What the Malibu permit path looks like
Malibu's disaster rebuild ordinance, Ordinance 524, and the state's Executive Order N-4-25 give fire rebuilds a shorter route than new construction. Stay within 110 percent of the prior footprint and height, same location, same use, and Coastal Act review is suspended. The city's Rebuild Center handles the intake. Goldenline Construction's guide quotes fee waiver deadlines of June 30, 2028 for applications and December 30, 2030 for building permits; we confirm those with the Rebuild Center for every client rather than repeating them from a blog.
As of August 2026, Spectrum News reported that fewer than 2 percent of Palisades Fire homes inside Malibu had rebuild permits, against 42 percent in the City of Los Angeles. Most Malibu owners have not started. If that is you, the permit is the first thing we walk through, and it is not the hard part.
Built to the wildland urban interface code, the code that replaced Chapter 7A
Since January 1, 2026, the ignition resistant requirements that used to live in Chapter 7A are in the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code. In practice that means Class A roof assemblies, ember resistant vents, enclosed eaves, noncombustible or ignition resistant cladding, tempered multi-pane glazing, and a noncombustible zone in the first five feet. We do not treat any of that as an upgrade. It is the baseline for every home we build, and the perimeter is designed to the same standard. See Zone Zero fences and gates.
Coastal Commission, Ordinance 524, and the Rebuild Center
The Coastal Commission approved Malibu's Local Coastal Program amendment for disaster rebuilds on April 10, 2025. Together with Ordinance 524 that is what lets a like for like rebuild move without a Coastal Development Permit. Bluff, beachfront, and ESHA lots still carry conditions, and anything outside the 110 percent envelope goes back into full review. We tell you which side of that line your plans fall on before you spend money on drawings.
Insurance scope versus real scope
Jaron ran his own Edison claim and his own rebuild after Woolsey. The pattern he saw then is the pattern the Palisades claim studies show now: the carrier's estimate is a starting point, not a budget. On the site walk we take your scope of loss and your policy limits and lay them against what a hardened rebuild actually costs on your lot. You leave with a gap number, not a surprise in month eight.
We have done this on our own homes
Jaron Denson acted as his own general contractor rebuilding his home after the 2018 Woolsey fire. Arno Koch lost his home in the January 2025 Palisades fire and is rebuilding it now: debris removal, insurance scope, plan check, the same phone calls you are making. Forge & Cove is built on that experience. We are new as a company, so we will not show you a wall of finished projects. We will show you two founders who know which decisions you regret in year three.
Questions we get about fire rebuild construction
What does like for like mean for my rebuild?
Executive Order N-4-25 suspends Coastal Act review for rebuilds that stay within 110 percent of the prior footprint and height, in the same location, for the same use. Malibu Ordinance 524 is the city side of that path. Stay inside those limits and you skip the longest review. Go past them and the project is treated as new construction.
Is Chapter 7A still the standard?
The provisions are, the name is not. On January 1, 2026, Chapter 7A was removed from the California Building Code and folded into the new California Wildland-Urban Interface Code. Same ignition resistant requirements, new citation. We build to the current code and use both names because homeowners still search for 7A.
Will the insurance estimate cover the build?
Usually not. A PaliBuilds study of 37 Palisades claims found carrier estimates translated to roughly $350 to $400 per square foot hard cost, and every claim studied fell short of the contractor budget. That is a third party figure, not our pricing. The first thing we do on a site walk is compare the insurance scope to the real scope so you know the gap before you sign anything.