915 Kagawa was the first new home to receive a certificate of occupancy after the Palisades Fire.
Mayor Karen Bass sent the following press release to Palisades residents. “Today, we marked a milestone in the recovery effort: the first home in Pacific Palisades officially received its Certificate of Occupancy. This is an important sign of progress, and we will continue moving forward.
“This week, I also urged banks and mortgage servicers to voluntarily extend mortgage payment relief for homeowners impacted by the wildfires, calling for three additional years of payment relief beyond the one year that is provided under state law.
“Also, Jaime Moore became the new Chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department following his confirmation by the L.A. City Council. Chief Moore, a 30-year veteran of the department, will lead with compassion and urgency as we continue implementing a suite of reforms, and I look forward to you getting to know him.
“As always, my commitment to you is to continue supporting the Palisades community through every step of the recovery process, until every family is back home.”
REBUTTAL OF PROGRESS IN PACIFIC PALISADES:
A reader sent a note about the press release and the home that was featured in the L.A. Times as the first home rebuilt.
She’s presenting the “first Certificate of Occupancy in the Palisades rebuild” as if a displaced family has finally returned home. But based on everything I’ve seen and heard, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
From what I understand:
- The property she’s celebrating is a Thomas James Homes developer project, not a fire victim’s home.
- The permit for that home was submitted in November 2024, which is before the fire even happened.
- The house wasn’t destroyed in the fire, and (again, from what I understand) it wasn’t part of the rebuilding pipeline the rest of the community is stuck in.
- It didn’t go through the delays, geotechnical requirements, debris issues, or post-fire permitting hurdles that every actual fire victim is experiencing.
So, when the Mayor frames this as some kind of major milestone in the “recovery effort,” it comes across — at least to me — as incredibly tone-deaf and borderline manipulative.
No resident came home because of this.
No displaced family crossed the finish line.
No actual rebuild was completed- in fact Thomas James is marketing an open house in the coming weeks of this house
It looks like a developer finishing a pre-fire project, being used as a PR headline to suggest progress that real homeowners haven’t experienced.
If anything, it highlights the opposite: thousands of families still can’t even get permits, let alone rebuild, while the City touts a developer’s unrelated completion as proof that the recovery is moving forward.
Calling this a “milestone” for the Palisades community feels misleading.
A Palisades Resident
(Editor’s Note: This editor was contacted by Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety today, November 22, which said clarifications were needed. Although the permit for a rebuild was submitted in November, the developer had not received the permit before the January 7 Fire. DBS noted that the home at that address had been completely destroyed in the fire. Today at the Westedge Design Event, it was noted that this building was not “underground” ready for the Department of Water and Power to underground power. The DBS representative also said that there are several homes that should receive a certificate of occupancy over the next few weeks.)
Thank you for publishing this. When I heard about the first home being built, I immediately thought isn’t it great that somebody is returning. Then I saw in the Palisades post that in fact it was a Thomas James home and they were advertising that you should come and look at it.
It then became clear to me that this was a spec home that was built by Thomas James Holmes so that they could use it to get more business. It has nothing to do with the rebuilding of the community by displaced families.
Keep up the good work and keep exposing the hypocrisy.
We all know this was not the first house rebuilt that actually burned down. The person who does have the “first house” posted that to next-door and that’s when this story really went sideways. The city seems to be monitoring Nextdoor and it seemed very important to the city that the person who posted to next-door about their house being first had to be discredited. It’s very disappointing on so many levels.
Unbelievable. How much?
Whoever on Ms. Bass’s PR staff who researched and wrote this bonehead news release should be fired. Grandstanding politicians and their ambitious but incompetent minions
never seem to learn.
The Mayor just lies. Anyone can log into the dbs website, enter the address and see that the plans were submitted in November 2024. We are so tired of her lies. There’s been no vote on the permit fee waivers, no vote on ULA, no plan for infrastructure or undergrounding. We are lied to about LAFD and Lachman. We are lied to about DWP and the reservoirs. We are lied to by the Insurance Commissioner. We are lied to by the Governor. Enough is Enough!
A Palisades Resident makes very good points. News to Mayor bAss: this isn’t a home, it’s a house. A model house for the Irvine-ing of the Palisades. And of course she omits that the project was started before the fire. She needs to stop with the “…until every family is back home.” slogan. Because many will never be able to return home. Or have left this Earth. And even those who have been able to return home have had their community ripped from them.
It’s always interesting that if one knows the facts, that what she says doesn’t reflect the facts.
She wants get re-elected as the “heroin” of the fire victims. Grasping at straws.
This announcement of a new home construction is actually bad news. This is not validation of a fast process nor of the community building confidence in the future. One lonely open house on an empty street is actually a very sad milestone of failure not success
Just call her what she is bASS. A dumb bASS. She was just as bad in congress. People never learn and keep voting in stupidity. My dad used to say (in the 60’s) we don’t need to fear the Russians, America will destroy itself from within. Los Angeles, (and so many other destroyed cities) has proven him right.
Such BS…just look at all of the greenery surrounding this structure and you know this is not an after fire photograph. Can’t believe the blatant untruthful nature of this propaganda! And I voted for bASS. Shame on me. Never again.