President Trump has announced an executive order to allow victims of the Los Angeles wildfires to rebuild without dealing with “unnecessary, duplicative, or obstructive” permitting requirements.
The order, which is likely to be challenged by the city and state, claimed that local governments have failed to adequately process permits and were slowing down residents who are desperate to rebuild in Pacific Palisades and Altadena.
“American families and small businesses affected by the wildfires have been forced to continue living in a nightmare of delay, uncertainty, and bureaucratic malaise as they remain displaced from their homes, often without a source of income, while state and local governments delay or prevent reconstruction by approving only a fraction of the permits needed to rebuild,” Trump wrote in the executive order, which he signed Friday.
The action drew a sharp response from Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who dismissed the order as a “meaningless political stunt” intended to divert attention from recent killings of citizens by federal immigration agents.
“The President has no authority over the local permitting process, but where he could actually be helpful is by providing the critical FEMA funding we have been asking for, by speeding up FEMA reimbursements, and by regulating the industries that he alone can impact,” Bass said in a prepared statement Tuesday.
The order calls on the Homeland Security secretary and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to “preempt” state and local permitting authorities.
Instead of going through the usual approval process, residents using federal emergency funds to rebuild would need to self-certify to federal authorities that they have complied with local health and safety standards.
The order comes as the number of rebuilding permits issued in the city and county approach 3,000.
A December review by The Times found that the permitting process in Altadena and Pacific Palisades was moving at a moderate rate compared with those after other major fires in California. As of Dec. 14, the county had issued rebuilding permits for about 16% of the homes destroyed in the Eaton fire and the city had issued permits for just under 14% of those destroyed in the Palisades fire.
A spokesperson for Newsom, Tara Gallegos, called Trump a “clueless idiot” for believing the federal government could issue local rebuilding permits.
“With 1625+ home permits issued, hundreds of homes under construction, and permitting timelines at least 2x faster than before the fires, an executive order to rebuild Mars would do just as useful,” Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a post on X, citing the number of permits issued solely by the city of Los Angeles.
Newsom said that the federal government needed to release funding, not take over control of the permitting process. The governor said that what communities really lack is money, not permits.
“Please actually help us. We are begging you,” Newsom wrote.
Instead of meddling in the permitting process, the president should send a recovery package to Congress to help families rebuild, Newsom said, citing a letter from a bipartisan delegation of California legislators that called for federal funding.
“As the recovery process continues, additional federal support is needed, and our entire delegation looks forward to working cooperatively with your administration to ensure the communities of Southern California receive their fair share of federal disaster assistance,” the California legislators wrote Jan 7.
Bass said that construction had started on more than 450 homes in Pacific Palisades and that rebuilding plans are being approved “in half the time compared to single-family home projects citywide before the wildfires.” She said that more than 70% of home permit clearances are no longer required.
The mayor said she was calling on the president to issue a new executive order mandating that insurers pay homeowners for their losses so that they can afford to rebuild and that the banking industry extend mortgage forbearance by three years and create a special fund to provide no-interest loans to fire survivors.
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Traci Park, who represents Pacific Palisades, also challenged the administration to provide more financial assistance to fire survivors.
“If the federal government is interested in expediting recovery from the most expensive disaster in this country’s history, they can start by committing to real financial support — to close insurance gaps, to repair critical infrastructure damaged in both the fire and the debris removal process, to help this region rebuild two entire communities from the ground up,” the statement read.
Park also said that “dangling SBA loans and hazard mitigation funding in front of victims while summarily denying FEMA claim and other support to municipalities behind the scenes is subterfuge, not support. The City can only approve permits that have been submitted and the reality is that many disaster victims are still not ready to move forward with their rebuilds. This federal government can fix that by allowing desperately needed financial assistance to flow down to the Los Angeles region and let us get to work.”
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena, said she would “welcome any effort to responsibly accelerate rebuilding.”
Barger said permits take 30 days to move through the county’s plan check, but often encounter delays due to the “complex multi-party work of architects, engineers, and builders.”
She also called for more federal funding and long-term disaster aid.
“The most urgent need in the Altadena region is financially driven,” she said in a statement to The Times.
Some in the Palisades agreed that money was a bigger issue than permitting.
“When I talk to people it seems to have more to do with their insurance payout or whether they have enough money to complete construction,” said Maryam Zar, a resident who runs the Palisades Recovery Coalition.
Zar called the executive order “interesting” and said that it was fair for the president to call the recovery pace slow and unacceptable.
Jonathan Zasloff, a UCLA law professor who focuses on land use, called the executive order “childish and irresponsible policy.”
Zasloff, who lost his Palisades home in the fire, said that the president does not have the authority to get rid of state and local law just because he doesn’t like them. Instead, Zasloff said, the president should focus on fully funding disaster recovery so that the city and county can have adequate staff to process permit applications.
“My house burned down in the Palisades. Getting rid of the building codes would make it easier to rebuild something, but it could also make things a lot more dangerous,” he said.
