In El Dorado County, wildfire safety features are a selling point for new homes

As wildfires reshape how and where Californians build, a new development in El Dorado County is leaning into prevention. In Cameron Park, homes with concrete roof tiles, steel pergolas and ember-resistant attic vents are marketed to buyers balancing long-term wildfire risk — and the cost of insuring against it in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

The approach was unveiled Thursday in Cameron Park, though much of the groundwork has been years in the making.

Standing outside a newly constructed model home Wednesday morning on Voltaire Drive, Roy Wright, CEO of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, gestured toward the neighborhood’s southern edge. Oak-dotted hills stretched into the distance.

“It’s beautiful,” he said. “But come November, during the dry season, that’s vulnerable.”

The developer, Los Angeles-based KB Home, said its partially built neighborhood, Stone Canyon, has received a provisional wildfire preparedness designation from the IBHS for including features intended to make the homes safer and more insurable. The builder said the 24-parcel development is expected to receive the full designation once construction is complete, likely within about a year.

Stone Canyon sits in what fire officials call the wildland-urban interface — areas where homes are nestled not far from undeveloped vegetation, and where wildfire risk is heightened by proximity to open land. The development sits south of Highway 50 along Beasley Road, an area Cal Fire has designated as a high-fire hazard severity zone.

The wildland-urban interface, often referred to as the WUI, has become the front line of California’s wildfire crisis — and a flashpoint in the state’s debates over housing, land use and insurance. Nearly half of the homes built in California over the past three decades have gone up in these transitional zones, despite the disproportionate share of wildfire losses that occur there.

Some of the homes’ attributes — such as dual-tempered windows, roof vents and enclosed eaves — are required under California building code. But others go beyond those standards, Wright said.

Most structures in the neighborhood are spaced more than 10 feet apart. Eaves are enclosed, reducing the risk posed by exposed plywood. Shrubs are planted at least five feet from homes and vegetation beyond that is kept sparse. Where the roof overhangs the back porch, vents fitted with fine-gauge mesh are designed to block embers from entering the attic. Gutters are covered to prevent leaf buildup from nearby oak trees. And while the fence enclosing the yard is made of vinyl — which is flammable — the five-foot section closest to the house is a metal gate.

Stone Canyon’s homeowners association will require residents to submit photos annually, showing they have not added features that compromise those protections, such as shrubbery planted within five feet of the home. The association will work with homeowners “in perpetuity” to ensure the wildfire standards are upheld, said Nam Joe, Sacramento division president for KB Home.

KB Home has completed three houses at Stone Canyon so far. Once built out, the neighborhood will include two dozen single-story homes in Spanish, modern prairie and farmhouse styles, Joe said. Homes will range from 2,300 to 2,800 square feet, with three to six bedrooms. Pricing will start at about $780,000.

Wright said the Stone Canyon development proves that homes can be built with wildfire safety features without skyrocketing costs. Joe said the additional safety features were “close to cost-neutral” for the development firm.

“This is doable,” Wright said.

The IBHS has long researched disaster preparedness in homebuilding, Wright said, but it created its wildfire resilience designation in 2023 after builders asked for a clear, insurer-recognized standard they could point to when marketing new homes.

Wright said it remains difficult to compare insurance rates between homes with and without the IBHS designation. Still, the group hopes the program will help homeowners secure coverage in a tightening market.

“What I can say with certainty is, when insurers are willing to take new policies… these are the attributes they want,” he said.

About 1,500 individual homes currently hold IBHS’ wildfire preparedness designation, Wright said, most of them in California. Builders can submit plans for new communities to IBHS for review, while owners of existing homes may apply by submitting photos and undergoing an on-site inspection.

Stone Canyon will become just the second neighborhood to receive the designation, Wright said. The first was Dixon Trail, a 64-home KB development in Escondido.

For wildfire resilience, Wright said, there is clear value in approaching the problem at the neighborhood level.

“Unlike wind and rain or flood, you can do everything perfectly on your house,” Wright said. “And if your neighbor didn’t, you still have real risk.”

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