"We were waiting on the wildfire map from the state, and the process wasn't moving at the pace we wanted. So we're writing our own code."
That's Sisters Mayor Jennifer Letz, explaining why her city didn't sit still while Salem argued about wildfire policy. Most people who heard that Oregon repealed its statewide wildfire hazard map assumed the pressure was off. Fewer rules, fewer headaches, one less thing to check before buying land or pulling a building permit.
In Sisters, the opposite happened. The city used the state's retreat as room to write something tougher than what Salem ever would have required, and it put a piece of that code into effect before Bend or Redmond had even scheduled a vote. If you're planning a custom build, shopping acreage outside city limits, or buying a resale in a planned community near Sisters, that timing matters more than the fact that a map got deleted from a state website.
What actually got repealed
The story starts with the 2020 Labor Day fires, which destroyed roughly 4,000 homes across Oregon and pushed the legislature to pass Senate Bill 762, mandating statewide wildfire building standards. The Oregon Department of Forestry and Oregon State University released the resulting statewide wildfire hazard map on January 7, 2025, assigning a risk classification to every tax lot in the state. It landed badly. Property owners contested classifications, appeals piled up, and lawmakers spent the next several months hearing from constituents who felt a computer model had just devalued their land.
Governor Kotek signed Senate Bill 83 on July 24, 2025, repealing the statewide hazard map and converting the underlying building code, Section R327 of the Oregon Residential Specialty Code, into something local jurisdictions can now opt into rather than something the state imposes. The map is gone. The map's website still runs as a general reference tool, but it no longer carries any legal weight, and insurers and lenders no longer treat it as the rulebook.
Here's the part that gets missed. Even while the map existed, a separate law, Senate Bill 82, already barred insurers from using it to set rates. Insurers were pricing wildfire risk off their own proprietary models the whole time, not the state's public map. So the fight that dominated headlines in 2025 was really a fight over local building code authority, not insurance pricing. If you were hoping the repeal would loosen underwriting, it never controlled that lever to begin with.
What Sisters did next
Rather than wait for Salem to sort out a replacement, Sisters moved on its own. The city became an early adopter of R327, and unincorporated Deschutes County, where much of the acreage and rural-lifestyle land buyers look at around Sisters actually sits, followed in January 2026. Both took effect on the same day.
| Jurisdiction | R327 home-hardening code | Status as of this writing |
|---|---|---|
| City of Sisters | In effect | Adopted ahead of the repeal; effective April 1, 2026 |
| Unincorporated Deschutes County | In effect | Effective April 1, 2026, same date as Sisters |
| City of Bend | In effect | Adopted May 15, 2026, the largest Oregon jurisdiction to do so |
| City of Redmond | Not yet adopted | As of early summer 2026 reporting, still under consideration |
That county line matters if you're comparing a build site inside Sisters' city limits to a similar parcel just outside them. Both are already covered. Acreage listings a few miles outside town, in areas like McKenzie Canyon or the Whychus Canyon rim lots, sit in unincorporated Deschutes County rather than the city itself, and the assumption that county land carries lighter rules than city land doesn't hold here.
What R327 actually requires, and what it doesn't touch
R327 governs materials for ground-up new construction: fire-rated roofing, ember-resistant vents, ignition-resistant siding, and tempered glass. It applies to new dwellings and new accessory structures, meaning a new shop or barn on acreage triggers it too. It does not apply to additions or renovations of existing buildings, and it doesn't touch apartments or commercial construction at all.
That last point surprises people. If you're buying an existing Sisters home and planning a full remodel, R327 as currently written doesn't require you to retrofit it to the new standard. The code is forward-looking, not retroactive.
Cost-wise, Oregon's Building Codes Division has estimated R327 compliance adds roughly $2,500 to $3,000 to a typical 1,200-square-foot new home, a figure that surfaced when Sisters builders were first digesting the code in mid-2025. Local builder Morgan Greenwood called that a relatively small margin against the total cost of a house, but noted it compounds once you factor in current mortgage rates on top of it. Worth budgeting for if you're pricing out a custom build rather than assuming your contractor already baked it in.
The rule still being written is the stricter one
R327 is only half the story. Separately, Sisters has been drafting its own defensible space ordinance, covering vegetation management and fuel clearance around structures rather than the materials a house is built from. City planning records from the process describe the draft as the toughest defensible-space standard anywhere in Oregon, built by studying other cities' codes, including Ashland's, and then going further.
Unlike R327, a defensible space ordinance can apply to existing homes, not just new construction, which is why it's the piece worth watching if you already own or are about to close on a Sisters property. Mayor Letz has been specific about why certain landscaping choices are on the table:
"We have a lot of western juniper. And that is just a highly flammable tree. Sagebrush can be very volatile as well, and also spruce trees."
As of the city's spring 2026 planning discussions, the council was still working through details, including a possible assistance fund for owners who can't easily absorb retrofit costs. That piece wasn't finalized at last check. If you're closing on a Sisters home now, ask the city directly what the current defensible space requirement looks like rather than relying on this article or anything else written months ago, because this is the part of the code most likely to have moved since.
The HOA wrinkle
If you're looking at a resale inside a planned community near Sisters, one more law changes your leverage. Senate Bill 1551, co-sponsored by state Sen. Anthony Broadman, now prevents homeowner associations from blocking a homeowner's fire-hardening upgrades, things like swapping a wood fence for a fire-resistant material or reroofing with ignition-resistant products. Under the new rule, an application for that kind of upgrade is deemed approved unless the HOA issues a written denial within 90 days that explains its reasoning and isn't arbitrary. If you've been told an HOA's architectural guidelines would block a fire-resistant retrofit, that assumption is now out of date.
What to actually check before you buy or break ground
- Confirm whether the parcel sits inside Sisters city limits or unincorporated Deschutes County. Both are already under R327 as of April 1, 2026, so "county land" isn't the loophole it might seem.
- If you're building new, ask your builder to itemize R327 compliance costs separately rather than assuming it's folded into a general contingency line.
- If you're buying an existing home for a major remodel, verify whether the current defensible space draft has moved since this was written, since it may reach existing structures in a way R327 does not.
- If the property sits in an HOA, know the 90-day deemed-approval clock under SB 1551 before assuming a board can simply say no to fire-hardening materials.
- Get insurance quotes directly rather than relying on the retired state risk map. Insurers have priced off their own models the whole time, map or no map.
FAQ
Does R327 apply if I'm buying an existing home in Sisters? No. R327 covers newly constructed dwellings and accessory structures. Additions and renovations to existing buildings are exempt under the current code language.
Can I still see Oregon's old wildfire risk map? Yes, it remains online as a general reference tool, but it no longer carries legal authority and isn't the basis for local code or insurance underwriting.
Is Sisters' defensible space rule mandatory yet? It was still being finalized through city council discussion as of spring 2026, the most recent records available at the time of this writing. R327's home-hardening requirements, by contrast, have been in effect for new construction since April 1, 2026.
Can my HOA stop me from replacing a fence or roof with fire-resistant materials? Not automatically. Senate Bill 1551 requires the HOA to issue a specific written denial within 90 days, or the request is deemed approved.
Wildfire code in Central Oregon is moving fast enough that a guide written last spring is already out of date in places, which is exactly why it pays to have someone tracking it block by block rather than county page by county page. If you're weighing a custom build on Sisters acreage, comparing a resale inside an HOA, or wondering what a code change means for a home you already own, Ninebark Real Estate can walk through what applies to your specific parcel today. And if part of your plan involves selling first, our team offers a Get a Free Home Valuation conversation to help you see where you stand before you commit to either side of the move.
