No. Read against the operative text, the draft does not require removing an attached pergola. It sets material requirements for combustible fences, gates and outbuildings, and an attached pergola is not among them — it is defined as part of the Occupied Structure, which is the boundary Zone 0 is measured from. What the draft does require is that the area underneath stays free of vegetation and combustible items, and that the five feet spanning out from the pergola's edge stays vegetation-free. Your local jurisdiction may impose more than the state draft does, so check your local rule.

Yes, and this is the part people get wrong. Zone 0 begins at the exterior surface of the wall, roof, attached deck, stairs or pergola — so an attached pergola pushes the regulated ground outward by its own depth. A 12-foot pergola across the back of the house means roughly 17 feet of regulated ground measured from the wall. The pergola itself does not have to change; what you plant and store across that enlarged area does.

It is worse, not better. The draft counts a self-supporting pergola as attached when it sits within one foot of the structure — at which point it is part of the structure and treated favorably. Past that foot it is a combustible object standing inside Zone 0, which is exactly what the rule restricts, and a small one may instead be read as an outbuilding, which must be entirely noncombustible. Moving it closer, or rebuilding it in noncombustible materials, are the two ways out. Your local fire agency makes the call on which category yours falls into, so ask before you demolish anything.

The ground underneath has to stay clear. The draft requires that the areas underneath decks, balconies, pergolas and stairs be kept free of vegetation and combustible items: no stored firewood, no bark mulch, no planting beds, no bins or cushions left underneath. Enclosure is not required, and the draft does not offer it as an alternative — clearing is the requirement.

Yes. A solid-roofed patio cover attached to the house is treated like a pergola — part of the structure, with Zone 0 measured outward from its outer edge. Note that the definition excludes patios made of noncombustible materials, so a concrete or paver slab on its own is not what moves the line; the roofed, posted structure over it is.

There is no statewide effective date. The Board of Forestry approved the final draft on August 19, 2026, and the filing with the Office of Administrative Law was later withdrawn, so no state Zone 0 deadline is currently running. Some jurisdictions have their own ordinances with real dates — San Diego binds existing structures in the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone by February 28, 2027. If and when the state rule does take effect, the approved draft gave existing homes three years for the keep-it-clear provisions, including the area under a pergola, and three to five years on a local fire agency's timeline for the vegetation-free buffer around it. Check your local rule rather than the state draft.