Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Sunday, Jan. 12, temporarily setting aside California’s major environmental law that requires all building needs to pass through a rigorous vetting process.
The order clears the decks for builders to jumpstart rebuilding homes and buildings throughout the areas impacted by the wildfires that have burned more than 39,000 acres throughout the Palisades, Eaton Canyon, Lidia, Sunset and Woodley areas of suburban Los Angeles.
The order will help streamline permitting for reconstruction of properties. The fires so far have substantially damaged or destroyed more than 12,000 structures.
Also see: Eaton, Palisades fires slow as containment grows, 16 dead; firefighters prepare for new winds
Newsom on Sunday noted the difficulty of those displaced having to now search for housing in a market where everyone already spends at least 30% of their income on rent.
“When the fires are extinguished, victims who have lost their homes and businesses must be able to rebuild quickly and without roadblocks,” the governor said.
The order also extends protections against price gouging on building materials, storage services, construction and other essential goods and services to Jan. 7, 2026, in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
How to get help: Resources for wildfire victims
The Palisades fire — which forced a new wave of evacuations as it lit up the ridgeline in Mandeville Canyon on Saturday — grew by less than 100 acres overnight, according to CalFire estimates. It is currently estimated at 23,707 acres and 11% containment.
The Eaton fire also remained about the same size — an estimated 14,117 acres — while the containment estimate jumped overnight from 15 to 27%.
As of Sunday, the number of evacuations stood at 105,000 under mandatory evacuation and 87,000 under evacuation warnings.
Map: See where the major fires are burning in Los Angeles County
There have been 16 confirmed deaths from the fires, including 11 attributed to the Eaton fire and five to the Palisades fire, according to a County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner update Saturday evening.
CEQA and coastal act suspended
The order signed by Newsom temporarily suspends the California Environmental Quality Act and the California Coastal Act, allowing victims of the recent fires to more quickly restore their homes and businesses.
CEQA, a landmark law passed in California in 1970 and signed by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, created an approval system for building projects that essentially slowed any development to a snail’s pace.
Related: Staff photographer shares images of his hometown of Altadena, destroyed in fire
The order will help cut permitting delays by suspending environmental reviews and Coastal Commission permitting requirements for restoring damaged or demolished homes substantially the same location and size as before the fires. To qualify, for example, homes must not exceed 110% of the footprint and height of structures that existed before the emergency, the order said.
Newsom called the order “an important first step in allowing our communities to recover faster and stronger.”
The governor also ordered state agencies to identify additional ways to streamline the rebuilding and recovery process, directing them to identify additional permitting requirements, including provisions of California’s canon of building codes, that can safely be suspended or streamlined to make it more affordable for the thousands of homeowners and businesses hit hard by the fires to rebuild quickly.
L.A. wildfires’ economic toll: Devastating losses followed by burst of building
Newsom said that he would work with California’s legislature to identify statutory changes that can help expedite rebuilding while enhancing wildfire resilience and safety.
CEQA has been a tough legal hurdle for builders to overcome on development projects. Environmentalists and builders alike have used CEQA for decades to stall housing development.
On another front, the suspension of certain legal requirements of the California Coastal Act will bring further streamlining to the rebuild process.
Also see: Do California environmental rules drive up home prices?
Steve Hudson, district director for parts of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties with the California Coastal Commission, explained in an interview on Friday that homeowners are permitted to rebuild under the Coastal Act what they had prior to the fires, “provided that the development would be in the same footprint,” and not go over 110% of the size of the original structure.
The additional 10% in the size of the building structure would require an exemption from local governmental entities, he said.
“There’s no prohibition on rebuilding larger, but that would trigger a coastal development permit,” said Hudson, who described the burned area in the Palisades as “substantial.”
“This is a very significant fire,” he said. “Our staff is working with local governments and members of the public to help those impacted by this tragic fire and to assist in recovery efforts as quickly as possible, given just how important this is.”
Coastal bureaucracy
Hudson said that his commission had fielded a significant number of calls on the recovery process. “We are actively reaching out with local governments and their staffs to assist in the recovery efforts.”
The burn areas affect three different jurisdictions for the commission, including the city of Los Angeles for the Palisades area, a portion of Los Angeles County near Topanga, and the city of Malibu. Hudson explained that Los Angeles County and Malibu jurisdictions have local coastal zoning programs certified by the California Coastal Commission.
“The commission never intended to be in the local permit issuance game, but local governments are required to obtain local coastal programs which are very similar to general plans and zoning ordinances,” he said. “When the local governments developed those plans, and they’re certified by our commission, they become the primary permit authority for coastal permits, and the commission is simply an appeal authority.”
Underscoring the complexity of the commission’s role in the rebuild process is the fact that the city of Los Angeles does not have one of these local coastal programs, which involves a completely different process, Hudson said.
He explained that Los Angeles is the only city in California that allows the city to issue coastal development permits on its own — a nuance that was inserted into the original Coastal Act law in 1976.
Los Angeles has two permit jurisdictions — one close to the Pacific Ocean and the other in inland areas. So, when cities process exemptions to coastal permits — say, to build 10% larger structures — the city of Los Angeles would process the exemption for the inland areas and the commission would process the exemption requests for the remaining areas.
It’s unclear how Newsom’s order on Sunday will affect these exemptions working their way through the building departments and other bureaucratic processes.
“I don’t anticipate large numbers of appeals to those exemptions, but we stand ready to work with the local governments and the public,” Hudson said.
“It’s a tragedy,” he said. “This will be a priority for our agency.”