No. of Recommendations: 4
...and not a single home has even started construction. Despite promises from Newsom and Bass the red tape is choking people:
kcrw.com - Homeowners say permit process slows fire rebuildingAbout six months after the Eaton Fire, a majority of lots with destroyed homes in Altadena have been cleared. But for homeowners hoping to rebuild, the hard work remains: slogging through insurance paperwork and government permits.and
Silvernail has been discouraged by the permit process. He and his wife were among the first to turn in their application to rebuild, with a goal to be back in their home by the first anniversary of the fire.
He says it started with turning in plans to the county Department of Building and Safety and having to pay thousands in permit fees that LA County officials now say will be refunded. But Silvernail says they’ve been stuck in the process.
“There’s probably five or six or seven more steps after Building and Safety,” Silvernail says, “just to get the okay to build the house back the way they want the house built.”How much are the fees? $20,000. And another $5 to $8k for soil sampling. On and on.
As of midday July 1, 2025, the LA County Permitting Progress Dashboard showed 890 rebuild applications in the Eaton Fire area, but only 44 building permits have been issued, taking an average turnaround of about 10 weeks to get through the process.
And speed matters. A survey of fire victims found that the longer it takes to rebuild, the more likely it is people won’t move back.
“So even folks that fully intend to move back today, if this process, either through permitting or financing or insurance, takes more than three years, the percentage of people that want to move back drops to like 50%,” Kawahara says.Don't think this is a coincidence. Bass and Newsom know that if they wait long enough, the landowners will just sell and the city can rebuild the land the way it wants, not what the homeowners want.
