75 Days After the Palisades Fire, Only Four Building Permits Have Been Issued

The Pacific Palisades fire burned more than 6,800 structures, both homes and businesses. Clearly, the rebuilding process is going to take a while for many families even if insurance covers the losses. What should not take a long time are permits for people who lost everything to get started. Indeed, Mayor Karen Bass vowed to streamline the process and made a big show when the first permit was issued.

The first permit was issued March 5, less than two months after the Palisades fire destroyed or seriously damaged more than 6,000 homes in Pacific Palisades and surrounding areas.

“We want this to be happening on your lot, too,” said Mayor Karen Bass at a news conference in the Palisades on Friday.

Bass and L.A. County leaders have pledged to streamline permitting procedures for property owners who want to rebuild.

The home which got the first approval was mostly intact and just needed repairs. The second approval went to a home that had been completely rebuilt a year before the fire. The owner just resubmitted the same blueprints for a rebuild. None of these approvals should have taken a week. They were no brainers. 

And yet, more than two months after the Palisades Fire was put out, only four permits for rebuilding have been issued.

Residents in the Palisades Fire zone are trying to figure out how to move forward, but there are several obstacles in the way — including the city’s permitting process and L.A.’s looming budget deficit.

People gathered at a City Council committee hearing Monday to try to get answers, but more concerns are being raised as the city tries to rebuild from the devastating fire.

“We want to get going,” one Palisades resident said at the meeting, held on the Westside…

But the Department of Building and Safety told the committee that so far the department has approved only four permits. Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Palisades and attended the meeting, says that’s not acceptable.

Four down and roughly 6,800 to go. At this pace it’s going to take years just to get all the plans approved. To be clear, it’s definitely not the homeowners who are the holdup. The LA Times reported that as of two weeks ago 170 applications to rebuild had already been filed. No doubt the number is higher than that now. So it seems the city is not moving very quickly or efficiently. There’s already some evidence that’s the case.

Builder Alexis Rivas said that 49 days after applying for a fire rebuild permit for a simple accessory dwelling unit, Los Angeles lost his permit, requiring refiling and delaying the project, and sat on his application as it waited for Mayor Karen Bass to issue an executive order in compliance with a state executive order from California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“This is a pre-approved fire rebuild ADU. Flat lot. There should be no complications,” said Rivas on X. “We built the exact same one last year in 45 days – start to finish. The city has now spent more time shuffling paper than it takes us to build.”

And ADU is a Accessory Dwelling Unit, usually a simple rental space that people in California put up in their backyards. So he’s saying it literally has taken longer for the city to approve the paperwork than it did to build the unit in the first place. Again, there’s no reason approval for something like this should take more than a day or two at most. What is the hold up? People need to get back in their homes.

Here’s a local news report on the City Council meeting held Monday. So far it really sounds like this is turning into the disaster many people feared it would be. 

ABC 7: Only Four Permits Issued 75 Days After California Wildfires Burned 6,000+ Homes in Pacific Palisades pic.twitter.com/gYG93HFtno

— Alexandra Datig | Front Page Index 🇺🇸 (@alexdatig) March 25, 2025