LOS ANGELES — Mayor Karen Bass used Walter Lopes’ Pacific Palisades home as a prop to pat herself on the back for helping the neighborhood rebuild after the January wildfires.
But The Post can reveal that Lopes’ house is the only structure standing for blocks and blocks in the charred, desolate neighborhood. And even he isn’t buying Bass’s narrative that rebuilding is going swiftly and smoothly.
Lopes said he was only able to get started so quickly because he was rebuilding his house exactly as it was constructed just a few years ago — and he’s shelled out millions of dollars and pulled out all the stops to get it done.
“I don’t agree that there are a lot of homes popping up,” Lopes said.
“I drove through my neighborhood yesterday, and I saw maybe one lot laying a foundation, and that was pretty much it.”
Other homeowners say they’re still in California bureaucratic hell — waiting for the government to clear debris, test for toxic chemicals left behind, fighting with insurance companies over payouts and trying to navigate the Golden State’s notoriously punitive homebuilding restrictions.
But Bass crowed in a May 26 X post that was accompanied by tear-jerker music, “Homes are under construction throughout the Palisades — ahead of expectations.
“We’ve taken action to cut red tape and expedite the permitting process to get families home.”
She also made a big show of meeting Lopes outside his house to talk about all she had done.
Lopes said he is grateful for the mayor’s visit but added he’s had to struggle with officials at every turn.“We have had to push back. We’ve had to fight. My construction isn’t happening just because the city is expediting things,” he said. “Every single step of the way, we’re there. We’re in meetings. We’re asking questions. We’re pushing back on things.”
The reality is, five months after the wildfires tore through the Pacific Palisades, fewer than 300 homeowners have even applied for rebuilding permits – out of more than 7,000 structures destroyed.
Just 52 addresses have had permits approved, and fewer still have actually seen any construction – despite a batch of executive orders from state and local government meant to free homeowners from bureaucratic hell.
One of these measures did help Lopes get his home started faster — an order that fast-tracks approvals for “like-for-like” rebuilds, replacement homes that will be constructed with at least 90% similarity to what they were previously.
Lopes and his wife had built their family home just three years before the fire, and they wanted to keep everything just as it had been.
But he said his neighbors are still battling vague language and shifting rules from Los Angeles government to rebuild.
“It’s confusing,” Lopes said. “There’s a good percentage of homeowners who have not started because those rules have not been finalized. They ask, ‘Do I pull the trigger and rebuild right now? Or do I wait a month because the rules might change? Or do I wait six months because the rules might change again?’ ”
For example, the city initially said that expanding a basement would count against a new house’s size limit, but that rule was later reversed, a homeowner told The Post.Local developer Alexis Rivas complained that despite the state government’s “like-for-like” order that exempts rebuilds from having to go through the usual approval process, the LA city planning department at first refused to honor the mandate because the mayor’s office hadn’t told them to do so.
Even the “like-for-like” concession is clearly no panacea because it doesn’t help homeowners who had older properties and what to build something better in its place, said Michael Manville, chair of Urban Planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.“The rule strikes me less about making things faster and more about rewarding people with speed if what they do doesn’t change the neighborhood very much,” Manville said.“And it’s a very fair question of, ‘Well, what if I build a different house? Why can’t you fast track that?” he added. ” ‘I’ve gone through this terrible thing, and the one good thing is I could build house that is more like the one I wanted. Why should I be penalized for that?’ ”
Other local government orders include establishing a “One Stop Rebuilding Center” to answer residents’ questions and a self-check mechanism that allows architects to approve floorplans without going through the city.
But all of these supposed shortcuts do little to put a dent in LA’s notoriously slow and convoluted building approval process, argued Rivas, the CEO of the development company Cover.
Rivas said it took 108 days to get a building permit for one client.“There was a lot of talk about a very expedited process, and it hasn’t been expedited,” Rivas said. “I have not seen any major changes to the permitting process at all.”Building a house in LA can mean filing paperwork with a half dozen or more government agencies, Rivas explained.A snag at just one agency freezes the entire process. And in LA, there are snags aplenty.One of Rivas’ applications stalled for a week when a department lost a client’s digital paperwork. Then the process halted again when the Army Corps of Engineers failed to submit proof to LA County that a lot had been cleared of debris.“We had a lot cleared for a month. We were ready to build. We sent them photos proving the lot had been cleared. And we couldn’t get a permit because they didn’t have the paperwork,” Rivas said.
The mayor’s office has insisted that, as slow as it seems, the permitting process for fire victims has been remarkably fast when compared to how things normally go.“The City issued the first rebuilding permit on March 5, 2025 – just 57 days after the Palisades Fire began. That is more than twice as fast as permits were issued after the devastating Camp and Woolsey Fires,” Bass’ office said in an email statement.But permitting is only one small part of the picture. Thousands of residents haven’t even gotten to that stage, stuck trying to get their properties cleared and inspected or fighting for a settlement with their insurers.For them, the mayor’s executive orders have been too little, too late.“Right now, everybody’s feeling like they’re on their own. Politicians have done little to help,” said Ron Goldschmidt, founder of construction data firm Briq.Goldschmidt lost his own house in the fire and now chronicles the rebuilding effort in the podcast “Three Homeless Guys.”
He thinks Bass had the opportunity to be a real leader – but she failed to rise to the occasion.“She could have brought everybody together … and put them in a room and said, ‘We are going to build 10,000 houses in two years. We are going to get it done.’ Instead, we’re five months in … and Palisades still looks like a war zone.”As for Bass’ speech in front of Lopes’ house, his neighbors weren’t impressed.“It’s extremely condescending to the community. She parachutes in once a month for a photo op, takes a picture and leaves. But many people in the community pretty much blame her indirectly for what’s happened to them,” Goldschmidt said.“It’s like a pyromaniac showing up to your burnt house and saying, ‘Look at what a good job I’m doing rebuilding!’ ”But Lopes is at least grateful for the city’s help — despite the difficulties he has faced.“I want to give credit where credit is due. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them,” he said.He said process has been a “full-time job” that has eaten away at his professional and family life. He’s also spent a small fortune on private debris clearing, private soil inspectors and out-of-pocket building costs pending an deal with his insurer.“I’m willing to do whatever it takes, spend whatever time and money it takes, because I want my family to be back. I want them to have a community,” he said.But for now, most of his neighbors will have to keep waiting.
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