Malibu Gets First Fire Rebuild Permit

Malibu has gotten its first rebuild permit after January’s deadly wildfires.

Yolanda Bundy, the city’s community development director, announced the securing of the permit last week, The Malibu Times reported.

According to Bundy’s update on the recovery process, 480 residential properties have been cleared by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers while 185 property owners cleared debris privately.

Rebuilding fee waivers are now available for those affected not just by the Palisades fire, but the previous two fires impacting Malibu residents: the Broad fire of last November and the Franklin fire the following month. The residence must be a single-family home or duplex that was a person’s primary residence at the time of the fire.

“Commercial properties unfortunately are not eligible,” Bundy said, per the Malibu Times.

The deadline to apply for waivers is June 30, 2028, with the waivers only applying to permits obtained before the close of 2030.

The easiest way to secure a building permit is to apply for a “like-for-like” or “like-for-like-plus-10-percent” rebuild, according to Tyler Eaton, principal planner for the City of Malibu. This exempts homeowners from coastal and environmental reviews.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent rollback of key California Environmental Quality Act provisions that will exempt developments from environmental reviews is expected to clear the way for faster building across the state, including those affected by the Palisades and Eaton fires.

Los Angeles County has been issuing rebuilding permits in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena, though the awarding of permits has been slow over the past seven months, to say the least.

So far, 238 rebuild permits have been issued across the Palisades and Eaton burn zones, including 221 in the Eaton burn zone and 17 in the Palisades burn zone, according to the county’s permitting progress dashboard.

The City of Malibu’s planning department, meanwhile, has approved 45 rebuilding applications within its city limits, according to its own permit tracker. Only one, however, has had its building plan approved thus far.

— Chris Malone Méndez