Morgan Hill Roofers: Class A in Fire Zones, Sheathing Forms

Permits and local rules

City pages and plans a Morgan Hill roof is held to

Residential Re-Roofs, the city's permit page
The permit application can be emailed to the Building Division, which notifies the applicant when the permit is ready to be issued, and an online application is offered as well. A contractor doing the work should obtain the permit and show proof of a current C-39 license, workers' compensation insurance and a current Morgan Hill business license. The page states the fire rule without qualification: for a house in the Fire Hazard Severity Zone, a Class A, fire resistant, roofing material is required.
Source: City of Morgan Hill Building Division (morganhill.ca.gov)
The 2025 Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps
CAL FIRE released the 2025 Local Responsibility Area maps on February 24, 2025, and the city has to adopt updated zones by ordinance within 120 days of their publication. In Morgan Hill they changed the Very High zones and added High zones, and the city cannot lower a severity the state assigns. New construction and renovations in designated zones follow wildland-urban interface building codes, and city staff are evaluating whether the existing local WUI area should change to match. An interactive viewer looks up any address.
Source: Morgan Hill Fire Department (morganhill.ca.gov)
The single-family Architectural Review Handbook
Its provisions apply to any addition, exterior remodeling, relocation or construction of a single-family home that requires a design permit. For roofs it asks for authentic versions of architectural styles, overhangs sized to the style and gable-and-shed combinations, and in tracts several roofline styles. Its energy section names light exterior roof colors that reflect the sun's heat as an RDCS criterion, and it asks that vents, gutters, downspouts and flashing be painted to match the surface they are attached to.
Source: City of Morgan Hill Planning (morganhill.ca.gov)

State license for this work: C-39 Roofing, B General Building. Look up a contractor's license on the CSLB website (cslb.ca.gov).

The work

Roof jobs Morgan Hill's forms and fire maps have a say in

Swapping a wood roof above Anderson Lake
The county wildfire plan's Morgan Hill annex names Holiday Lake Estates, on the hillside overlooking the south shore of Anderson Lake, and neighboring Jackson Oaks as the city's areas of greatest wildland-urban interface concern. For both it calls maintaining defensible space and reducing combustible construction materials the most immediate mitigation, and it pictures a combustible wood roof among the hazards it saw there. Inside a Fire Hazard Severity Zone the replacement must be Class A, and both communities are managed by homeowners associations, so ask what the association reviews.
Shingles over a roof of hips, gables and dormers
Where a tract followed the handbook's call for several roofline styles and changing roof planes, the roof has more hips, valleys and dormers to flash than one plain gable, and the bid should count them. Because Morgan Hill is in Climate Zone 4, replacing more than half of a steep roof brings the state's reflectance rule, unless the house qualifies for an equivalent; in this zone, having no ducts in the attic is one of them. The handbook's preference for light roof colors points the same way.
Tile, foam, TPO and steel
The Building Division's re-roof fee sheet sorts the work by roof type: composition, tile and wood shake together; single-ply, TPO and foam systems; steel; tar and gravel built-up roofs; and composition overlays. Its notes add a rule for tile, which needs both the Roof Compliance Form, on which the installer certifies the roof follows the manufacturer's specifications, the ICC evaluation report and the adopted building code, and the Sheathing Compliance Form. Under the Energy Code, a roof weighing at least 25 pounds per square foot is exempt from the reflectance rule.
New sheathing, and the form that replaces an inspection
Morgan Hill's Roof Sheathing Compliance Form opens by saying the Building Division understands the need to finish re-roofing as soon as possible to protect the interior from water damage. So instead of waiting on a sheathing inspection, the contractor or owner certifies the thickness of the sheathing, that it was installed and fastened as the California Building Code in effect when the permit was issued requires, and the weight of felt used for underlayment, then attaches the form to the permit card. The final will not be approved without the form or a sheathing inspection.
Owners who do the roofing themselves
An owner may pull the permit, and then becomes the party responsible for meeting code. The city asks for its Notice to Property Owner and Owner's Acknowledgement before the permit is issued, and expects the owner to know the number of squares, about 100 square feet each, the roof's life expectancy, the sheathing thickness and the type of roofing material. The roof final needs the sheathing compliance form and a signed certification of the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

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Free to request, and you agree the scope and price with the person you hire before work starts. In California, a job over $1,000 in labor and materials, or one that needs a building permit, must be done by a contractor licensed by the CSLB in the right class. Ask for the license number and check it at cslb.ca.gov.

Roofers installing cedar shingles near the ridge while a telehandler lifts bundles onto the roof. Photo: NPS photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The houses here

Hip-and-gable tracts, light roofs by design, wood roofs on the ridges

From 1977 until state law suspended it in 2020, new housing went up under the Residential Development Control System, the voter-approved limit on how many housing allotments the city hands out, and the city's single-family Architectural Review Handbook still guides any addition, exterior remodel or new house that needs a design permit. For roofs it asks tract developments to mix roofline styles, gabled, hipped and dormered, and to change roof planes on every elevation seen from a public street. Its energy section lists light exterior roof colors, to reflect the sun's heat, as an RDCS criterion. The eastern ridges are another matter: the county's 2016 wildfire plan found several homes in Holiday Lake Estates and Jackson Oaks with combustible wood roofs and siding, in a ridge-top location reached by a single road, East Dunne Avenue.

