{"id":500399,"date":"2026-01-08T03:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T03:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/500399\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T03:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T03:15:10","slug":"after-devastating-fires-l-a-made-one-part-of-rebuilding-easy-theres-much-more-to-do-pasadena-star-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/500399\/","title":{"rendered":"After devastating fires, L.A. made one part of rebuilding easy. There\u2019s much more to do \u2013 Pasadena Star News"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the days immediately after last January\u2019s Los Angeles firestorm, state lawmakers and civic leaders promised to turbocharge the rebuilding effort. For California, where the permitting and construction of homes is infamously slow and costly, the scale of destruction stood as a singular challenge.<\/p>\n

A year later, the charred homes, the melted appliances and the toxic ash have mostly been removed, the dirt beneath scraped and then carted away. Many of the residents whose houses were spared have returned. Permits for reconstruction have been filed, architects and contractors hired. Battles with insurance companies<\/a>, utilities and banks persist, vacant lots and blackened trees abound, but look around and \u2014 here and there \u2014 you\u2019ll find new construction.<\/p>\n

ALSO SEE:<\/strong> A year after Eaton and Palisades fires, fewer than a dozen homes have been rebuilt<\/a><\/p>\n

As of this week, more than 2,600 residential permits<\/a> have been issued between the Palisades and Altadena \u2014 roughly one for every five of the nearly 13,000 homes lost.\u00a0Another 3,340 are under review.<\/p>\n

For many displaced and traumatized homeowners, that represents an intolerably slow return to what was. But by historic standards, the Los Angeles recovery has been on the speedy side so far.<\/p>\n

In a press release<\/a> commemorating the first anniversary of the disaster, Gov. Gavin Newsom lauded the permitting figures as \u201chistoric.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year local governments \u2014 the City and County of Los Angeles, as well as Malibu and Pasadena \u2014 issued permits for single-family homes and accessory dwelling units \u201cthree times faster\u201d than they were in the five years leading up to the fire, the administration noted.<\/p>\n

Rebuilding after disaster is almost always a grueling, slow process. Of the more than 22,500 homes destroyed in five of California\u2019s most destructive fires between 2017 and 2020, fewer than four-in-ten had been rebuilt by 2025, a Los Angeles Times analysis<\/a> from late last summer found.<\/p>\n

A year after major fires ripped through Maui, Paradise, Redding and the outskirts of Boulder, Colo., 2%, 3%, 15% and 30% of the destroyed homes, respectively, had been permitted for reconstruction, according to a separate Urban Institute analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Based on the pace of permitting, Los Angeles\u2019 reconstruction is on a relatively fast track. But freshly-pulled permits aren\u2019t completed homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople can pull permits, but you know, if they don\u2019t have their costs sorted out \u2014 we\u2019ve had folks abandon their plans,\u201d said Devang Shah with Genesis Builders, which is selling pre-approved, fixed-priced rebuilds in Altadena. Using permits as a metric of progress may be premature, he said.<\/p>\n

Some of the speedy progress that Los Angeles has seen may be due to\u00a0 regulatory changes imposed by fiat in the aftermath of the fire. In early 2025, both Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass mandated speedier permitting of like-for-like rebuilds \u2014 construction that stuck to the rough dimensions and design specification of the home that was there before. Los Angeles county rolled out a self-certification building plan approval pilot program for certain simple projects. Newsom waived building code requirements intended to ease the cost of reconstruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got planning approvals in three days that would have normally taken three months,\u201d said Tim Vordtriede, an architect who also lost his home in Altadena. The county has \u201cdone a remarkable job at making things as efficient and streamlined as a bureaucratic entity can.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the weeks after the fire, Vordtriede co-founded the Altadena Collective, a network of designers and architects that provides discounted design services, permitting advice and contractor recommendations to local survivors. He and his co-founders Chris Driscoll and Chris Corbett have also launched a nonprofit called Collective OR that is meant to represent inexperienced and anxious homeowners in negotiations with builders and architects.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s impossible to say, \u2018they were here by this date so we should also be there.\u2019 The data set is just too variable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colette Curtis, recovery and economic development director, Paradise <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The pace of reconstruction may simply benefit from the fact that it\u2019s taking place in Los Angeles County: A mammoth economic hub flush with financial resources and political connections.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have access to a really good supply chain, there\u2019s a lot of capital, there\u2019s a lot of infrastructure,\u201c said Ben Stapleton, director of U.S. Green Building Council California.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s in contrast to a town like Paradise.<\/p>\n

Since the majority of homes were destroyed in the 2018 Camp Fire, fewer than 1-in-5 have since been rebuilt, said Colette Curtis, the Butte County town\u2019s recovery and economic development director.<\/p>\n

She cautioned against comparing the pace of rebuilding efforts across communities struck by disaster.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s impossible to say, \u2018they were here by this date so we should also be there,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThe data set is just too variable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paradise, a remote town with relatively low income, lacked the local services and philanthropic draw of places like Lahaina and the Palisades, she said. But lower land values and the fact that displaced homeowners haven\u2019t had to compete with investors setting aside new units for tourist rentals was a net positive.<\/p>\n

Another thing that may give Los Angeles a leg up: It\u2019s a region that\u2019s also heavy on expertise.<\/p>\n

At around the same time that Vordtriede was setting up the Altadena Collective, nearby architect couple Cynthia Sigler and Alex Athenson launched the Foothill Catalog, a packet of ready-made architectural and structural plans that have been pre-approved by L.A. County.<\/p>\n

With roughly 15 projects either under construction or gearing up to break ground, Athenson said the pre-approval process can shave at least 10% off the total development cost of a custom single-family home.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s in part by trimming the approval process. But that\u2019s also because prior to the fire, a \u201ccustom single-family home\u201d in Altadena was a luxury product.<\/p>\n

The local industry is \u201cset up to serve that client who is building their dream home from scratch, with a very large if not unlimited budget,\u201d said Athenson. Long-time homeowners displaced by fire, many of them on fixed incomes, represent a very different kind of buyer.<\/p>\n

As builders, designers and policymakers scramble to rebuild in faster, cheaper and more fire-resilient ways, they may stumble upon a solution that could be of use long after the last home is rebuilt in Altadena, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, we\u2019re providing a system for more efficient, affordable housing development,\u201d said Athenson. \u201cI\u2019m excited about proving it in Altadena, and then seeing where it goes beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far the county has approved more than two dozen of the catalog\u2019s plans. Athenson said they are now discussing rolling out a similar batch for the Palisades with the City of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the days immediately after last January\u2019s Los Angeles firestorm, state lawmakers and civic leaders promised to turbocharge…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":500400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,16055,18825,9886,7337,2961,224,5337,50,80,52,87764,5609],"class_list":{"0":"post-500399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-california-politics","12":"tag-construction","13":"tag-insurance","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-wildfire-resources","21":"tag-wildfires"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115857307984832987","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}