LA City Council has to vote on fee waivers.
Every Palisades resident needs to send a letter to the Los Angeles City Council urging them to waive building fees not only those building like-for-like, but also for those in condos and those who had planned to upgrade their homes before the fire.
Mayor Karen Bass
Photo: RICH SCHMITT
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass promised in April that there would be rebuilding fee waivers for those who lost their homes in the Palisades Fire and signed an executive order. Many Palisades residents assumed it was a done deal but did not realize that the City Council has to give final approval.
On October 14, the City Budget and Finance Committee met, and the five-member council did not seem to be receptive to waiving fees. That committee was told that the loss of fees would be significant to the city and that those fees pay salaries Department of Building and Safety (DBS) staff.
The committee finally agreed to recommend waiving ONLY building permit fees associated with repair or reconstruction of single-family residences and duplexes, damaged or destroyed up to 110 percent of the original structure. That motion now goes to the full LA City Council.
Residents have argued that the DBS staff size is the same as it was before the fire, extra people have not been hired, and it should not be the responsibility of those rebuilding because of the fire to be responsible for fees.
Additionally, if the City waived building fees, people are more likely to rebuild and rebuild sooner. Once the community is back, it will benefit the city with an increased tax base.
It is not clear when the City Council will vote on the building fee waiver, but now is the time to flood all council members with emails. As one person said who attended the last hearing, “They [councilmembers] don’t look up during public comment and things had already been decided in back rooms before the hearing.”
This editor suggests keeping your email short—two paragraphs. Make it personal. Give an example of why you need the fee waiver, such as I share the house with my daughter and her two children, and we are short of funds. Or maybe, we are both retired and living on a fixed income, insurance is not paying, and we want to rebuild, but need to have fees waived to make it happen.
It is important to emphasize that homes in the Palisades are generational and the majority of us living here are not the super wealthy. Send the email to every Councilmember separately.
Even if you are not rebuilding, help your neighbor and send an email to L.A. City Councilmembers.
CITY COUNCIL EMAILS:
Eunisses Hernandez – CD1 councilmember.hernandez@lacity.org
Adrin Nazarian – CD2 councilmember.Nazarian@lacity.org
Bob Blumenfield – CD3 councilmember.blumenfield@lacity.org
Nithya Raman – CD4 contactCD4@lacity.org
Katy Yaroslavsky – CD5 councilmember.yaroslavsky@lacity.org
Imelda Padilla – CD6 councilmember.padilla@lacity.org
Monica Rodriguez- CD7 councilmember.rodriguez@lacity.org
Marqueece Harris-Dawson – CD8 councilmember.harris-dawson@lacity.org
Curren D. Price, Jr. – CD9 councilmember.price@lacity.org
Heather Hutt – CD 10 cd10@lacity.org
Traci Park – CD11 councilmember.park@lacity.org
John Lee – CD12 councilmember.Lee@lacity.org
Hugo Soto-Martínez – CD13 councilmember.soto-martinez@lacity.org
Ysabel J. Jurado – CD14 councilmember.Jurado@lacity.org
Tim McOsker – CD15 councilmember.mcosker@lacity.org
BELOW IS A SAMPLE LETTER:
Dear Council Member
We are grateful for your public service; a huge and invaluable sacrifice for the good of
all Angelenos. We appreciate you.
We write from the heart seeking your yes vote waiving building permit fees for the
January 2025 fire survivors, following the Budget and Finance Committee’s
recommendation — with an additional amendment including condominiums and
apartments. We, like the 1000s of Angeleno fire survivors, need your vote.
We want to rebuild our lives, neighborhoods, and the very fabric of our community. 27%
of our community are over 62 falling into the category of house rich cash poor. We may
look rich on paper, but we lost our biggest asset: our home.
We can’t rebuild our homes without help as virtually everyone was uninsured or, at best,
underinsured. Insurance companies are paying out 20% – 40% effectively slow rolling us
to settle and move on. An assault disproportionately falling on the elderly.
Fee waivers are the simplest, most cost-effective action to quickly recover precious
housing stock. As history shows, it is the shortest route to get property and sales taxes
flowing into city coffers funding the rest of the city. The short-term benefit of collecting
cost recovery fees pales in comparison to the long-term tax revenue benefits.
