“But when everybody starts talking about rebuilding, yes, we need to rebuild quickly, and yes, we need to get people back in their homes, but we also need to be smart about it because the Palisades, just like Altadena, — and God bless the families there too — the Palisades is gonna remain in a fire zone. So don’t go build the same damn thing.” - Rick Caruso, Founder, Caruso
Much has been written about the horror, anxiousness, fear, sadness, and for many, potentially bottomless loss from the Palisades Fire.
At the same time, the human aspect of the event leaves us full of gratitude for the endless acts of grit, heroism, and community, often by ordinary people helping total strangers.
This story plays over and over across Palisades, Eaton, Kenneth, Sunset, Sylmar – all very scary fires that exploded in a concentric circle around the hillsides that extend from the greater San Fernando Valley, where I grew up.
I am an LA native. My teen and college years were filled with daily drives through the many canyon roads that separate the Valley from Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Westwood, Brentwood, Palisades and Malibu. I love those drives. Still do.
LA is such a megalopolis that it’s easy to forget the many enclaves and sub pockets, each with their own unique terra firma and community character, that cut deep.
But, fire has not been foreign to these areas, and every Angeleno that lives in the hillsides, knows that but for the grace of god, it could have been me. This is the life we've chosen.
No less, it’s worth noting that these firestorms were fueled and carried by 100 mile per hour Santa Ana winds.
The “Santa Anas” are an ever-recurring meteorological event that every Angeleno is well-familiar with.
My point is this. In the days, weeks and months ahead, as our collective attention shifts from grief to “we’ll get through this,” we should ask ourselves what “This” is.
The Role of Master Planning
The scale of the endeavor to rebuild is daunting.
Jay Leno, a Pacific Palisades resident, put the starkness in perspective:
"It's unbelievable, it's the biggest natural disaster—not that 9/11 was a natural disaster—but it's literally on that scale. I mean it's 10,000 buildings. If you drove all day you couldn't see 10,000 buildings...I mean, Pacific Palisades, it doesn't exist and probably won't exist for the next five, six years."
Think about that.
The rebuild will be the mother of all master planning & development projects, an urban planning exercise that will shape the footprint, function, flow and future of a beloved community for VERY long time—including when extreme firestorm conditions recur, as they will.
Think of master planning as the combined set of processes that go into designing and developing a site or area, considering factors like land use, infrastructure, cost, funding and aesthetics.
Master planning involves creating a strategic blueprint that guides the growth and development of a project over time, ensuring alignment with long-term goals, short-term constraint and sustainability.
As an aside, I remember reading ‘The Power Broker,’ Robert Caro’s biography of Robert Moses, the transformative city planner of New York during the mid-1900s.
Anyone who has been to New York can tangibly and viscerally see Moses’ fingerprints throughout the city.
Such is the import and impact of master planning. A fascinating read.
Similarly, I have lived most of my adult life in San Francisco, a city with strong master planning (even if the process of how they get there is not for the squeamish).
To quantify this, in my time living in SF, they’ve launched multiple new communities (South Beach, Mission Bay), sports venues (Oracle Park, Chase Center), parks (Crissy Field, Francisco Park), hospitals (Mission Bay, CPMC) numerous transportation enhancements and overseen a general uplift of a number of neighborhoods (SOMA, SF Waterfront, Hayes Valley).
Simply, I am a believer in the goodness of master planning.
What is the Need for Master Planning in Pacific Palisades
There are several truisms at work here.
One is the understandable goal of expediency. Lives are broken and homes need to be rebuilt. Any cuttable red tape must be cut.
Two is the reality that building codes change for good reasons. Materials are more durable and fire retardant.
Setbacks and height restrictions afford better realization of shared spaces.
Landscaping restrictions mitigate against providing ready fuel for the next red flag event.
Three, what is the ideal resident mix between single family homes and multifamily housing?
What is the ideal footprint for retail, office and mixed use from a zoning perspective?
What changes should be made to roads, better factoring ingress/egress, bike riders, etc.
What should be done to maximize realization of schools, parks, and government services, including police and fire protection?
Which historical rules and regulations should be "grandfathered" in, and which should be subject to current building codes?
What are the right service levels, based on lessons learned about "Peak," "Typical" and "Extreme" condition events, including both the Great LA Fires of 2025 and the COVID Pandemic?
And who pays for what?
Finally, there is the truism that a “crisis is a terrible thing to waste” in that decisions made and realized in the next five or so years will still be reverberating fifty years from now.
So many variables, so many stakeholders, so many truths.
