As California continues to face the dual pressures of a housing crisis and increasingly destructive wildfires, local leaders are grappling with how to balance public safety and future development. Following the recent losses in Los Angeles, some policymakers have proposed a moratorium on new housing in fire-prone areas, most notably in San Diego County.
But as Times of San Diego columnist and XyloPlan co-founder Dave Winnacker argues, stopping development isn’t the solution.
In a recent op-ed co-authored with California Building Industry Association CEO Dan Dunmoyer, the authors lay out a compelling case for why how we build matters far more than where. The piece highlights an important distinction: wildfire is inevitable in a fire-dependent landscape like California, but structure loss is not. The difference between a fire-safe community and a devastating loss often comes down to whether homes, neighborhoods, and landscapes are designed to resist ignition and slow fire spread.
Winnacker and Dunmoyer point to recent advances in building codes (like California’s Chapter 7A), improved home hardening practices, and community-scale mitigation strategies as proven tools for reducing risk. When applied in master-planned communities, these strategies allow for integrated fire resilience from the ground up, before a home is ever built.
Rather than banning development outright, the authors argue we should be encouraging fire-adapted design: wide roads that double as firebreaks, strategic placement of parks and amenities that buffer residential areas, and landscape planning that slows flame front progression. These aren’t future concepts, they are design strategies we can implement today.
The op-ed also addresses another critical reality: while retrofitting older neighborhoods is necessary, it’s costly, slow, and politically complex. Building new, well-designed communities that can serve as buffers to older areas offers a more immediate and impactful opportunity to reduce regional wildfire risk while providing desperately needed housing.
At XyloPlan, we believe in science-backed wildfire adaptation, not blanket avoidance. Our modeling tools help planners, developers, and local agencies understand how wildfire is likely to move, where key vulnerabilities exist, and how to design neighborhoods that can withstand exposure without catastrophic loss.
Read the full article to learn why smart growth, rooted in fire science, is not only possible—but essential.
About XyloPlan
XyloPlan is a wildfire analytics platform that unites fire agencies, developers, and insurers around clear, science-backed strategies to reduce risk and sustain insurability. Our scenario-based tools simulate how fire spreads in the wildlands and into the built environment, so fire agencies can deploy effective mitigation plans and insurers can underwrite with confidence. The result is smarter planning, safer neighborhoods, and improved access to insurance in fire-prone regions.
To learn more or request a wildfire risk assessment, contact info@xyloplan.com.