Palisades Rally Calls for Stop to Measure ULA, Permit Fees

Residents and business owners gathered Wednesday in the Pacific Palisades as they pointed the finger at local and state officials for bungling the recovery and prevention of last year’s deadly wildfires.

Called the “They Let Us Burn” demonstration, it was held on the one-year anniversary of the Palisades and Eaton blazes, which damaged or destroyed some 16,000 residential and commercial structures across mostly Altadena, Pacific Palisades and parts of Malibu.

While local and state officials have repeatedly pegged the recovery as the fastest in history, many residents and business owners are still grappling with delays in insurance claims, rising construction costs and a web of taxes and fees for rebuilding or selling off their lots. They’re asking their government leaders for accountability in helping complete the recovery.

At least one public official was on hand to listen to speakers at the demonstration, with Los Angeles City Councilmember Traci Park taking to the podium at one point to criticize “botched evacuations” and “dry hydrants.”

“What you all are asking for going forward is basic. It is reasonable and we shouldn’t have to beg our government to make this right,” Park, whose district includes the Palisades, told the crowd of hundreds.

She earned cheers when she allowed that “of course, your permit fees should be waived,” before criticizing speculators, saying “developers are circling like vultures, looking to profit by adding density.”

The ire harbored by some could earn reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who lost his home to the Palisades Fire, some voter support as he announced his run for mayor of Los Angeles. He confirmed it while at the podium in a shock announcement that will pit “The Hills” star against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in a move that drew cheers from the crowd.

“I coped with [the fires] by eating burritos and putting every ounce of energy into uncovering the truth and the dirty facts I’ve uncovered this year will completely blow you away,” Pratt told the crowd. “I used to think my taxpayer dollars funded a functional city and a state government whose infrastructure and essential services would be there when I needed them, but I was completely naïve.”

Pratt would be the latest political outsider looking to shake up city hall. His announcement follows Presbyterian minister Rae Chen Huang’s bid to also unseat Bass. Huang, a dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, announced her run in November. While seen as a longshot candidate, she’s campaigning on a platform that includes affordable housing, free transit and addressing public safety through a boost in mental health services.

On repeat

While many of the speakers focused on what went wrong a year ago, organizers of the demonstration also outlined 10 key moves seen as necessary for future prevention and shepherding a fast-tracked recovery.

Some of the imperatives outlined overlap with calls residential agents and brokers made in the weeks after the fires were tamed last year, including a stop on permit fees and temporary moratorium on the Measure United to House L.A. levy, or so-called mansion tax, in the city of Los Angeles. The rally organizers are calling for a five-year “ULA holiday” on property sales that would normally be hit by the transfer tax, while those who penned the agent letter asked for an exemption for sellers impacted by the fires.

That initial call to action was led by the Oppenheim Group’s Jason Oppenheim and The Agency’s Ben Belack in a letter to Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California CEO Aaron Kirman, who was at the rally, was one of more than 45 agents and brokers who signed last year’s letter.

“One year later, the real failure isn’t debris removal, it’s rebuilding,” Kirman said Wednesday. “Leaders treated this like a press problem instead of a housing market crisis. That’s why the five-year ULA holiday and eliminating taxes on rebuilds resonated so strongly. They confront the very policies slowing recovery.”

The ULA tax, which has been a sore spot for residential and commercial real estate since going into effect in the spring of 2023, assesses a 4 percent tax on deals starting at $5.3 million and 5.5 percent on those of $10.6 million or more. Voters passed the tax as a 2022 ballot measure.

In October, Bass asked the city council to approve an ordinance giving the finance director power to grant a one-time exemption from Measure ULA to residential property owners impacted by the fires. That was followed up in November with the Ad Hoc Committee for LA Recovery requesting a report in 30 days on the feasibility of such a carveout.

Similar consideration on the matter of permit fees is also winding its way through city hall.

Nourmand & Associates’ Rochelle Atlas Maize, a Beverly Hills-based agent who was also at the demonstration, said full suspension of permit fees is the demand she backs the most.

“These homeowners aren’t upgrading or speculating,” she said. “They are replacing what was lost. Every added fee delays recovery, increases underinsurance risk and pushes families out permanently.”

Like Kirman, she also supports the temporary ULA suspension and offered that in an ideal situation, the tax would be permanently waived in any instance of disaster recovery.

Atlas Maize has several clients that are “frozen” from moving forward, whether that’s due to insurance proceeds not covering construction costs, permit fees or other factors.

“These are not isolated cases,” she said. “They reflect a systemic problem where recovery costs are being shifted onto individual homeowners instead of shared as a public responsibility.”