A panel of community members and experts is calling for California to establish a rebuilding authority to oversee recovery efforts after historic wildfires tore through Los Angeles earlier this year.
After four months of meetings, the independent Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action and Fire-Safe Recovery — comprising local volunteers and professionals, including experts in climate resiliency, disaster response, building and insurance — shared its final recommendations and action plans Friday.
Though the commission offered dozens of plans, it focused on two overarching proposals for “rebuilding and long-term resilience.”
The first of those proposals is the creation of a “Resilient Rebuilding Authority expressly designed to counterbalance the forces that drive displacement and inequality in the aftermath of disasters,” according to the group’s report.
Under the commission’s guidelines, the authority would have financing and land acquisition powers to help residents and community members rebuild with greater ease, while also promoting greater climate resilience.
“The authority can lower costs and ease the burden of rebuilding, either supporting property owners through their own rebuilds or acquiring properties to rebuild itself, which then would be resold with priority given to returning residents,” the commission wrote in its report. “The Rebuilding Authority can also advance resilience by ensuring that construction at scale meets fire-hardened building standards and enabling acquisition of properties that could be put to use for community mitigation measures.”
The authority should work alongside a newly created Los Angeles County Fire Control District that would “support fire adaptation and community resilience throughout the region and into the future.”
The latest effort to efficiently rebuild a charred Los Angeles
Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath initially convened the commission in February in collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles.
At that time, Horvath said the commission was an “opportunity to rethink how we design communities, fortify infrastructure, and protect lives from the growing threats of the climate crisis.”
In January, firestorms tore through the Los Angeles area. The largest of those blazes, the Palisades and Eaton fires, destroyed nearly $30 billion worth of houses in the region, primarily concentrated in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena. As of June 20, only 31 building permits had been issued in the areas damaged by the Palisades and Eaton fires, according to L.A. County data.
The commission’s recommendations are the latest effort to accelerate the slow-moving rebuilding process. Some companies and organizations, for example, have proposed pre-approved model homes to help homeowners expedite the rebuilding process.
Earlier this week, The Foothill Catalog Foundation said in a LinkedIn post that it had received pre-approval from the county for one of its home plans designed for the fire rebuild in Altadena. The organization is working to compile a catalog of model homes for residents looking to rebuild.
Similarly, last week, a group of architects launched a catalog of model home plans coined The Case Study 2.0 program. Homeowners will be able to select plans from the collection and then work directly with architects on their rebuild. The plans are still pending pre-approval.
Others have proposed bringing modular housing to the region. Andover, Massachusetts-based Reframe Systems, for example, has plans to build a microfactory in the L.A. area to produce climate-resilient prefabricated homes for Altadenans and Palisades residents.