Corey Boock Discusses Rebuilding Los Angeles After Wildfires

Corey Boock was quoted in the Law360 story “Experts See Long Road To LA Rebuild Despite CEQA Freeze” (subscription required). The piece provides an overview of how, despite recent moves made to suspend certain environmental and permitting rules to ease the regulatory burden once rebuilding starts from the devastating wildfires—one of the costliest disasters in the history of the U.S., obstacles will remain that can inhibit a quick rebuild of impacted structures.

Discussing challenges that could occur during the rebuilding process, Corey said while recent steps will speed things up, they “do not guarantee additional resources for local officials likely to be inundated with plan reviews and other regulatory tasks that will remain necessary for reconstruction work, even if navigating CEQA rules and Coastal Act permitting are easier thanks to the order” that was issued by California’s Governor, Gavin Newson.

He added, “Getting permits faster and streamlining the environmental review process certainly helps, but there's going to be a need for tremendous resources pumped into those agencies that deal with permitting and environmental approvals for this ultimately to be very meaningful…They're going to be just overwhelmed by the scale and scope of those seeking to rebuild.”