OAN Staff Blake Wolf
4:13 PM – Monday, March 31, 2025
The city of Los Angeles has only approved four permits to begin rebuilding the houses destroyed or damaged in the January Pacific Palisades fires, which burned through nearly 7,000 homes.
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All rebuilding efforts require a permit, as local residents and leaders have voiced concerns over the extremely slow permitting process which has only issued four permits in the two months since the fires ripped through Los Angeles.
“When I hear in the community meeting like we had today that only four permits have been issued, and we’re on day 75 post-fire, that is concerning to me,” stated Councilmember Traci Park on Monday.
“And I don’t think it’s a lack of interest in rebuilding, I suspect it is indicative of systemic issues that we need to continue to focus on,” she continued.
GOP California Representative Joe Patterson (R-Calif.), who serves as vice chair of the Committee on Housing and Community Development, argued that the power should be taken away from Los Angeles “if they’re going to be this inefficient.”
“The taxpayers of California have given a lot of money to the LA region to recover, as they should,” Patterson stated. “But there is also an equal responsibility that the entities we’re giving the money to… ought to get out of the way of efficient use of those dollars.”
“If they’re going to be this inefficient with taxpayer dollars, then we need to take that power away from them to issue permits and let the free market help these people rebuild,” he added.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has also been criticized for spending $10 million to hire a private firm to oversee the recovery effort.
“We have city departments who know how to do this recovery, who have been involved in recovery efforts in the past,” stated Councilmember Monica Rodriguez. “And yet they can’t be afforded the opportunity to hire the personnel that they need, but we can give a $10 million contract to an outside agency to help write a report for us.”
The permit process includes multiple steps, the first starting with a contractor who is responsible for clearing the lot, as well as removing at least 6 inches of topsoil within the ash boundary.
From that point, contractors can begin grading the property before moving onto beginning reconstruction.
72 owners have submitted rebuilding applications to the city, while another 135 have submitted applications to the L.A. Country Department of Public Works to rebuild in unincorporated areas, as of last week.
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