With a significant number of destructive wildfires affecting California in recent years, some residents are questioning the potential effect of new legislation aimed at increasing density in the state’s single-family zoned neighborhoods. Senate Bill 9 (SB 9), recently signed by the governor, appears to exclude very high fire hazard severity zones. However, Livable California claims that SB 9’s restrictions on development in these fire hazard zones do not apply where fire mitigation standards apply. “And those fire mitigation standards are already applied in Chapter 7A of the state Building Code,” states the organization. If this is true, the new law could impact high fire severity areas such as Shasta, South Lake Tahoe, Santa Rosa, Oakland, Ventura, Agoura Hills, Malibu, Los Angeles, Ramona, Poway, San Diego, Paradise (already devastated by a recent fire), and others, according to the organization. Los Angeles City firefighter-paramedic John Knox warns that this increased residential development coupled with personnel shortages …