• Only four rebuilding permits have been issued in Pacific Palisades three months after wildfires destroyed 6,000 structures, leaving residents in bureaucratic limbo.
• The city faced backlash for prioritizing demolishing a family’s treehouse over speeding up fire recovery efforts.
• Mayor Karen Bass seeks a $1.9 billion state bailout while threatening to label fire-damaged properties as “nuisances” if debris isn’t cleared quickly.
• A $10 million contract to a private consultant for recovery oversight sparked outrage amid severe permitting delays and lost applications.
• Local leaders warn of systemic failures, with only 72 rebuilding applications submitted due to an opaque and backlogged system.

Nearly three months after wildfires ravaged Pacific Palisades, reducing 6,000 structures to ash, the City of Los Angeles has issued a mere four rebuilding permits — an agonizingly slow pace that has left displaced residents in bureaucratic limbo. Meanwhile, city officials diverted resources to demolish a 20-year-old family treehouse over permit violations, sparking outrage among homeowners who say the government’s priorities are catastrophically misplaced.

As victims of the January inferno struggle to navigate a labyrinth of red tape, builder Alexis Rivas revealed the city lost his pre-approved fire rebuild application — forcing him to restart the entire process. At the same time, Mayor Karen Bass, already grappling with a $1 billion budget deficit, is seeking an additional $1.9 billion state bailout on top of $2.5 billion in fire aid — even as she threatens to label fire-ravaged properties as “nuisances” if owners don’t clear debris quickly.

The glacial pace of recovery has drawn sharp criticism from local leaders, including Councilwoman Traci Park, who called the permit backlog “concerning” and warned of “hundreds of billions in economic losses.”

Permit purgatory while treehouses get bulldozed

The city’s sluggish response stands in contrast to its efficiency in enforcing petty violations. Just weeks ago, L.A. officials demolished a beloved family treehouse in a nearby community after a years-long legal battle — a move that cost the owner over $50,000 and taxpayers untold sums in enforcement costs.

Meanwhile, homeowners like Rivas face maddening delays. “This is a pre-approved fire rebuild ADU. Flat lot. There should be no complications,” Rivas posted on X. “We built the exact same one last year in 45 days — start to finish. The city has now spent more time shuffling paper than it takes us to build.”

His frustration echoes across Pacific Palisades, where only 72 rebuilding applications have even been submitted — a fraction of the need — due to the city’s opaque and backlogged permitting system.

Mayor’s $10M consultant deal sparks backlash

Amid the crisis, Mayor Bass awarded a $10 million contract to Hagerty Consulting, a private firm, to oversee recovery efforts—a decision that infuriated City Council members already wary of the city’s fiscal mismanagement.

“We have city departments who know how to do this recovery,” Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez told ABC7. “And yet they can’t be afforded the opportunity to hire the personnel that they need, but we can give a $10 million contract to an outside agency to help write a report for us… It’s obscene.”

The move comes as Bass seeks a $1.9 billion state bailout — on top of federal fire aid — while warning residents that their destroyed homes could be declared “nuisances” if debris isn’t cleared promptly. Developer Rick Caruso, whose Palisades shopping center survived thanks to private firefighters, blasted the mayor’s rhetoric: “‘Nuisance.’ That’s what Mayor Bass is calling destroyed homes — an insult to everyone who lost their home in the fires.”

With only four permits approved as of late March — 75 days post-fire — rebuilding efforts remain paralyzed. Councilwoman Park acknowledged the systemic failures, stating, “I don’t think it’s a lack of interest in rebuilding… It’s a mess.”

Residents, meanwhile, are left in limbo. “We want to get going,” one frustrated homeowner said at a recent council meeting. But with permits lost, consultants overpaid, and bureaucracy unchecked, Pacific Palisades’ recovery appears stalled—a glaring symbol of government dysfunction at taxpayers’ expense.

As LA officials scramble for bailouts and bulldoze treehouses, the real victims—the thousands of families whose lives were upended by fire—are paying the price for the city’s incompetence. With rebuilding permits trickling out at a snail’s pace and fiscal mismanagement running rampant, the road to recovery looks increasingly like a dead end. For Pacific Palisades, the flames may have died months ago—but the bureaucratic inferno is just getting started.

Sources for this article include:

JustTheNews.com

NYPost.com

ABC7.com