May 29, 2025
In early January 2025, multiple wildfires broke out across Southern California. Two of these fires quickly captured national attention: the Eaton Fire in the County of Los Angeles and the Palisades Fire that spread across LA County and other jurisdictions. Their ferocity was due to a combination of factors, including bone-dry vegetation after a prolonged drought, extreme winds that caused rapid spread, and ignitions close to development.
As the Eaton and Palisades fires raged on, fire suppression resources became stretched beyond their response capabilities. Vivid scenes showed hundreds of structures burning simultaneously; residents fleeing; and thousands of people displaced in shelters, hotels, or elsewhere as they awaited news of their homes and communities.
Once the fires were contained, the scale of the damage came into focus. Between the Eaton and Palisades fires, 30 lives were lost, and more than 16,000 structures were destroyed. In some cases, entire blocks of homes and businesses burned to the ground. An unknown amount of contamination from smoke and other toxins blanketed the area. Some neighborhoods in parts of Altadena, Pacific Palisades, and Malibu were transformed into what reporters described as "a moonscape of destruction."
Similar wildfire disasters are occurring with increasing frequency in California, elsewhere in the U.S., and across the planet. With each one, communities are confronted with many daunting tasks — from debris removal and cleanup to navigating the long-term road to recovery.
Planners play a central role throughout the wildfire disaster recovery process. Not only are they well-positioned to help areas rebuild; they also can guide neighborhoods, businesses, and landscapes to increase resilience and minimize future wildfire risk. A closer look at several communities across the West and their recovery strategies provides insights for others.
Putting a recovery ordinance in place
Even before the 2025 fires, LA County was no stranger to wildfires, and previous experience prompted improved internal processes to streamline and speed up recovery, including the adoption of a disaster recovery ordinance.
Previously, disaster emergencies would be addressed on a case-by-case basis by adopting an urgency ordinance. "Every time a fire happened, we'd have to go through that process again, depending on the scale and severity. That process essentially just added time and a layer of administration to the recovery process," says Thuy Hua, AICP, a planner with LA County Planning.
In November 2018, the Woolsey Fire swept through LA and Ventura Counties, including Malibu, California (pictured), destroying 1,600 homes and burning nearly 97,000 acres. Photo by Andrew Cullen/The New York Times.
Thuy Hua, AICP, supervising planner for LA County, stands at the rebuilding site of Paramount Ranch near Malibu, California, where the Woolsey Fire took out 13 structures. Nearly seven years after the fire, Malibu has issued 198 certificates of occupancy and 103 build permits. Photo by Mark Abramson.
Hua, who has worked for the county for nearly 20 years, explains that after the Woolsey Fire in 2018, the regional planning department worked on an updated recovery ordinance based on standard recovery processes and language laid out in previous urgency ordinances. It was adopted in the county's planning and zoning code in 2023 and established procedures and regulations for temporary housing for displaced residents, like-for-like replacements, and accessory structures.
The county also created new efficiencies in the rebuild application process. Previously, residents would submit applications to separate departments. "We have now transitioned to create a one application/one stop rebuild process where the county will move that process along ourselves behind the scenes, so that the property owners aren't having to go to different offices and talk to different people," Hua says. "That's a huge improvement that's intended to help, especially with the scale of rebuilding, particularly for the Eaton fire," in which more than 9,400 structures were destroyed.
Other post-fire planning strategies for rebuilds can include anticipating residents' challenges as they work through their rebuild options. Lisa Ritchie, AICP, who served as interim planning and building director for Louisville, Colorado, employed this strategy after the 2021 Marshall Fire started in unincorporated Boulder County. It began during a high-wind event and quickly spread through dry grasses and open space before igniting structures across the county, in Louisville, and in Superior. The fire claimed two lives, burned more than 1,000 homes, and forced the evacuation of 30,000 people.
Following the initial shock of the fire, local planners jumped into action. "One of the things that we did immediately was to look for nonconformities in our fire-affected neighborhoods," Ritchie says. "I had a planner go through the case files of variances to try and understand the degree to which we had inconsistencies with current codes."
The city used this information to help manage expectations during the rebuilding process when speaking with residents about their options and, ultimately, insert some flexibility. Louisville created a Recovery Variance to address minor nonconformities and offer homeowners relief in zoning standards to accommodate changes that could be approved administratively, such as small modifications to setbacks or building design. The city also paused reviews on any unrelated development applications for a month after the Marshall Fire. While this wasn't an official building moratorium, it gave Ritchie and her colleagues breathing room and the opportunity "to just stop everything and focus on recovery," she says.
Planning for long-term recovery
Another key part of the recovery process is developing a framework to guide long-term development decisions, especially as communities move beyond the initial phase of debris removal and cleanup. This is particularly relevant when significant areas of a community are affected, such as the multiple wildfires in Maui County, Hawaii, in August 2023. The most devastating one burned through the historic town of Lahaina, destroying more than 2,200 structures, killing at least 102 people, and resulting in more than $5.5 billion in damages.
In response to the Lahaina fire, the Maui County Office of Recovery, in coordination with an advisory committee and other agencies, developed the Lahaina Long-Term Recovery Plan. The plan serves as a high-level roadmap that identifies recovery goals, priorities, and community needs. It also provides a set of short-, mid-, and long-term priority projects deemed vital to recovery. These include developing a Rebuild Lahaina Plan, updating the National Historic Landmark District, and improving water infrastructure for increased firefighting capacity. As funding becomes available, this gets directed to fulfilling the plan's priorities.
