Mayor Bass promised President Trump, on national TV that she nor the L.A. government would stand in the way of rebuilding the Pacific Palisades after its fire. SHE LIED.
“PACIFIC PALISADES – It was widely reported that the city of Los Angeles had issued just four rebuilding permits in the Pacific Palisades 75 days after the January 7 Palisades Fire devastated most of the community.
One permit was issued to the owner of a split-level home near Rustic Canyon for fire repairs to a damaged bedroom, bathroom and garage. Only two permits were for full rebuilds.
A letter to CTN on March 13 said that after meeting with a L.A. City plan checker, residents were told that cost for permitting to rebuild could exceed $70,000.”
You read that right–$70,000 just for the permits. And it could take a couple of years. Then you have State regulations mandating how you can build—that could add $100,000 to the cost of rebuilding. Expect Pacific Palisades to continue to look like Watts for twenty years after the Watts riots. Government just created another slum—called “The Palisades”.
Building Permits/Fees Too Costly to Rebuild after Palisades Fire
Sue Pascoe, Westside Current, 4/5/25 https://www.westsidecurrent.com/news/building-permits-fees-too-costly-to-rebuild-after-palisades-fire/article_69ffe3d5-618a-4225-90cb-d2b7b275c84d.html
PACIFIC PALISADES – It was widely reported that the city of Los Angeles had issued just four rebuilding permits in the Pacific Palisades 75 days after the January 7 Palisades Fire devastated most of the community.
One permit was issued to the owner of a split-level home near Rustic Canyon for fire repairs to a damaged bedroom, bathroom and garage. Only two permits were for full rebuilds.
A letter to CTN on March 13 said that after meeting with a L.A. City plan checker, residents were told that cost for permitting to rebuild could exceed $70,000.
On March 21, this editor asked about waiving rebuilding fees at Mayoral press conference in the Palisades and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass replied that she asked for a list from building and safety and planning of all the fees and to waive everything that they can. She said that some fees they can’t waive, but those that can’t be waived, she would try to have them reduced.
In a March 28 letter to the Mayor and to CTN, residents said they had received an invoice for $1,338 for a permit fee for the Grading Department to review a soils report.
The residents wrote, “The city and county have expressed their desires to help our communities rebuild. We are prepared to invest in our town’s future, but we cannot move forward with rebuilding until we know that the planning and building permit fees have been waived.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety about the permitting process on March 28. Fox also reached out to State Rep. Joe Patterson, a Republican who serves as the vice chair of the Committee on Housing and Community Development, said the Los Angeles planning and building departments should be put into receivership.
“’The taxpayers of California have given a lot of money to the LA region to recover, as they should,” Patterson told Fox News Digital. “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.’
“Patterson noted that some money given to Los Angeles was specifically to pay for permitting costs.
“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,” Patterson said.
After a March 25 City Council ad hoc meeting, Councilmember Traci Park said, “When I hear in a committee meeting like we had today that only four permits have been issued and we’re at day 75 post-fire, that is concerning to me.
“The loss of business and tax revenue is going to impact us,” Park said. “We are looking at hundreds of billions of dollars in economic losses overall here, and I don’t think there is any real easy way to sugarcoat this. It’s a mess.”
During L. A. Mayor Karen Bass’ weekly meeting held via Zoom on April 1, this CTN editor again asked, “When will the Mayor waive building and permit fees?”
A timeline was not given, instead this editor was told that “Councilmember Traci Park had led a motion to come back with an analysis.”
“There will be more clear answers when the legislative timeline is finished,” said Jenny Delwood, the Mayor’s Deputy Chief of Staff.
Many Palisades residents who lost their homes would like to rebuild. Some have inadequate insurance, often through no fault of their own. Others have mortgages on the homes that burned.
Although this area has been branded as uber-wealthy, the majority of Palisadians were middle-class, 25 percent were senior citizens, and the majority don’t have the money it will cost to rebuild. Unless there is some financial assistance, people will not be rushing to pay for plans to rebuild.
