Rules for homeowners
What you may owe when you sell, rebuild, or keep up the ground around the house.
Building codeCheck status
Kauai Bill 2961 WUI standards
Kauai plantation-camp districts. County of Kauai
County ordinance signed in September 2025 that brings wildland urban interface safety standards into zoning and permitting for Kauai's plantation-camp districts, with education-first enforcement.
- Asks about
- Vents and the first 5 ft around the house
- You’ll need
- A home inside the program’s boundary
Details and how to comply
- Details
- Reported elements: home hardening against ember intrusion, a 5 ft noncombustible zone, defensible space to 30 ft, and low vegetation to 100 ft. Applies through zoning and permits; effective date not stated.
- How
- Before permitted work in a plantation-camp district, ask the Kauai Planning Department which WUI standards apply.
- We prepare
- Mitigation record
Free help
Assessments and services you don’t pay for.
Neighborhood programOpen
Firewise USA
Nationwide. National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
A neighborhood program. Residents form a small board, get a risk assessment, write an action plan, and log the work they do each year to stay recognized. Some state insurance rules and some insurers count a recognized neighborhood.
Details and how to use it
- Details
- Community work: clearing, chipping days, and education. Your own retrofit work counts toward the neighborhood’s yearly total.
- How
- Look up recognized sites near you, or start one with your neighbors through NFPA’s Firewise USA portal. Your state forestry agency usually helps with the assessment.
In progress in Hawaii
SB 2947 (2026, introduced) would require insurers to disclose wildfire risk scores on request, account for property and community mitigation or give discounts, post discounts and appeal steps, and rescore within 30 days of proof of mitigation, effective July 1, 2026 if enacted; no final passage was found. SB 3311 (2026) Strengthen Hawaii Homes Program would give DLNR fire retrofit grants for insured, owner-occupied single-family homes ($1,000,000 for FY 2026-27), but SD1 set a placeholder effective date of July 1, 2050 and no action after February 20, 2026 was found. Kauai Bill 2961 (signed September 2025) brings WUI standards into zoning and permitting for plantation-camp districts.
General information, not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Rules and funding change, so open the official page before you apply or buy for a program.