Los Angeles needs fire-resistant communities, not just homes

However, planners and residents working to rebuild Los Angeles will not be starting from a clean slate. Existing roads, infrastructure and parcels of land will shape how the city is rebuilt. Some residents may want to rebuild immediately on the same plot of land, while others may be willing to sell their land to create a buffer zone.

On January 13, Mayor Bass issued an executive order requiring this Expediting permits Refactoring is “like for like” and exempts it from revisions that might slow down the rebuilding process. Governor Newsom also relaxed permitting rules under the California Environmental Quality Act in order to speed up the rebuilding process.

How Los Angeles chooses to rebuild is “a question of social values,” Moritz says. “It’s not just a scientific question anymore. Shouldn’t we as a society be able to influence where and how people build or rebuild, so that it’s safer and has less impact from a public finance perspective in the future? Because a lot of these events are going to be repeated.” “.

California wildfires have become larger and more damaging in recent years. About 7.08 million acres burned in California between 2009 and 2018, more than double the area. Burned area Between 1979 and 1988. The number of fires encroaching on urban areas has also increased. In the 10 years between 1979 and 1988, there were about 22,000 acres of land burned within so-called wildland/urban interfaces—areas where housing is close to wildfire-prone nature. By 2009-2018 that had risen to 32,000 acres.

One result of all this is that authorities in California have good maps of high-risk areas. Many of the areas hit by the Palisade and Eaton fires are classified as Very high fire danger areasWhich means new developments in these areas must take steps to reduce the risk of fire spreading from wild plants into homes, including planting fire-resistant plants and keeping any trees and other shrubs trimmed and away from homes.

But demand for housing is so high in cities like Los Angeles, that developers often end up building in these high fire risk areas anyway. After wildfires, developers tend to slow construction in high-risk areas for a while, but after two years they return to previous development rates, says Nicholas Irwin, who studies real estate economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Irwin says cities and local authorities need to think about ways to discourage development in high-risk areas. One way is to increase development taxes in fire-prone areas, but another is to incentivize developers to build more homes and apartments in underutilized urban areas.

“We need denser development, especially in places like Los Angeles. The real estate market there is out of control, and it’s going to get worse.” “We need to think about ways to rebuild that allow for more units to be built to help with affordability but also in More resilient ways to address future wildfire risks.”

Burying power lines may also go a long way in defending homes against the dangers of wildfires. The fire that destroyed Heaven caught fire Caused by a faulty power line, as well as at least seven other wildfires, some of the most destructive in California. Burying power lines is not cheap, and… These costs are passed on To utility customers, many of whom do not live in areas at risk from wildfires.

“It’s the little things that can make a difference in the long run,” Irwin says. Bury power lines, encourage denser development, and build more defensible communities. But these long-term investments require changing the way people think about living in bushfire risk areas and accepting that more resilient communities come at a cost. “I don’t know if we’ll learn anything,” Irwin says.