Questions

Morgan Hill re-roof questions, from email permits to the final

Can we apply for a Morgan Hill re-roof permit without going to the permit counter?

Yes. The city says the permit application can be emailed to the Building Division, which tells the applicant when the permit is ready to be issued, and it also offers an online application. When a contractor does the work, the contractor should pull the permit and show a current C-39 license, proof of workers' compensation and a Morgan Hill business license.

We plan to re-roof our Morgan Hill house ourselves. What will the city need from us?

A signed Notice to Property Owner and Owner's Acknowledgement before the permit is issued, and enough detail to describe the job: the number of squares, the roof's expected life, the sheathing thickness and the roofing material. At the roof final you provide the Roof Sheathing Compliance Form and the certification of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and if the house is in a fire hazard zone the material must be Class A.

Did the 2025 maps put our Morgan Hill house in a fire hazard zone?

They may have. The city says the 2025 maps changed its Very High zones and added High zones, and its Fire Hazard Severity Zones page links an interactive viewer that finds a property by address. If the house is inside a zone, the re-roof needs Class A roofing. The Fire Department also notes that the maps rate hazard without counting defensible space or fire-resistant construction, so a new roof does not change the zone.

Will our Morgan Hill re-roof need cool-roof shingles?

If more than half of a steep roof is replaced, it can. Both Morgan Hill ZIP codes are in Climate Zone 4, where the 2025 Energy Code asks new roofing for an aged solar reflectance of at least 0.20 and thermal emittance of 0.75, or an SRI of 16. A house meets it another way with R-38 ceiling insulation, a qualifying radiant barrier, no ducts in the attic or R-2 continuous insulation at the deck, and roofing of 25 pounds per square foot or more is exempt.

Our Jackson Oaks house still has a wood roof. Is that a concern?

The county's wildfire planners thought so. Their Morgan Hill annex found several homes in Holiday Lake Estates and Jackson Oaks with combustible wood roofs and siding, and it named maintaining defensible space and reducing combustible construction materials as the most immediate mitigation there. A replacement inside a Fire Hazard Severity Zone has to be Class A, and the homeowners association may have its own view on the new material.

Before you hire

Before a Morgan Hill roofer starts the tear-off

Does the 2025 map put this address inside a Fire Hazard Severity Zone, and which Class A product and assembly does the bid name?
Who signs the sheathing compliance form, and what sheathing thickness and felt weight will it state?
On a tile roof, who signs the Roof Compliance Form, and which manufacturer's specifications and ICC evaluation report does it rest on?
Is your Morgan Hill business license current, and does the CSLB lookup at cslb.ca.gov show your C-39 license as active?
In Holiday Lake Estates or Jackson Oaks, has the homeowners association seen the roofing material and color?

Keep exploring

More on roofing work and Morgan Hill

Roofing in other cities

Other trades in Morgan Hill

Guides and smaller jobs

California smoke and CO alarm rules, and exactly where each one goes

Where this page belongs

Where these facts come from

Checked against these public sources in October 2026. Rules and programs change: confirm permit requirements with the city before work starts, and a contractor's license on the CSLB website.

morganhill.ca.gov: Residential Re Roofs (morganhill.ca.gov)
morganhill.ca.gov: Re Roof Permit Fee Schedule Web (morganhill.ca.gov)
morganhill.ca.gov: Roof Sheathing Compliance Form pdf (morganhill.ca.gov)
morganhill.ca.gov: 3281 (morganhill.ca.gov)
morganhill.ca.gov: Fire Hazard Severity Zones Maps (morganhill.ca.gov)
morganhill.ca.gov: Design Review Handbook Single Family (morganhill.ca.gov)
morganhill.ca.gov: What Happened to the Citys RDCS Program (morganhill.ca.gov)
sccfd.org: Annex 11 City of Morgan Hill 2017
energy.ca.gov: CEC 400 2025 010 F (energy.ca.gov)
energy.ca.gov: BuildingClimateZonesByZIPCode ada (energy.ca.gov)
cslb.ca.gov: Licensing Classifications Detail (cslb.ca.gov)

Re-roofing Morgan Hill, from valley tracts to the ridges by Anderson Lake

City pages and plans a Morgan Hill roof is held to

Residential Re-Roofs, the city's permit page

The 2025 Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps

The single-family Architectural Review Handbook

Roof jobs Morgan Hill's forms and fire maps have a say in

Swapping a wood roof above Anderson Lake

Shingles over a roof of hips, gables and dormers

Tile, foam, TPO and steel

New sheathing, and the form that replaces an inspection

Owners who do the roofing themselves