Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images News / Getty Images
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - As the effort continued to clear fire debris from residential properties in the Eaton and Palisades burn areas, the city of Los Angeles opened a specialized planning office Wednesday designed to expedite the rebuilding process for residents who lost their homes.
The Centralized Permit Operation Center opened Wednesday at the West Los Angeles office of the city Department of Building and Safety, 1828 Sawtelle Blvd.
"The road to recovery shouldn't be filled with bureaucratic obstacles," City Councilwoman Traci Park said in a statement. "This center represents a powerful shift toward action, efficiency, and results. By bringing together all key permitting agencies under one roof, we are cutting delays, empowering our residents, and driving a faster, smarter rebuild of our communities."
Representatives of various city departments are on hand at the center to help with expediting permits and other documents needed to begin the rebuilding process, including the Department of Water and Power, Bureau of Sanitation, City Planning, Bureau of Engineering and the city Housing Department. Southern California Gas Co. officials are also on hand, and representatives from other non-city agencies, such as the county Department of Public Works, could also be added.
The opening occurred as the debris-clearance effort in the Eaton and Palisades fire burn areas continued. On Tuesday, Phase 2 clearance operations by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began on residential properties in both fire zones.
"Today we take another step toward rebuilding not just homes and businesses, but hope itself," Federal Emergency Management Agency Regional Administrator Bob Fenton said at a news conference Tuesday at the Eaton Fire burn area in Altadena.
He said the debris-removal process "is about making properties safe, restoring the land and preparing for what comes next."
FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers, in partnership with L.A. County and impacted municipalities, began debris-clearance work Tuesday on properties of survivors who submitted a form, known as a Right of Entry form, to remove fire-damaged structures such as concrete and metal, ash and hazardous trees.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said the beginning of Phase 2 debris-removal work was occurring with "unprecedented" speed, beginning just 35 days since the fires erupted. He said that is twice as fast as the process took following the 2018 Woolsey Fire in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
According to Newsom, of the thousands of people who have submitted Right of Entry forms allowing the Army Corps of Engineers to clear debris for free from private properties, only 315 people have opted out of the program. Those people will have to hire their own contractors to remove debris.
The governor said "the vast majority of people have decided to get this done for free."
The debris-clearance work is occurring in advance of what is expected to be a powerful rainstorm that began Wednesday but will kick into full gear on Thursday.
Crews with the city and county have been bracing for the storm, hoping to prevent flooding, mudslides and debris flows, and working to keep contaminated runoff from reaching the ocean.
But the rain won't stop the debris work, and authorities continued to urge residents to complete the Right of Entry forms before the March 31 deadline.
Right of Entry forms are available at any FEMA Disaster Recovery Center and online at recovery.lacounty.gov/debris-removal/.
Receiving the forms means the Corps will be able to begin clearing debris from residential properties that were destroyed in the blazes, as soon as they are cleared of hazardous materials by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Fenton said more than 7,300 of the forms had been filed as of Monday.
The EPA's hazardous waste operations are considered Phase 1 of the debris-removal process. Once properties are cleared, residents can choose to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to clear other debris under Phase 2.
The USACE began Phase 2 work last week at five Pasadena Unified School District campuses that were destroyed in the Eaton Fire. According to the agency, debris has been cleared from the Pasadena Rosebud Academy, Franklin Elementary School and Noyes Elementary School.
At the end of the week, debris removal will begin at some schools in Pacific Palisades.
Col. Eric Swenson, commander of the USACE's Recovery Field Office, said the agency will take every precaution such as a water suppression technique to minimize air quality concerns during the work.
"Our goal is to help families take the first steps toward rebuilding by removing fire debris safely, urgently and with responsibility," Swenson said.
Tara Fitzgerald, EPA Pacific Southwest Incident Commander for the agency's emergency response to the L.A. wildfires, said that Phase 1 activities include the removal of household hazardous materials such as pesticides, damaged fuels, propane tanks, lithium ion batteries from small scooters to large energy storage systems for homes -- any sort of materials that could cause harm to returning residents and workers, who begin Phase 2 of fire debris removal.
She noted the EPA has more than 1,300 personnel and 100 teams on the field conducting Phase 1 work. As of Monday, the EPA has cleared 3,000 parcels of hazardous materials.
The EPA has a goal of completing Phase 1 by Feb. 28 in order to allow Phase 2 activities on more private properties. In order to meet that deadline, Fitzgerald said the agency opened additional staging areas for household hazardous materials at a Will Rogers State Beach parking lot and at the Altadena Golf Course.
Fitzgerald said the EPA does not anticipate opening more staging areas for Phase 1 activities, but the USACE may consider operating additional sites for their activities.
Fitzgerald said the EPA contracted with Clean Harbors to assist them in packaging and sorting hazardous materials, which is then shipped to permitted facilities. No landfills or recycling centers owned by municipalities are accepting such items -- acceptable sites are owned by the state, county or out-of-state, she added.
Phase 2 materials will be sent to facilities approved by CalRecycle or the county, Swenson said. Concrete, wood and metal could be recycled and reintroduced into the supply or markets.
"We do use specialty contractors as needed for things like asbestos," Swenson said.
Both agencies are implementing several mitigation measures to ensure hazardous materials do not leak or harm the staging area by using several layers of plastic or other materials, deep containers, specialized trucks, among other initiatives.
