(The Center Square) – California homeowners who lost their residences in a wildfire could see expedited permitting to rebuild them faster.
The faster permitting processes, which would be allowed under Senate Bill 904, passed with bipartisan support in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on Wednesday.
“This exemplifies a relatively faster recovery process than in years past,” Sen. Kelly Seyarto, R-Murietta and author of the bill, testified during the committee hearing on Wednesday morning. “Contrast this with the communities impacted by the Camp Fire in 2018. Almost eight years later, only one in five homes have been rebuilt.”
California communities impacted by wildfires need different types of tools to move relief efforts forward, Seyarto testified – making it difficult for all communities to be able to recover from wildfires quickly under current state law.
“While there are varying factors that impact recovery speed in different communities and contexts, one wonders how much similar regulatory relief efforts and agency coordination could have assisted in their recovery as well,” Seyarto testified. “The bottom line is this sort of relief and urgent coordination ought to be standard procedure for all wildfire disasters moving forward. This bill will help to ensure no wildfire disaster communities get overlooked in future recovery efforts.”
In January 2025, two of the state’s most destructive wildfires, the Palisades and Eaton fires, destroyed a combined 37,728 acres and thousands of homes in Los Angeles County, according to previous reporting by The Center Square. Figures from Capitola-based manufactured home construction company Joyline Homes puts home rebuild projects after a wildfire at $350 to more than $700 a square foot, making the cost of rebuilding a home very costly for many families.
According to a legislative analysis of the bill, the California Department of Housing & Community Development would be required to work with other state agencies that assist in wildfire recovery to identify existing state laws and policies that prevent swift rebuilding of homes. The department would also identify ways to expedite quick permitting processes across the state to allow people who lost their homes to rebuild quickly, and it would provide reports to the governor and the Legislature.
Existing permitting requirements in communities affected by wildfires would be considered for suspension, according to the analysis. However, not everyone supports that approach to rebuilding communities after a wildfire.
“California’s Building Code serves as a bulwark against shoddy construction methods that have plagued homeowners in many other states,” Climate Action California wrote in opposition to the bill. “In states with less stringent building codes, homeowners have found themselves without recourse when faced with extensive problems with their new homes that are not built to a robust standard. While rebuilding after wildfires and other disasters must absolutely be prioritized, we believe that rolling back provisions that result in expensive repairs or higher energy costs later is not the way forward.”
Ultimately the bill advanced out of the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee and will go to a hearing with the Assembly Emergency Management Committee.
“We, unfortunately, have had to have a lot of conversations about how we rebuild following fires,” Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco and chair of the committee, said at the close of the bill hearing. “We’ll have to continue to make sure that actually gets done and looking at a resilient way and also a fast way to get past barriers and requirements that may exist that will help us do that.”
