.

The three members raised concerns that the money would create a budget deficit in future years. Friedman also expressed concern that the deficit would worsen with upcoming union contract negotiations.

“This budget sets us on a bad course,” Friedman said.

Rowse said, “We have to ask ourselves, what is our capacity within the general fund to build affordable housing? It isn’t part of our normal task to do that.”

Rowse said the situation was “extraordinary,” and “I think it is going to be inadequate.”

“We’re voting for something that is going to be damaging to our budget,” Rowse said.

The four council members who voted for the budget were Meagan Harmon, Oscar Gutierrez, Wendy Santamaria and Oscar Gutierrez.

Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon and Harmon, who have been pushing for the past two years to use reserve funds to fund affordable housing, said the plan is to replenish the city’s reserves, not permanently lower the city’s reserve policy.