$115 Bill Imposed On Some Residents Living In Unincorporated Communities West Of Lake Elsinore, Wildomar

Local residents who live in "State Responsibility Areas" are seeing a bill arrive in their mailboxes that may be unexpected.

State Responsibility Area Fire Prevention Benefit Fee bills from the California State Board of Equalization have been mailed, and many residents have already started receiving them.

The State Responsibility Area (SRA) Fire Prevention Benefit Fee was enacted following the signing of Assembly Bill X1 29 in July 2011. The law approved the new annual Fire Prevention Fee to pay for fire prevention services within the SRA. The fee is applied to all habitable structures within the SRA.

The fee is levied at the rate of $150 per habitable structure, which is defined as a building that can be occupied for residential use. For those who have a habitable structure that's within the boundaries of a local fire agency, there's a $35 discount applied to the bill making the amount due $115. Approximately 90-95 percent of bill recipients are receiving the discount, according to California Fire Prevention Fee information enclosed with the mailing.

The State Responsibility Area (SRA) is the area of the state where the State of California is financially responsible for the prevention and suppression of wildfires. SRA does not include lands within city boundaries or in federal ownership. 

This fee will fund a variety of fire prevention services within the SRA including brush clearance around communities on public lands, along roadways and evacuation routes; and activities to improve forest health so the forest can better withstand wildfire.

Click here for an FAQ on the SRAs and the fee.

Click here for a map of State Responsibility Area lands around Lake Elsinore and Wildomar. Communities west of Lake Elsinore and Wildomar are impacted, as well as a small pocket east of Wildomar.

Expect changes to next year's billing. New SRA boundary lines were adopted in May 2013 that will exclude some property owners from the 2013-14 billing cycle that began July 1, 2013 and runs through June 30, 2014.

For more information, visit http://www.firepreventionfee.org/ or call the Fire Prevention Fee Service Center at 1 (888) 310-6447 or the State Board of Equalization at 1 (800) 400-7115.