Condos and apartments must be included. Condo and apartment owners are fire
survivors with many units representing some of the few sources of affordable housing in
our community. In the true spirit of local community investment, many condos and small
apartment buildings are owned by individual or small groups of investors living out the
American dream. If these residents can’t rebuild, we lose homes, affordability, and
diversity. Rebuilding these structures is critical to keeping families, seniors, and every
community member in Los Angeles
The budget assumptions presented to the finance committee are simply wrong. The
idea that 100% of the homes rebuild at 150% of the 2024 size does not comport with
other communities where 35% to 60% of the homes are rebuilt after 7 years. We are 10
months out and less than 1% have been rebuilt. We think the $250 million in lost fees is
pure fantasy.
Developers shouldn’t be the ones to benefit. If you vote no to fee waivers, you hurt your
fellow Angelenas who lost everything. The developers — who often buy up lots from
uninsured and underinsured homeowners at a discount from pre-fire values— are the
ones who gain. It is the individual Angeleno who pays regardless of who builds back the
housing stock.
The key here is community, and the City of Los Angeles is a wonderfully diverse
community whose power is derived from our shared commitment to one another.
Everything we do sets the tone for how we are there for each other in this tumultuous
time. Don’t look away. Don’t stand by. Act to mend the fabric of our family, community, of
humanity.
Respectfully,
The article says “single-family residences duplexes”. Does this mean “Single family residences and duplexes” or “Single family duplexes”?
Fee waivers are a must! We have been traumatized enough by the wildfires which hit Pacific Palisades and losing our home and all of our belongings. We still have not received all of our insurance money and every cent counts for us. Our community will never be fully rebuilt if the city does not incentivize those who want to come back.
yes, making the change now.
Please cancel these fees my 93 old mother and 75 year old daughter who is her caregiver we both live on social security paying these fees will be a hardship
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Attention all Council members
Regarding fee waivers
John and Dora Obrien
17161 Avenida de la Herradura
Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
We went to plan check off Sawtelle blvd. On Monday with our architect with build ready plans. In compiling a list of raw goods, lumber, roofing materials electrical, plumbing Concrete architectural fees, contractor fees and the cost of Labor, procuring the Labor and everything else involved in the construction of a new home, we discovered that while we have every intention of building the Hard Costs are going to be almost impossible.
There is a very sad picture of our burnt down home with a crumpled-up Fire Hose in the front yard I would be happy to send it to you but I am not so good at cut and paste technology. I am not one to cast blame on government agencies with things go wrong but, in this case, could it have been better if the whole approach to the Fire, from putting out the fire that began on January First to accessibility to fire engines water and fire fighters on January 7th it just seems like everything would be different.
Now as a government to help Citizens rebuild Fee waivers for permits and Utility reconnection charges are possible. I understand that if fees are not waived, because of the dramatic numbers of people needing to rebuild, the City Coffers could overflow to fix other issues in the City that need attending. However if these fee waivers are granted perhaps it would lead to a glittering new community in Pacific Palisades and Alta Dena that would be a shining example of Good Government at work.
When I was at Plan Check and they asked if I wanted to defer my permit fees because perhaps, they would be waived for those of us who lost literally everything, I smiled to myself and thought perhaps the City of Los Angeles really is trying to help us rebuild.
Please do the right thing and waive permit and reconnection fees to those of us brave enough to reach into our pocket and attempt to rebuild.
Kindly
Thank you in advance
John Dora, our kids Sean, Jessica and Brett and our dog Padraig
We have lost our house and all our belongings and precious un returnable memories. My wife and I are both retired and we have very limited financial sources . On the top of all also the insurances reject to pay for our cars and belongings $0.00 …….. Also we were underinsured and still we have not received the full insured amount for our dwelling.
Additionally my daughter divorced with one my granddaughter has to live with us and we are struggling how to survive and we want to rebuild our home and to come back to our community. Our community will never be fully rebuilt if the city does not incentivise us that we can come back. So just a reminder that fee waivers are a must.
Cordially yours.
Hayati Agvado/Fatma Agvado