Why rebuilding after California’s devastating wildfires is taking longer than expected

Following the record-setting wildfires that scorched the US city of Los Angeles in January—among the most costly and damaging blazes in state history—one of US Governor Gavin Newsom’s first actions was signing an executive order to ease environmental regulations tied to rebuilding. The aim was to accelerate recovery by waiving permitting requirements and reviews under the California Coastal Act and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), enabling homeowners and developers to clear debris, rebuild homes, and get people rehoused more quickly. Yet despite these loosened regulations, rebuilding in LA has been slow.

As of July 7, over 800 wildfire-impacted homeowners had submitted applications for permits, according to data cited in a Wired article. Fewer than 200 have been approved. On average, it takes about 55 days for the city to approve a wildfire rebuild permit; the larger Los Angeles County takes even longer.

“LA’s process is super slow, so that’s not surprising,” said Elisa Paster, a managing partner at land-use law firm Rand Paster Nelson. “Anecdotally, we’ve heard that a lot of people have decided they don’t want to go through the process of rebuilding in LA because it is quite onerous.”

Six months after the flames died out—having damaged or destroyed more than 16,000 structures, including over 9,500 single-family homes, 1,200 duplexes, and 600 apartment units—it’s evident that suspending regulations alone isn’t solving the problem. According to the article, CEQA defenders argue that the law has been unfairly blamed for California’s deeper housing issues. Soaring material prices and a shortage of skilled labor continue to push construction costs upward, regardless of permitting delays. And some environmental groups fear that quickly rebuilding without reevaluating land-use policies will recreate the very conditions that made the fires so devastating.

CEQA, a cornerstone of California environmental law signed by then-Governor Ronald Reagan in 1970, mandates that state and local governments evaluate potential environmental harms of new projects—from water pollution to endangered species threats to greenhouse gas emissions. It also gives the public the opportunity to weigh in on proposed developments.

In the decades since, CEQA has often been blamed for stalling development. Critics say it's routinely exploited to block housing in wealthy areas and even to challenge road closures and parks on environmental grounds.

But CEQA isn’t necessarily the main obstacle when rebuilding single-family homes after wildfires, the article cited Matthew Baker, a policy director at the Planning and Conservation League, a nonprofit that helped craft the law decades ago.

Baker points out that CEQA already includes exemptions for rebuilding existing structures and for small new projects like single-family homes. “Our general take is that the executive orders around revoking environmental review and environmental regulations around the rebuilding [after the fires] did little to nothing beyond what was already in existing law,” he said. He added that the vast majority of CEQA-reviewed projects get approved, with fewer than 2% facing lawsuits.

“Preparation of an Environmental Impact Report under CEQA can take a year or longer and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even, in some cases, more than $1 million,” according to a 2024 report by California’s Little Hoover Commission, an independent government oversight body.

Still, CEQA can be triggered when homeowners rebuild with significant changes, such as expanding their home’s size by more than 10%. The law also applies to broader wildfire mitigation projects, including brush clearance, controlled burns, and infrastructure improvements like undergrounding power lines or installing larger water systems for firefighting. Some advocates argue that exempting these efforts could accelerate local fire resilience.

“From the clients that I’ve spoken to, they’ve had to argue with their insurance company to get full replacement value or reasonable compensation, and that’s where they’re getting stuck,” said David Hertz, an architect based in Santa Monica.

Beyond slow claims processing, the article notes that insurers are also pulling back from covering homes in high-risk fire zones. Many residents are now forced to rely on the FAIR Plan—the state’s costly, barebones insurance program of last resort. But after sustaining billions in wildfire-related losses, the FAIR Plan recently required its member insurers to pay an additional $1 billion, a cost that’s expected to drive premiums even higher. Without property insurance, many homeowners are unable to secure mortgages.

Wildfires are a natural feature of Southern California’s environment, but more people are moving into areas prone to burn, and the fire-prone zones are expanding. The article points out that the 2025 fires followed one of the wettest winters in LA’s recorded history, a blisteringly hot summer, and one of the driest early winters ever logged. These extreme swings created prime conditions for dense growth of grasses and chaparral—dry fuel that helped ignite and spread the wildfires at a devastating scale.

By Nazrin Sadigova