To the editor: President Trump’s executive order attempting to override Los Angeles and California authority over rebuilding permits after the January 2025 wildfires is an unprecedented and dangerous federal overreach (“Trump signs executive order to ‘preempt’ permitting process for fire-destroyed homes in L.A.,” Jan. 27).
Permitting and land-use regulation have always belonged to cities and counties, protected under the 10th Amendment. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is not equipped to replace local building departments, and allowing developers to “self-certify” compliance risks unsafe rebuilding and added confusion for Palisades and Altadena families trying to recover.
If Washington truly wants to help survivors, it should deliver long-delayed disaster funding, ensure insurers pay claims fairly and support the local systems already moving recovery forward.
This order is not about speeding rebuilding — it is about political control. Los Angeles needs partnership and resources, not a federal permitting takeover.
Steven Kern, Los Angeles
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To the editor: I haven’t cheered Trump for a very long time, but I certainly did when he signed the executive order in an effort to help fire victims rebuild sooner.
I only regret that this order was top-down rather than bottom-up. We should all be challenging the permitting requirements right here. Property owners should have the right to move forward with rebuilding right now. After all, they pay taxes, including property taxes, and their tax money should not be used against them in rules and regulations.
Plus, these excessive permitting requirements have obviously discouraged building and therefore, I believe, been a factor in homelessness.
Building permit requirements must go. The executive order is hopefully a start. The real reason local and state officials are upset is because the order is a threat to their power and their ability to fill government coffers.
Alice Lillie, Pomona
