As California fire officials repeatedly blow through deadlines for adopting statewide landscaping restrictions in high fire hazard zones, the Los Angeles City Council is moving ahead — though not necessarily in the way the state intended. On Tuesday, the council endorsed rules that would require homeowners to remove some combustible materials from a five-foot buffer zone around their houses to decrease the chance that wind-blown embers could ignite plants or wood fences and then destroy the homes.

At first blush it might seem that the council, still struggling with the fallout of last year’s deadly Palisades wildfire (and simultaneous fires in Altadena and other areas outside L.A. city limits) is finally fed up with waiting for the state Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to act. More than five years have passed since Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill requiring the board to adopt statewide rules for the ember-resistant barrier, known as Zone Zero. There are still no rules. But the council’s concern is that the state will move too quickly — and rigidly.

The state board has floated several options, some more stringent than others. The rules L.A. is pushing ahead with would be far less restrictive, out of concern that the state mandates might cost homeowners too much without necessarily being effective: Pulling out plants, replacing wood fences, taking down wood planters and moving pergolas all would cost homeowners plenty. Critics complain that the result would be a zone of nothingness — stark, lifeless, unornamented. Read more on Substack