Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) issued an executive order prohibiting one of California’s most powerful bureaucracies from imposing regulations on Los Angeles residents working to rebuild their city from massive fire damage.
On Monday, Newsom criticized the California Coastal Commission for releasing “legally erroneous guidance” that suggested rebuilds are still subject to the state’s Coastal Act, an environmental law critics say imposes stringent, protracted, and costly barriers to new construction. Newsom said the commission’s guidance had threatened “confusion and delay” to rebuilding efforts in Los Angeles.
In response, Newsom issued an order directing the commission to stand down. He wrote that the regulatory body had violated his previous executive action directing the state’s agencies to waive processes and mandates he worried were hindering rebuilding efforts, including the Coastal Act.
The latest order “further directs the Coastal Commission to stop issuing guidance or attempting to enforce permitting requirements that conflict with the Governor’s Executive order issued on January 12, 2025, which waives the CEQA and Coastal Act requirements, as well as a subsequent order issued on January 16 to streamline the building of accessory dwelling units to assist in creating more temporary housing,” the governor said in a press release.
Under Newsom’s latest act, Angelenos will be able to rebuild without complying with state and local rules mandating an extensive permitting process.
The news comes after President Donald Trump and state lawmakers blasted the California Coastal Commission. Trump even threatened to do away with the commission himself during a recent visit to survey the damage cause by the fires.
“We have to override the Coastal Commission, because I’ve dealt with the Coastal Commission for a long time, and they are considered the most difficult in the entire country,” Trump said during a Los Angeles roundtable with California leaders last weekend. “We cannot have them play their games and wait 10 years to give somebody a permit. In fact, I’m going to override the Coastal Commission. I’m not going to let them get away with their antics.”
During the same roundtable Friday, Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) piled the blame on the California Coastal Commission.
The regulatory body has “veered far from its original mission, has gotten totally out of control, and will be a major impediment towards rebuilding and recovery in Los Angeles,” Kiley said. “So we need to get them out of the way.”
The Republican lawmaker introduced legislation to strip the commission of its powers following the deadly fires.
The commission is composed of 12 voting members, including four whom the governor has the power to appoint. Mike Wilson, Susan Lowenberg, and Meagan Harmon are Newsom appointees.
Some California residents have interpreted Newsom’s most recent order regarding the commission as an admission that the regulatory body was never necessary in the first place.
“Translation: the California Coastal Commission is not necessary to protect the coast,” one resident claimed in a post responding to the executive action.
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Twenty-nine people died during the Los Angeles fires that first broke out on Jan. 7. The disaster destroyed areas larger than the swath of land in New York City two times over. Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed.
Investigators are scrutinizing video footage released Sunday that could shed more light as to what sparked the fires. The footage showed apparent electrical sparking at a Southern California Edison utility transmission tower in the Eaton Canyon area where the fires initially erupted. Edison is now facing a lawsuit over the revelations, although it says allegations its utility transmission tower caused the crisis are premature.