The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday signed off on a plan to give financial relief to Palisades fire victims who are seeking to rebuild, endorsing it nearly 10 months after Mayor Karen Bass first announced it.<\/p>\n
On a 15-0 vote, the council instructed the city\u2019s lawyers to draft an ordinance that would spare the owners of homes, duplexes, condominium units, apartment complexes and commercial buildings from having to pay the permit fees<\/a> that are typically charged by the Department of Building and Safety during the recovery.<\/p>\n Forfeiting those fees is expected to cost as much as $90 million over three years, according to Matt Szabo, the city\u2019s top budget analyst.<\/p>\n The vote came at a time of heightened anxiety over the pace of the city\u2019s decisions on the recovery among fire victims. Bart Young, whose home was destroyed in the fire, told council members his insurance company will cover only half the cost of rebuilding.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m living on Social Security. I\u2019ve lost everything,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not asking for special treatment. I\u2019m asking for something fair and with some compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n The ordinance must come back for another council vote later this year. <\/p>\n Bass announced her support for the permit fee waivers in April as part of her State of the City address. Soon afterward, she signed a pair of emergency orders instructing city building officials to suspend those fees while the council works out the details of a new permit relief program.<\/p>\n That effort stalled, with some on the council saying they feared the relief program would pull funding away from core city services. In October, the council\u2019s budget committee took steps to scale back the relief program. <\/p>\n That move sparked outrage among Palisades fire victims, who demanded that the council reverse course. Last month, Szabo reworked the numbers, concluding that the city was financially capable of covering all types of buildings, not just single-family homes and duplexes.<\/p>\n Fire victims have spent several months voicing frustration over the pace of the recovery and the city\u2019s role in that effort.<\/p>\n Last week, the council declined to put a measure on the June 2 ballot that would spare fire victims from paying the city\u2019s so-called mansion tax \u2014 which is levied on property sales of $5.3 million and up \u2014 if they choose to put their burned-out properties on the market.<\/p>\n Bass and other elected officials have not released a package of consulting reports on the recovery that were due to the city in mid-November from AECOM, the global engineering firm.<\/p>\n AECOM is on track to receive $8 million to produce reports on the rebuilding of city infrastructure, fire protection and traffic management during the recovery. The council voted in December to instruct city agencies to produce those reports within 30 days.<\/p>\n Bass spokesperson Paige Sterling said the AECOM reports are being reviewed by the city attorney\u2019s office and will be released by the end of next week. The mayor, for her part, said Monday that the city has \u201cexpedited the entire rebuilding process without compromising safety.\u201d<\/p>\n More than 480 rebuilding projects are currently under construction in the Palisades, out of about 5,600, the mayor\u2019s team said. Permits have been issued for more than 800 separate addresses, according to the city\u2019s online tracker<\/a>.<\/p>\n The council\u2019s vote coincides with growing antagonism between the Trump administration and state and local elected officials over the recovery.<\/p>\n