L.A. City Council OKs permit fee waivers for Palisades fire rebuilding

After months of uncertainty and emotional appeals from Palisades residents trying to rebuild their lives, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a plan to waive building permit and plan-check fees for homes and businesses damaged or destroyed in last January’s wildfires.

The approved program waives permit and plan-check fees for all types of fire-damaged structures, including single-family homes, duplexes, condos, accessory dwelling units, apartments and commercial buildings, but limits relief to rebuild up to 110% of a property’s original footprint. The program will be available for three years and capped at $90 million citywide, with the General Fund reimbursing city departments for lost fee revenue.

For residents, the decision brings long-awaited clarity after more than a year in limbo, during which many said they faced insurance shortfalls, rising construction costs and uncertainty over how much they would ultimately owe the city.

Pacific Palisades residents turned out for the meeting, with more than a dozen speaking during public comment to urge the City Council to adopt the proposal, describing the mounting financial pressures of rebuilding after the fire.

“Like many fire survivors, I’m now trying to rebuild, but I’m facing financial reality that feels impossible,” said Bart Young, a longtime resident who lost the home he lived in for 29 years.

Young said his insurance will cover only about half the cost of rebuilding, and that he has struggled to get clear answers from the city about how much permit and plan-check fees could ultimately cost—estimates he said could reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. He said he has already spent money on geological studies and architectural plans just to understand what rebuilding might require.

“I’m living on Social Security. I’ve lost everything,” Young said. “I’m not asking for special treatment, I’m asking for something fair.”

Another longtime resident framed the issue as an economic one for the entire neighborhood.

“I have been a CPA for 49 years, I understand return on investment,” Harris Smith said. “Unless, and until, we get people back in the community, we will not have the businesses.” He noted that a grocery store in the area won’t reopen until there are enough residents again.

Tuesday’s vote marked a turning point from where the City Council stood two months ago, when it sent the proposal back to the Budget and Finance Committee amid concerns about cost and scope, as the city faced ongoing budget pressures. At that time, competing plans carried projected price tags ranging from roughly $86 million to nearly $280 million, and several council members said they were unwilling to vote without clearer fiscal estimates.

The divide centered on how broad the relief should be. The Budget and Finance Committee, chaired by Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, favored waiving fees only for single-family homes and duplexes rebuilding within 110% of their original size. By contrast, the Ad Hoc Committee for L.A. Recovery, chaired by Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Palisades, pushed for broader relief covering all structures, without a cap on how large a replacement building could be.

Updated analysis from the City Administrative Officer narrowed that gap and helped break the stalemate. In a report released last month, the CAO recommended a middle-ground approach that extends fee relief to all structures, while limiting how much of a rebuild would qualify.

The revised estimate was based on updated assumptions from the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, including a finding that only about 10% of “green-tagged” properties— buildings assessed as having no apparent structural hazards – are likely to require permits, rather than an earlier assumption that all of them would. The analysis also excluded properties that have already been sold or listed for sale and incorporated updated permit data and ADUs, helping to refine the projected cost.

Under the plan adopted Tuesday, property owners who rebuild larger than their original homes will only pay permit fees on the additional square footage beyond the 110% threshold. City analysts estimate the program could result in $98.3 million in General Fund costs, not including borrowing costs, while the City Council capped the total value of waived fees at $90 million.

“It was exactly two months ago that we considered and sent this item back to the Budget Committee for further analysis,” Park said, thanking the CAO’s office and fellow council members for revisiting the proposal.

“We can finally begin to remove the barriers that are causing so many people the inability to begin the process of rebuilding and returning home,” she said.

To qualify for the program, a property must be owned at the time of the fire. Since permit fees normally fund the city departments that process them, the city will use the General Fund dollars to reimburse those departments, and temporarily borrow $10 million from the Building and Safety Building Permit Enterprise Fund, to be repaid with interest. A new account called “Wildfire Emergency Permit Fee Subsidies” will be used to manage and track those costs.

The CAO has been instructed to identify funding sources to repay the borrowed money, propose a strategy that limits General Fund costs to no more than $30 million per year over the next three years, regularly report back to the Budget and Finance Committee on how the program is being used and which types of properties are receiving permits.

Councilmember Monica Rodriguez added an amendment requiring property owners to reimburse the city if they sell before receiving a certificate of occupancy, a move she said was intended to protect taxpayers. Park offered a “friendly amendment,” exempting condos and townhomes from that requirement, which Rodriguez said she supported.