I think that's California state policy, although it may not be publicly stated.
Small towns in isolated places damage the environment and consume too many scarce state resources that could be better used buying votes to keep Sacramento politicians and bureaucrats in their cushy no-work jobs where they can run their mouths and go to receptions and hot-tub parties every day.
Jerry Brown claimed decades ago that suburbs were a drain on unnecessary energy and infrastructure costs and everyone should live in the major cities. He was also one of the first generation of environmentalist legislators in the state and helped to craft the anti-suburb narrative that they are the source of the majority of CO2 emissions in the state. All Marxist BS.
Well, also, we’ve been building homes in areas that burn ever 50 years or so.
Hell, there are plants around here that can’t even reproduce without wildfire.
People buy a few acres, build a house 20 miles from anywhere. Gravel road that most firetrucks couldn’t hope to get up, surrounded by plants that burn as part of the natural cycle of things, and then bitch to high heaven when no one will write them fire insurance or fight the fires in their area. Seen it for decades.