FELTON — Of more than 900 homes that burned in the CZU August Lightning Complex fire, just 80 property owners have been given the final green light to rebuild, according to a newly-released Santa Cruz County database.
The CZU Fire Recovery Permit Center Dashboard, published Friday, is a live database that shows where fire survivors are at in the rebuilding process. Those who lost their home in the historic wildfire — which burned roughly 86,500 acres from the Santa Cruz Mountains into San Mateo County — must go through a multistep process before beginning to break ground on a redo. In Santa Cruz County alone, the CZU Complex burned 911 homes.
Prior to submitting a permit to rebuild a single family home, fire survivors must obtain fire safety, environmental health and geologic hazard clearances. According to county dashboard data, 217 fire damaged properties have those clearances. More than half those property owners — 109 — have submitted their application packages to rebuild, whereas 80 have received final approval to break ground.
“We know there’s public interest in these numbers and we want to be transparent with the community as to where we are,” said Santa Cruz County Communications Manager Jason Hoppin. “We still have a long way to go.”
Before property owners can receive such clearances, a debris removal and environmental inspection — or Phase II — must be completed as well. As of August, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services reported that 100% of fire-scarred properties enrolled in a government cleanup program had been cleared.
Until property owners got that clean bill of health from the state, rebuilds were largely at a standstill, said Hoppin. Officials say there’s no singular reason as to why many have not begun the permitting process.
“There are people that have all three clearances and never come in for a building permit — we’re not sure why — there are other things going on that may be holding people up in the process beyond permitting, whether it be insurance, family or banking issues, or trying to find a builder,” Hoppin said.
Fire survivors have criticized the county’s rebuild procedure, which is carried out by Santa Cruz County Office of Response, Recovery and Resilience, a special department formed in the wake of the CZU Complex.
“It’s completely understandable,” Hoppin said. “Especially if you’ve been traumatized by going through a fire — you want to get done as soon as possible and we want that too.”
Beyond challenging building conditions, a tight labor market and record-breaking inflation, Hoppin cited state septic regulations, which recently were updated.
In September, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted to — in some instances — waive a requirement that fire survivor’s must receive a geologic hazard clearance to rebuild, which many residents said was a major obstacle in the process.
Still, progress is slow-moving and hundreds have not formally begun the process with the Response, Recovery and Resilience office. But Hoppin said in comparison to other California counties impacted by severe wildfires, he believes Santa Cruz is on track.
“There are logistical conditions that have to be dealt with,” Hoppin said. “It’s a difficult area to build in, especially after a fire … there are state requirements to deal with and then some people are held up because of things besides government. What we want to do is make the process as easy and transparent as possible, and this is part of us doing that.”
