Officials Provide Updates 100 Days After Start of Palisades Fire

Mayor Bass Speaks on Waiving Permit Fees at State of the City Address

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

With 100 days passing since the start of the Palisades fire, multiple officials provided updates regarding recovery work and legislation, including Mayor Karen Bass at her State of the City Address on April 21.

During the address, Bass announced three new actions regarding Palisades fire recovery efforts, including calling on City Council to pass an ordinance that would “waive all plan check and permit fees so that Angelenos can get home.”

“[The executive action will] direct relevant city departments to work with the City Attorney to prepare an ordinance to waive all permit-related fees to rebuild structures damaged or destroyed in the fires for Council’s consideration,” according to the mayor’s office. “This will be supported by a report by the City Administrative Officer and other relevant departments with recommendations to City Council.”

Bass also announced the city is “establishing a self-certification program,” which is designed to “reduce redundancy in the permitting process,” as well as launching an “initiative to start using innovative AI technology to accelerate and support the city’s permit process.”

“If successful, we will take both of these new initiatives citywide to accelerate building everywhere,” Bass said.

The mayor’s office confirmed they expected to make an announcement in the next week or sooner regarding next steps and availability for the actions.

During the address, Bass called upon several Palisadians to stand for their work as “heroes” through the fire and recovery efforts, including Larry Vein of Pali Strong, Maryam Zar of the Palisades Recovery Coalition, Pacific Palisades Community Council President Sue Kohl and Kevin Chin, who “single-handedly fought the flames and saved people’s lives.”

“The state of our city is this—homelessness is down, crime is down,” Bass said. “These are tough challenges, and they show that we can do so much more. We still have a long way to go. We need a citywide turnaround. We need a fundamental overhaul of city government to deliver the clean, safe and orderly neighborhoods that Angelenos deserve in the place they call home—and to reverse decades of failure on homelessness.”

On the 100-day mark of the fire, Senator Ben Allen facilitated a press conference at Will Rogers State Beach the afternoon of April 17.

Among those who spoke were Councilmember Traci Park, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, Palisades Bowl resident Jon Brown, Bass, City Attorney Hydee Soto Feldstein, Malibu Mayor Pro Tem Marianne Riggins, County Assessor Jeff Prang, Executive Director of National Stewardship Action Council Heidi Sanborn and Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, who represents the 25th district, including Altadena and areas impacted by the Eaton fire.

“It’s been 100 days of despair, of destruction, but also of resilience, of growth, of rebuilding,” Allen described. “It’s been 100 days of challenge. First of all, the challenge of governance and making sure that people from around the country—indeed, around the world—knew what we were going through, getting the support from leadership in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento.”

Lara spoke on legislation related to insurance that is in the works, noting that he is sponsoring “a comprehensive legislative package” that is “based on” years of insurance town halls, which took place in “every single county in California.”

“This package aims at fixing our broken system,” Lara described. “It expedites payments to survivors, strengthens our consumer protections and implements the most significant regulatory reforms to our insurance market in 30 years.”

One of the pieces of legislation that Lara is sponsoring is SB 495—the “Eliminate the List Act,” authored by Allen. In early February, Lara said he issued a notice to residential property insurance companies in California, urging them to waive detailed inventory requirements to receive pay-outs.

“Most insurers responded positively, offering at least 75% of contents coverage without requiring an itemization, with some even agreeing to 100%,” Lara said. “Well, this action is voluntary for insurers. After these LA fires, we need to ensure that everyone pays 100% of their contents coverage without a detailed inventory list.”

Another piece of legislation Allen authored—SB 749—is related to residences in mobile home parks, including places like Palisades Bowl and Tahitian Terrace, both of which burned down in the fire. Those who own homes in the parks face a different path to rebuilding, as they own the structure on the property, but not the property itself.

“Current law almost disincentivizes the rebuilding of a home park like this, so we are seeking to address this,” Allen said.

The bill, Allen explained, gives the homeowners who are living in the park “a mechanism for the right of first refusal” if the owner of the property wants to close or change its use.

“We want to give them the first opportunity to purchase the property at market or an agreed upon value to preserve the current use as an affordable mobile home park,” Allen continued.

If this is not achieved, the owners of the park would then give the same opportunity to “qualified affordable housing entities or nonprofits,” for a chance to purchase and preserve its use in its current form.

“This would [put] residents and affordable housing advocates … in the driver’s seat to preserve these precious places of land that have preserved affordable housing right here on the coast,” Allen said, “and indeed, hopefully return them to their homes here in the Palisades.”

Palisades Bowl Community Partnership Co-Chair Brown—who asked a few other Palisades Bowl and Tahitian Terrace residents to join him at the podium—spoke at the press conference on their collective experience since the fire began, detailing the difficulty of accessing their homes and not knowing what is next for the parks.

“For us, we’re on day one,” Brown described. “My kids ask me, ‘Dad, when can we go home? When are we going to go home?’ I can’t give them an answer. I have no—I can’t even tell them if we’re ever going to be able to go home, and we need that option.”