The high-risk wildland-urban interface map released Dec. 18 is a requirement from new state law House Bill 48.
The law, and accompanying fee area, aim to ensure residents are protecting themselves and their neighbors from wildfires.
State Forester Jamie Barnes explained last month HB 48 is a response to Utahns’ rising insurance costs.
“It's not the entire state that is painted red, and the whole state is not at high risk,” Barnes said at a Nov. 6 meeting in Salt Lake City. “So this is the first step that [legislators] have taken to really try to address the insurance issues in the state.”
HB 48 required the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands to identify where development meets wilderness, the area called wildland-urban interface, or WUI.
Under the law, properties with the most risk in the WUI must start paying into the Utah Wildfire Fund next year. The fee is only on taxable structures, not empty lots.
After months of uncertainty, the map of who’s in and who’s not in the higher risk areas is finished. Click here to view the map, which is a layer on the Utah Wildfire Risk Explorer.
The map includes homes sandwiched between wildland areas and other development.
For example, upper Summit Park will pay the fee and residents below along Interstate 80 will not. Communities like Promontory and Tuhaye are bullseyes, with only residents on their edges paying the fee.
The populated cores of Heber, Park City and Kimball Junction are mostly exempt.
State fire officials didn’t announce the exact fees when they released the map, but Summit County previously estimated they could range from $20 to $100 annually.
In 2026 and 2027, owners will pay a flat fee adjusted by square footage. After that, the state’s plan is to base the annual fee on how fire-resistant a property is.
HB 48’s new fee is to cover those regular lot assessments measuring risk.
State fire officials say they developed the map by looking at vegetation, topography and overall building density as well as wildfire and weather trends.
The buildings deemed most exposed and within about 800 feet of two or more structures got included in the high-risk WUI.
That put 60,000 structures across the state in the new fee area.
Insurance companies will also be required to use the standardized map to classify structures as “high-risk wildland-urban interface.”
