UCLA and industry outline recovery roadmap after Los Angeles wildfires: soil testing, permit self‑certification and financing tools

An industry‑and‑university task force convened after recent Los Angeles wildfires presented a recovery roadmap to a joint Senate committee, urging faster debris removal, standardized environmental testing, a streamlined permitting pathway and a mix of financing and insurance reforms to accelerate rebuilding and reduce homeowner displacement.

Tom Kawahara, executive director of the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate, said the Project Recovery report was delivered within weeks of the fires and was produced pro bono by real‑estate, legal, finance and engineering firms. The report groups recommendations into work streams on debris management, hazardous‑material handling, permitting and inspections, financing and insurance stabilization.

Kawahara described a pilot soil‑testing program that will test roughly 1,200 sites in Eaton Canyon and the Palisades and said early results will be available in a matter of weeks. He said the group recommends issuing a “certificate of completion” for properties that clears them for redevelopment and urged a…