The politicians of California They are rushing to make it easier for residents to rebuild their cremated homes in the Los Angeles wildfires. That means waiving green building mandates designed to combat climate change, which is fueling such conflagrations by making conditions hotter and drier, as well as suspending environmental reviews and promising to expedite permitting.
The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bassissued an executive order on Monday to facilitate the reconstruction of nearly 3,000 homes destroyed in Pacific Palisades. The order suspends an ordinance that would have required replacement homes to be all-electric, which would have significantly reduced the use of natural gas in a high fire risk area.
The governor of California, Gavin Newsomhas proposed a “Marshall Plan” of 2.5 billion dollars for the recovery of Los Angeles. On Thursday, he announced an executive order to expedite the approval of temporary homes, such as accessory dwelling units and trailers, that can be placed on burned properties so residents can return.
His office is also reviewing state building codes that could be suspended to speed rebuilding, including a mandate requiring the installation of solar panels on new homes.
Even a climate-conscious California is willing to let go of some green standards in the face of a recovery of this magnitude. But the need for speed must be balanced, experts say, with strengthening wildfire defenses in places that will inevitably burn again as climate impacts intensify.
“We all like to live in these beautiful but flammable landscapes,” said fire scientist Jennifer Balch, an associate professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “We need to look at high-risk areas and incentivize people to build in a very resilient way.”
‘We just want to move forward as quickly as possible’
Many displaced residents want to return. Isabel Ramírez and her husband, Mel Ramírez, appreciated the avocado, orange and pine trees in their home in Altadena before wildfires destroyed the property. Now, the couple is eager to rebuild both their home and the lush greenery that once defined it.
“It was just very private, beautiful and with a lot of vegetation,” Isabel Ramírez said while waiting to meet with the staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in a community college parking lot framed by the scorched San Gabriel Mountains. “We just want to move forward as quickly as possible.”
Peter Wilson is also considering rebuilding his ranch-style home at the foot of the San Gabriels, one of 5,700 homes reported lost so far in Altadena. “I don’t know where else I’d rather live,” he said, although his teenage son urged the family to consider starting over outside the fire risk zone.
In Pacific Palisades, eliminating the requirement for all-electric homes will allow residents the option to replace their fossil fuel stoves, water heaters and furnaces with the same type of equipment, according to the mayor’s office.
That could significantly reduce rebuilding costs, according to J. Keith Gilless, a professor emeritus and expert on urban wildfires at the University of California, Berkeley. But those savings should “be weighed against recent evidence about the potential health risks of natural gas and the state’s aspirations to reduce reliance on gas.” fossil fuels”he added. California’s plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 depends in part on transitioning households to clean energy.
“The natural gas leaks “They can complicate firefighting efforts,” Gilless added.
Gas lines are buried underground, but in a fast-spreading wildfire, if a gas line inside the house connected to an appliance breaks, that “could intensify a fire.” specific structural fire” according to Alan Murray, professor and principal investigator of the Wildfire Resilience Initiative at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “Combined with strong winds, this is not good.” Propane gas tanks used for outdoor grills and other equipment were heard exploding as the Palisades fire burned.
Officials say they want to give residents flexibility in how they rebuild. “We want to help them rebuild as close as possible to their original homes, if not better,” said Anish Saraiya, deputy director of planning and public works for Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes the community devastated by the Altadena fire. “So if you had a mid-century modern house, we want to see that mid-century modern come back. If you had an artisan house, we want to see that artisan come back.”
However, even if they look the same as the homes they replace, the new homes will be stronger than those built in the 1920s or 1960s because today’s building codes are much stricter.
Mike Rothschilda writer who lost his home in Altadena during the Eaton firesaid he fears that the reconstruction will end up being a “century-old craftsman’s mansion next to a block of condominiums that do not belong there, next to a disproportionate mansion.”
Bass’ executive order contains a safeguard to prevent such a proliferation of oversized housing. Replacement homes in Pacific Palisades can be a maximum of 10% larger than the original under the mayor’s order. (Altadena is under the jurisdiction of Los Angeles County, which will impose the same size limits, according to a Barger spokesperson.) The restriction also applies to Palisades property owners seeking expedited approval from the California Coastal Commission, which has authority over the coastal neighborhood.
Limiting the size of new homes protects against what happened in Northern California after the Oakland-Berkeley Hills fire in 1991: there, small houses gave way to mansions that will only add more fuel to any future fires.
Replacement housing in both Pacific Palisades and Altadena must also comply with state building codes that regulate new construction in areas designated by California as having “very high severity of fire risk.” Those regulations require homes to be clad with fire-resistant materials, window glass to be tempered, and screens to be installed over vents to prevent wind-blown embers from entering the home. Decks, fences and ladders must also be fire resistant.
A 2022 study from the nonprofit research group Headwaters Economics considered that meeting those requirements would increase by $26,110 he cost of one single family home average of 164 square meters in southern California. However, the state’s rules date back to 2010, when wildfires were less frequent and less destructive. Building a fire-resistant home with cutting-edge technology could cost an additional $53,190, according to Headwaters.
Competition for contractors, workers and materials could further increase the cost of reconstruction. “If we are looking to rebuild in a sustainable and resilient way, the number of contractors who know how to do it is 1% to 2%, and they are going to fill it quickly,” he said Ben Stapletonexecutive director of US Green Building Council California. “That market will be fully occupied for the next three or four years.”
Steve Kalb, a Pacific Palisades resident and retired entertainment industry attorney, said he is determined to rebuild, but acknowledges the cost could be prohibitive for longtime residents who bought their homes decades ago. Places like Pacific Palisades may “become even more of an enclave for the super-rich,” he said.
California state Sen. Ben Allen, whose district includes Pacific Palisades, is one of the few officials who questions whether Los Angeles should consider other uses for high-risk, fire-prone areas. He wants Palisades residents to rebuild, but believes parts of the area could become open space and doesn’t want subdivisions to continue expanding.
“I don’t think we should do new construction in the Santa Monica Mountains,” Allen said. “I think it’s reckless. “We need to consider ways to help people live in less risky areas now.”
Talking about such a “managed retirement” is a delicate topic in the policy of California, and even wildfire experts shy away from advocating abandoning places like Pacific Palisades. “No one says that after an earthquake we shouldn’t rebuild San Francisco”said Gilless of UC Berkeley.
The crucial thing, experts say, is not to relax building codes to speed up reconstruction, but rather redouble efforts to fortify each home in a community against rapidly spreading wildfires and strictly manage surrounding vegetation to prevent fires from reaching buildings.
“These fires are not isolated cases, they are not an accident,” said Michele Steinberg, director of the wildfire division of the nonprofit National Fire Protection Association. “That means we absolutely should be prepared, when we’re rebuilding communities, to consider wildfire resilience in the design.”
