Survivors of the fires in Los Angeles County will face many hurdles in the days, weeks and months ahead. California Governor Gavin Newsom told NBC’s Jacob Soboroff on Sunday’s Meet the Press that he doesn’t want logistical hassles to be one of those obstacles.
“California leads the nation in environmental stewardship. I’m not going to give it up, but one thing I won’t give in to is delay,” Newsom told Soboroff.
On Sunday, Newsom issued an executive order waive the requirement that people rebuilding from these fires undergo a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review and allow California Coastal Act.
On Sunday, the LA Area Chamber of Commerce praised this decision, with Chamber President and CEO Maria S. Salinas saying that this order “will play a critical role in accelerating the recovery and rebuilding efforts across Los Angeles County following the devastating wildfires in Southern California.”
Jennifer Gray Thompson, a Sonoma resident who founded the nonprofit After the Fire in the wake of the 2017 wine country fires, also applauded Newsom’s actions.
“What Newsom has done today by removing that entire aspect of the California coast [Act] and CEQA will be an absolute game changer for anyone looking to rebuild along that stretch,” Gray Thompson said.
She explained that much of the rebuilding after the Sonoma County fires took about five years to complete. Gray Thompson said there are several factors that she believes will make recovery from the LA County fires take even longer.
She is concerned that the large number of properties being destroyed along the coast will present additional challenges.
“You actually saw it in Lahaina, they’ve been wrestling with this for the last year and a half about how to go about it,” Gray Thompson noted.
Her nonprofit plans to deploy to help in Southern California, hoping to help survivors rebuild.
“I don’t want people to give up hope that they can actually do it, it’s going to be a swing and a long time, but they can do it,” she said.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, also voiced his support for Newsom’s executive order on Sunday.
“We, as a state, need to pull together and do everything we can to support LA as people rebuild and recover, and we need to be there for our neighbors to the south,” he stressed.
Wiener said that while rapid rebuilding should be a priority for communities in LA County, it’s also important to focus on rebuilding safely and in ways that protect residents from future disasters.
Wiener noted that the conversation about obstacles to rebuilding highlights how difficult building has become in California. In 2024, Wiener wrote a bill, which did not make it into law, which would have exempted development in a downtown San Francisco zone from CEQA requirements.
“And so obviously we want to make sure that while people in LA are recovering, they can get what they need quickly, but let’s be clear, we need to make these changes statewide in many ways — not exactly what the governor proposed [in the executive order]— but we need to streamline and accelerate people’s ability to build new homes,” Wiener said.
Newsom’s executive order also directs state agencies to find him and report back to him on permit requirements that make it difficult for people to rebuild in LA County.
Newsom told Soborroff the state wants to make sure that when people rebuild in Southern California, they rebuild with high quality and modern building standards. He acknowledged the state will need to make sure the “related costs are not disproportionate.”
Newsom urged survivors of these Southern California fires to stay in the state, saying, “We want you to come back, rebuild.”