City Releases Long-Term Recovery Plan for Pacific Palisades
This article was originally written for the Palisadian-Post, published May 16, 2026.
A public webinar on Tuesday, May 19, will give residents a chance to weigh in on the 295-page plan, which charts a plan for rebuilding Pacific Palisades.
The City of Los Angeles on Friday released a draft Long-Term Recovery Plan for Pacific Palisades, a 295-page document that attempts to chart a path forward for the fire-ravaged community across everything from housing and roads to the local economy and public health.
Residents will get their first chance to weigh in on the plan during a webinar on Tuesday, May 19, at 5 p.m., where city officials will walk through the plan and take questions. Written feedback will be accepted through June 29, after which the city intends to finalize the document.
The plan, which was developed in conjunction with consulting firm AECOM, sorts its proposals into six categories that follow the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Disaster Recovery Framework: community assistance; economic recovery; health and social services; housing; infrastructure; and natural and cultural resources. Within each category—or Recovery Support Function, as the report calls them—individual projects are tagged as short-term (under a year), medium-term (one to five years) or long-term (five years or more).
The document does not guarantee funding for any specific project. But it does outline a state-authorized financing tool that could inject between $325 million and $1.9 billion into the local area to pay for infrastructure upgrades.
Signed into law in October 2025, California Senate Bill 782 streamlined the creation of climate resilience districts in a way that would allow Pacific Palisades to more easily establish a Disaster Recovery District (DRD). A DRD is a tax-increment financing mechanism that would collect an incremental portion of locally paid property taxes and dedicate those revenues directly to local recovery and wildfire resilience projects. The plan notes that a key concern is the potential impact on the city’s general fund, since those revenues would otherwise flow to the city’s budget.
A comprehensive feasibility study is currently underway by Kosmont Companies to develop the district boundaries, assess the impact on the city’s general fund and establish a community-driven governing board consisting of local residents and business owners.
The fire’s toll, as detailed in the plan, was enormous: more than 6,800 residential structures more than 50% damaged or destroyed, nearly 4,500 parcels requiring debris removal and an estimated $302 million in damage to city-owned property and infrastructure. The $302 million figure does not include loss or damage to privately owned homes, businesses or state highways.
In a letter that serves as the foreword of the document, Mayor Karen Bass acknowledged the scale of the loss, writing that the fire claimed 12 lives, destroyed thousands of homes and displaced Palisadian families.
“This unprecedented disaster demanded an unprecedented response—all levels of government and the community working together to move the recovery forward,” Bass wrote.
The city conducted an online survey between late March and late April that collected 695 responses from residents, business owners and people who worked in Pacific Palisades. Insurance delays, a lack of rebuilding funds and surging construction costs topped the list of obstacles respondents said they face. Looking ahead, those surveyed said bolstering the water supply for firefighting, bringing displaced residents back and upgrading infrastructure were their highest priorities.
Respondents also flagged long-standing problems they wanted fixed during the rebuild, such as traffic gridlock, poor cell reception and narrow evacuation routes. Many also called for a stronger police presence and better emergency preparedness.
The plan draws on more than a year of community engagement that predates the document itself, including 15 listening sessions and technical workshops held in the fall of 2025 and a March webinar that drew more than 350 attendees.
The full draft of the Long-Term Recovery Plan is available at the city’s recovery website. Comments on the draft Plan should be submitted on the website or emailed to palisadescommunity@aecom.com before June 29. Those wishing to register for the May 19 webinar can do so by clicking here.
