Malibu City Council ratifies emergency declaration, outlines recovery actions after Palisade fire

Malibu City Council on Jan. 14 unanimously ratified an emergency declaration tied to the recent Palisade fire and directed staff to move forward with recovery coordination, town halls and follow-up policy work.

The ratification clears procedural ground for the city to coordinate mutual aid, seek state and county support and begin policy decisions intended to speed recovery for residents and businesses, city officials said.

City staff told the council the city is treating its website as a central resources hub and is coordinating with Los Angeles County recovery pages. The City Manager said, “there's no amount of words that I could say or anyone up here could say that could ease anybody's mind,” and said staff were already planning town halls and additional briefings for design professionals to support rebuilding. Staff advised that some provisions already in Malibu’s Local Coastal Program (LCP) and municipal code — examples cited by staff included a “rebuild in kind plus 10%” allowance, authorizations for certain on-site water treatment systems, and de minimis waivers for driveway improvements that meet fire-department standards — may apply to recovery work.

Council members and staff flagged several technical and regulatory issues that will require additional policy decisions: diverse terrain and landslide areas in parts of Malibu, wastewater and septic-system constraints (especially on beachfront parcels), potential FEMA flood-zone implications, and the need to align municipal actions with any incoming governor’s executive order and guidance from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. Staff said they planned an early-week meeting with the California Coastal Commission to coordinate on coastal permitting and exemptions.

Public commenters urged both immediate support and clearer planning. Pamela Connell York, speaking during public comment, said the city should be able to “proactively declare” emergencies and urged a consistent Emergency Operations Center location so residents know where to go for help. She also asked the city to provide communications hardware such as Starlink to urgent-care and field clinics. Anne Muncie urged the council to consider restricting use of toxic building materials in rebuilds so residents do not face long-term air-quality or health impacts after future fires. Another commenter identified only as Craig pressed the council for clearer timelines on lot cleanup and asked about suspending short-term rental rules and housing registries during recovery. Luca asked how immediately the governor’s executive order applies locally and whether emergency status can protect renters from unlawful rent increases. Sanj Ganz referenced California Coastal Act Section 30610 and the disaster-replacement exemption and urged prioritizing upgrades to the local water system.

The council made a motion to adopt staff’s recommendation to ratify the emergency declaration and send related letters of assistance (the motion text and staff recommendation were recorded on the council docket). The motion passed with no members voting against it; four councilmembers were present and voted in favor. No individual vote record was read into the minutes at the meeting.

Councilmembers said they expect additional special meetings to adopt specific policies needed for rebuilding and recovery and that a community town hall is being planned for next Tuesday to take a wider set of public comments.

Notes: the city’s recovery web resources cited during the meeting included malibucity.org/ (city recovery page) and recovery.lacounty.gov. Staff said mutual-aid personnel from other Southern California jurisdictions are supporting the city’s Emergency Operations Center, which staff and the mayor said has been operating continuously since the fire and at times has had between about 12 and 18 people staffing it.