Neighborhood workshops and small group discussions with Wahikuli residents helped planners understand and incorporate community preferences into the Lahaina Long-Term Recovery Plan. Photo courtesy of County of Maui.
Kate Blystone, planning director for Maui County, emphasizes community engagement as a critical part of the Lahaina Long-Term Recovery Plan development process. "The process should be community-led and government-supported," she says. "You follow the lead of your community. When they're ready to go, you go, and you're constantly checking in with them to make sure that you're meeting their expectations."
Engagement activities included neighborhood workshops, surveys, interviews, and small group discussions. Because so many residents were displaced by the fires, the county also created numerous online engagement activities to ensure community members' voices were represented.
Tools to support ongoing recovery
Communities often set up online dashboards to show recovery status updates. Typical data points share information about destroyed properties, the number of lots where debris has been removed, rebuild permits under review, houses under construction, and number of homes that have been fully rebuilt. These and other indicators are simple but powerful ways to communicate progress over time. The Superior Recovery Dashboard and Louisville Rebuilds Dashboard continue to keep those communities informed.
Other post-fire recovery tools typically include educational materials, video libraries, and how-to guides to help residents navigate the rebuilding process. "Some homeowners come in and say, 'You know, I've never gone through the process of managing the construction of a house. I don't even know where to start. I'm overwhelmed,'" says Hua about working at LA County's disaster recovery center after several wildfires. "They're simply just asking: Who do I talk to? What is the first step? Is it an architect? Is it a contractor? We're talking about very basic questions."
This aligns with Ritchie's experience after the Marshall Fire. She says most homeowners aren't familiar with zoning topics like setbacks and lot coverage. "I think one of the big things that is really important to consider is that you're working with a community that didn't expect to rebuild, doesn't have the skill set to know how to do this, and is also going to be traumatized to varying degrees," says Ritchie.
Many communities provide resources to support mental and emotional health during recovery for those affected by wildfires. To provide more instruction about rebuilds, LA County is also developing educational guidance on their LA County Recovers website, including how to build a more resilient home or landscape to reduce the likelihood of home ignition from wildfire. "At some point, the amount of [rebuilding] information for residents can become daunting and overwhelming, and that's why we're trying to put together a very simple, guided approach so that there's less decision-making involved," Hua says.
Educational materials also can encourage residents to incorporate resiliency measures voluntarily, such as structure hardening, when state or local laws do not apply. For example, many homes in Altadena that burned during the Eaton Fire were outside of the "Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone." That designation, determined by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), means the area is subject to applicable state and local requirements. Although residents outside of the designated fire zone do not have to meet them, many residents are interested in finding ways to build back to a higher standard if possible.
A car was left behind in Superior, Colorado, when the Marshall Fire forced the evacuation of 37,500 people in December 2021. The Marshall Fire Recovery Dashboard reports Superior has issued 322 building permits as of May 2025. Photo by Kevin Mohatt/REUTERS.
Lisa Ritchie, AICP, served as interim planning and building director for Louisville, Colorado, which created a recovery variance after the Marshall Fire. Today, 441 people have returned home, according to the Louisville Rebuilds Dashboard. Photo by Kevin Mohatt.
Superior, Colorado, supported homeowners rebuilding after the Marshall Fire through rebates, grants, and other financial assistance. This helped address the significant challenge of underinsurance, as well as many of homeowners who voluntarily meet more stringent energy codes and incorporate ignition-resistant features (vents, windows, or non-combustible fences). Allison James, disaster preparedness and recovery manager in Superior, estimates that nearly 70 percent of homeowners voluntarily incorporated resiliency measures as part of their rebuilding process, thanks in large part to the availability of financial assistance.
Looking toward the future
Communities have leveraged the recovery process to proactively minimize future risks from wildfire and other hazards. The West Maui Community Plan, adopted in 2022, contains goals for "ready and resilient systems" to address threats from climate change, sea level rise, and wildfires.
This planning process proved invaluable when it came time to develop the Lahaina Long-Term Recovery Plan. "It wasn't hard to get people to focus," says Blystone. After the plan was completed recently, "people were accustomed to thinking about long-range planning, so, it was a matter of tapping back into that energy."
In addition to resiliency, other goals from the West Maui Community Plan focused on an improved transportation network and safe, healthy, and livable communities. These created a helpful foundation to base recovery projects on, such as the Rebuild Lahaina Plan.
Some communities have successfully developed new regulatory measures after wildfires to reduce future risk. In March 2025, Louisville, Colorado, adopted a Fire Hardening Code that sets minimum fire-resistant construction standards for residential and commercial structures to reduce wildfire threats and mitigate the spread of fires between buildings. The ordinance applies to new construction, occupiable accessory structures, and repairs or replacements of certain home systems, which must comply with specific fire-hardening standards.
Other strategies include land management and buyouts of high-risk properties. Recovery managers from Superior and Louisville participated as core team members of the Boulder County Community Wildfire Protection Plan, approved in August 2024. The plan provides valuable information about wildfire risk, fire history, and prioritized projects for implementation, such as hazardous fuels management in open spaces. Both Superior and Maui County also have set up land buyouts for affected lots and those prone to future flooding or sea level rise.
The recovery process can be fraught with challenges and pressures to rebuild quickly or prioritize other objectives over resilience, but Blystone's experiences have made her role crystal-clear. "It's our job as planners to pump the brakes a little and constantly be [asking], 'How can we think about this in a resilient way? How do we protect people? How do we protect our resources and our infrastructure going forward?'
"And that is my job: to constantly pump the brakes. Sometimes I fail. And sometimes I get a good win."
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