Permitting Got Faster After LA’s Devastating Fires, but Full Recovery Remains Elusive

In the immediate aftermath of last January’s devastating Los Angeles firestorm, state and local leaders vowed to fast-track rebuilding. For California, where housing construction is notoriously slow and expensive, the scale of destruction posed a singular test.

One year later, much of the visible wreckage is gone. Burned homes, ruined appliances and contaminated soil have largely been removed. Residents whose houses survived have begun returning, reconstruction permits have been filed, and architects and contractors are back at work. Insurance disputes, utility delays and financing challenges remain, and vacant lots still dominate many neighborhoods, but signs of new construction are beginning to emerge.

As of this week, more than 2,600 residential rebuilding permits have been issued across the Palisades and Altadena, roughly one permit for every five of the nearly 13,000 homes destroyed. Another 3,340 permits are currently under review.

For many displaced homeowners, that pace feels painfully slow. But by historical standards, Los Angeles’ recovery is moving faster than most post-disaster rebuilds.

In a statement marking the one-year anniversary of the fires, Gov. Gavin Newsom called the permitting numbers “historic.” According to the administration, Los Angeles city and county governments, along with Malibu and Pasadena, issued permits for single-family homes and accessory dwelling units at three times the pre-fire pace, compared with the previous five years.

Historically, disaster recovery is a long and uneven process. Of the more than 22,500 homes destroyed in California’s five most destructive fires between 2017 and 2020, fewer than 40% had been rebuilt by 2025, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis. Separate research shows that one year after major fires in Maui, Paradise, Redding and near Boulder, Colorado, only between 2% and 30% of destroyed homes had received reconstruction permits.

By comparison, Los Angeles appears to be on a relatively fast track. Still, permits alone do not equal completed homes.

“People can pull permits, but if they don’t have their costs sorted out, we’ve seen plans abandoned,” said Devang Shah of Genesis Builders, which offers pre-approved, fixed-price rebuilds in Altadena. Using permits as a primary measure of progress, he said, can be misleading.

Some of the acceleration stems from emergency regulatory changes enacted after the fire. In early 2025, state and city leaders ordered expedited approvals for like-for-like rebuilds. Los Angeles County launched a self-certification pilot program for simpler projects, and several building code requirements were temporarily waived to reduce costs.

“We’ve seen planning approvals in days that normally would have taken months,” said Altadena architect Tim Vordtriede, who lost his own home in the fire. He credited county officials with streamlining processes as much as possible.

Vordtriede also helped form the Altadena Collective, a network providing discounted design services, permitting guidance and contractor referrals for fire survivors. The group later launched a nonprofit, Collective OR, to help homeowners navigate negotiations with builders and designers.

Los Angeles’ relative speed may also reflect its economic scale.

“There’s a strong supply chain here, access to capital and deep infrastructure,” said Ben Stapleton of the U.S. Green Building Council California.

That stands in contrast to places like Paradise, where fewer than one in five homes destroyed in the 2018 Camp Fire have been rebuilt. Officials there caution against direct comparisons.

“It’s impossible to say, ‘they were here by this date, so we should also be there,’” said Paradise recovery director Colette Curtis. “Every community’s situation is different.”

Another advantage in Los Angeles is the concentration of technical expertise. In Altadena, architects have introduced pre-approved plan catalogs designed to cut costs and speed approvals. With several projects already under construction or nearing groundbreaking, those standardized designs are reducing development costs by an estimated 10% or more.

Before the fire, Altadena’s housing market largely catered to custom, high-budget homes. Fire survivors, many on fixed incomes, represent a very different rebuilding reality.

As designers, builders and policymakers work to rebuild faster, cheaper and more fire-resilient housing, they may be laying the groundwork for longer-term solutions to California’s broader housing challenges.

“We’re creating a system for more efficient and affordable housing development,” one architect involved said. “Altadena is the proving ground.”

So far, Los Angeles County has approved more than two dozen of the standardized plans, with discussions underway to expand the approach to other fire-impacted communities, including the Palisades.

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