Large portions of the Palisades needs to be rebuilt.
As a Pacific Palisades homeowner who lost our home in the January fire, I feel compelled to speak out about the widening gap between the City’s public promises and the reality many of us face as we try to rebuild.
Our family was already in plan check before the fire. We are not developers. We’re not adding density. We’re simply trying to rebuild our home—one that is larger than the original—and return to our community. But because our design exceeds the 110% threshold defined in Mayor Bass’s Emergency Executive Order No. 1, we’ve been excluded from nearly every support system designed to help fire victims recover.
That arbitrary cap has become a barrier. We’ve been denied access to the Self-Certification Pilot Program (Executive Order No. 6) and—most frustratingly—we’re being told to pay full permitting and plan check fees, even though Mayor Bass’s April 25th executive order states clearly that those fees should be waived for homes damaged or destroyed in the wildfire, including those already in plan check. That waiver language includes no mention of a 110% cap. Yet the City is now applying one.
We’ve been stalled for months. Despite stamped engineering plans, a cleared lot, and ready contractors, our project has been caught in subjective interpretation and red tape. Our assigned LADBS plan checker rejected a code-compliant design because he “didn’t like the approach.” One revision even required a raised deck with open space below it—a known ember trap. This isn’t enforcement. It’s obstruction.
Councilmember Traci Park stated publicly that homes over 110% would face “a longer review,” not exclusion from support. But that is not what’s happening. The message we’ve received—through delays, denial of fee waivers, and policy loopholes—is that slightly exceeding an arbitrary number means you’re on your own.
If the City truly wants to support fire victims, it must extend meaningful, consistent support to all displaced homeowners—not just those who fit neatly within a percentage cap. Otherwise, Executive Orders 1 and 6 become symbolic gestures that leave families like ours behind.
Darcy Bieber Maki
(Editor’s note: Circling the News shared this letter with Osama Younan, general manager for the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, who responded “Thank you Sue, we will definitely reach out to Darcy to help.”)
Am so sorry to hear the woe of Darey Bieber Maki. We have a similar story of gap between promise of expediting permit and “reality”….Our permit application for a 110% rebuild plus an ADU, all in ground level within codes have been languishing without response from anyone from DBA. Here’s hoping an in-person visit to the Sawtelle will be a better experience.
It’s the LA City Government. Why would anyone expect truth and efficiency? Where’s Rick Caruso? After the fires in Santa Barbara 7 years ago, the county allowed people to put RVs on their own property while they were rebuilding. Not pretty, but a godsend to the victims. We should do the same.