Napa City Council members voted to adopt the city's first-ever Community Wildfire Protection Plan, a roadmap that identifies where fire risk is highest and how the city might reduce it. Fire Chief Zach Curren presented the plan, which he described as a guiding document for increasing awareness of wildfire risk, reducing ignitions and hazards, and strengthening community preparedness. The council approved the resolution using two CEQA exemptions, meaning it did not require the environmental review that individual construction projects will still need before crews break ground.
The plan was developed collaboratively with the community and involved more than 60 agencies, nonprofits and community organizations, according to the Napa Valley Register. Curren said the document provides resources and suggestions to increase community wildfire preparedness and safety, and it uses what officials describe as state-of-the-art technology and the latest accurate data to map hazard zones. Council member Beth Painter praised the plan and called it a huge amount of work, while council member Mary Luros said a coordinated strategy is important for maximum preparedness.
Protecting the City's Water Supply
Among the plan's findings: nearly all city-owned land outside Napa's limits lies within a very high fire hazard severity zone, including Milliken Reservoir and the city's water treatment plant. The plan rates protection of Napa's water infrastructure as a very high priority. That designation matters because the city's municipal water system draws from three surface sources — Lake Hennessey, Milliken Reservoir and the State Water Project — to serve more than 85,000 residents in and around Napa, according to Napa County. High soil burn severity around reservoir headwaters during past blazes has threatened raw water treatment capacity and quality, a risk city planners are now trying to formally document and address.
The urgency behind that focus traces back to recent history. Napa County has burned more than 65% of its area in the last seven years, and wildfires during that span destroyed thousands of structures and caused billions of dollars in damages, per the Register's reporting. The 2017 Atlas Fire alone burned 51,624 acres and destroyed 783 structures, while the 2020 Glass Fire burned 67,484 acres and destroyed more than 1,500 structures across Napa and Sonoma counties, according to CAL FIRE.
Evacuation Gaps and an Aging Population
The plan also grapples with who is hardest to move out of harm's way when fire threatens. Napa's population could face about 13% additional evacuation difficulty due to lack of vehicle access or disability, and roughly 20% of city residents are aged 65 or older — a demographic that faces heightened safety risks during rapid wildfire evacuations. City staff will consider establishing fire safe councils and Firewise communities within city limits as one response, and the plan calls for the city to make available wildfire resources, including interactive hazard and risk maps.
None of that, however, locks the city into a specific course of action. City officials were explicit that the council resolution is not a commitment to any future action, and that adoption does not obligate the city to act on the plan. The document itself is not a decision to approve or fund potential mitigation actions, and many of its action items remain in concept or proposed stages rather than funded projects ready for construction.
Money, CEQA, and What Comes Next
That distinction matters for funding. Community Wildfire Protection Plans were established nationally under the federal Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003, which grants communities that adopt one priority status for federal hazardous fuel reduction funding, according to ResilientCA. Napa's plan is described as a roadmap to reduce wildfire risk and unlock state and federal funding for mitigation projects, and the Register reports the plan itself was funded through the CAL FIRE Wildfire Prevention Program, part of the California Climate Investments grant program. CAL FIRE made up to $135 million available statewide for the current fiscal year to support local hazardous fuel reduction, wildfire planning and public safety education.
But adopting the plan is not the same as authorizing bulldozers or prescribed burns. Because a CWPP is a broad policy action, individual physical fuel-reduction projects listed within it must still complete project-level environmental review before physical work begins, according to Ascent Environmental. City staff outlined three next steps: pursuing new funding for mitigation and public education projects, working with Napa County to reflect city-specific priorities in the county's pending CWPP update, and building out the plan's alignment with the general plan, city codes and ordinances, and the city's urban forest management plan.
Napa used some of the same consultants working on the county's pending CWPP update, and city officials say they prioritized alignment between the two documents. The county's broader plan, coordinated in part through the Napa Communities Firewise Foundation, addresses countywide risk, while the city's version lets Napa establish localized wildland-urban interface zones and target city-owned assets specifically. The city's plan will get more frequent updates on specific elements as conditions change, plus a full refresh in five years, in 2031.
