Soon after wildfires leveled two Los Angeles communities last year, public officials touted the record-setting speed of the recovery. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said it was happening “faster than ever before.” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass boasted it was “on track to be the fastest in California history.”
That’s no longer true.
A POLITICO analysis of local permitting data found just 34 homes have been built in Pacific Palisades and Altadena in the 15 months since the blazes, a figure that trails the rate of construction following two recent, similarly destructive fires in Northern California.
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The review also determined that owners of fewer than half of the 9,900 lots on which homes were destroyed have applied for permits for new houses.
