The Midway City Council adopted the Utah wildland urban interface code on Tuesday to comply with a state law intended to ease potential property insurance impacts and increase wildfire protections in high-risk areas.
The final decision included adopting the Utah wildland urban interface map as required by House Bill 48, which the state Legislature passed last year. A WUI map highlights areas where urban zones meet wildland and open space.
The purpose of identifying high-risk areas more susceptible to wildfire is twofold.
First, the law is intended to help residents protect their properties. The ordinances in place would require new developments to be more fire resistant by using defensible materials, managing vegetation and ensuring water supply availability. Property owners can still build in high-risk areas and may be able to reduce assessment fees by utilizing fire-defensible tactics.
The new law is also aimed at helping curb potential property insurance impacts. Insurance agencies can now only determine high-risk properties as defined by the wildland urban interface maps adopted across the state.
Properties that fall in the state’s defined high-risk areas are subject to an assessment and a fee between $20 and $100. The fee amount is based on the property’s square footage. In Midway, those high-risk zones primarily cover the western outskirts of town at the base of the Wasatch Back foothills.
Villani said part of the fee will be retained by the county to mitigate firefighting costs. The remainder will go to the Utah Wildfire Fund, which was created to manage statewide wildfire costs involving wildfire prevention.
Midway adopted its own wildland urban interface map, which defines the boundary where the code will be applicable and enforced. Midway worked with the Wasatch County Fire District to draw the high-risk boundaries. While the state’s high-risk map is similarly outlined and only deals with high-risk areas subject to assessment, Midway’s map dictates city building codes.
While H.B. 48 was intended to require municipalities to adopt the wildland urban interface map by Jan. 1, Villani said some cities, like Midway, are playing “catch-up” to fully understand the state’s map before adopting it.
Heber City has already adopted its own Utah wildland urban interface code. Kamas, in Summit County, adopted the ordinance in January.
Apart from adopting the state’s wildland urban interface map, Wasatch County towns such as Hideout have already adopted measures to incorporate “defensible space” across town, which goes beyond building with fire-resistant materials and also includes vegetation mitigation.
Wasatch County residents can assess their property’s wildfire risk on the Utah Department of Natural Resources website: wrap.wildfirerisk.utah.gov.