Arno is rebuilding after the same fire
Arno Koch lost his home in the January 2025 Palisades fire. He is rebuilding it now: the debris removal, the insurance scope, the plan check, the same calls you are making. That is not a marketing line. It means the person who walks your lot has walked his own the same month, knows which desks are moving and which are not, and has read his own adjuster's spreadsheet line by line. His lot is on the Malibu side of the fire, so his permit runs through the City of Malibu rather than Los Angeles. The fire, the code, the insurance scope, and the hardening are the same on both sides of the line.
Jaron Denson did the same thing after the 2018 Woolsey fire in Malibu, as his own general contractor. Between the two of them, Forge & Cove has lived both ends of the process you are about to start: the one where the permits finally clear, and the one where you are still deciding who to trust.
The Los Angeles rebuild path and the plus ten percent rule
Pacific Palisades is in the City of Los Angeles, so your rebuild runs through the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety and the City's expedited fire rebuild process, not Malibu's. The state's Executive Order N-4-25 applies here as it does in Malibu: a like for like rebuild, within 110 percent of the prior footprint and height, in the same location and for the same use, is exempt from the long reviews that new construction faces. Stay inside that envelope and the permit is the easier part. Push past it and you are back in full review. We tell you which side your plans fall on before you spend money on drawings.
The City of Los Angeles has moved faster than Malibu. As of August 2026, Spectrum News reported 42 percent of Palisades Fire homes in the City with rebuild permits, against fewer than 2 percent in Malibu. If your permit is in hand, the next question is who builds it. If it is not, the permit is the first thing we walk through together.
Fire hardened from the roof to the fence
The Palisades is a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. Since January 1, 2026, the ignition resistant requirements that used to live in Chapter 7A sit in the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code: Class A roof assemblies, ember resistant vents, enclosed eaves, noncombustible cladding, tempered multi-pane glazing, and a noncombustible zone in the first five feet. We build every home to that as the baseline. And we build the fence, the gate, the garage door, the windows, and the outdoor structures to the same specification, from the same drawings. See Zone Zero fences and gates for where the five foot rule stands.
Insurance scope versus real scope
A study of 37 Palisades claims by PaliBuilds found carrier estimates translated to roughly $350 to $400 per square foot in hard cost, and every claim studied fell short of the contractor budget. That is a third party figure, not our pricing, and it matches what both founders saw on their own claims. On the site walk we read your scope of loss and policy limits against what a hardened rebuild actually costs on your lot, so you know the gap before you sign anything. We help you advocate for yourself; we do not write reports for your carrier or negotiate on your behalf. Not ready to commit to a builder? Hire us as your owner-builder consultant first.
One envelope, one standard
Most Palisades rebuilds will end up with a builder for the house and a separate shop for the perimeter, with drawings that never meet. A hardened house with a wood fence tied to the wall is not hardened. We build the home and every structure and substructure around it to one fire specification. That is the whole company, and it is why the gate comes from the builder of the house.
Questions we get about pacific palisades fire rebuild
Is the Palisades permit path different from Malibu?
Yes. Pacific Palisades is in the City of Los Angeles, so the rebuild runs through the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety and the City's expedited fire rebuild process, not the City of Malibu and not the Coastal Commission for most inland lots. The state's Executive Order N-4-25 still applies: a like for like rebuild within 110 percent of the prior footprint and height skips the longest reviews.
Can I rebuild bigger than what burned?
Up to 110 percent of the previous floor area and height in the same location keeps you on the like for like path. Beyond that the project is reviewed as new construction, which adds time. We tell you which side of that line your plans fall on before you pay for drawings.
Do you build the fences and gates too?
Yes, and to the same fire specification as the house. The Palisades sits in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, and the five feet around the house is where most rebuilds get undone by a wood fence tied to the wall. We draw the perimeter with the house.