LA Misrepresents Compliance with Fire Safe Regs to FEMA
The Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition’s (CBSC) September 2026 appeal to the LA Board of Building and Safety Commissioners raises a new question: Did the City of Los Angeles, acting through its highest leaders, misrepresent its enforcement of state wildfire regulations to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in order to preserve its eligibility for millions of dollars in federal disaster funding?
The CBSC is a Mount Washington-based hillside safety group, and its filings against L.A. are related to permitting new development in Very High Fire Severity Zones along roads that do not comply with the State Minimum Fire Safe Regulations. After reviewing the City’s disaster- preparedness documents and General Plan Safety Element, CBSC noted that it appears no road-safety enforcement program or enforceable permit conditions were ever developed.
Read Full Press Release: Take Action: SIGN PETITION: Protect LA Hillside Communities – Enforce State Fire Code
CRANE BOULEVARD SAFETY COALITION PRESS RELEASE
438 Crane Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90065 | (323) 533-0115 | craneblvdcoalition@gmail.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 14, 2026
Coalition Appeal Says LA May Have Misrepresented Fire-Safety Enforcement to FEMA to Keep Federal Disaster Aid Flowing
City told Washington DC and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services it was “ensuring compliance” with wildfire safety rules in hillside fire zones — while, the Coalition says, no enforcement program has ever existed. This new evidence builds on a lawsuit the Los Angeles Times has already covered, alleging the City ignored the same Fire Safe rules in the City’s highest risk zones.
LOS ANGELES — The Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition (“CBSC” or “the Coalition”), a Mount Washington-based hillside safety group, today released documents supporting an appeal now before the Los Angeles Board of Building and Safety Commissioners that raises a new question in the City’s controversial neglect of fire-safety enforcement duties: did the City of Los Angeles, acting through its highest leaders, misrepresent its enforcement of state wildfire regulations to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in order to preserve its eligibility for millions of dollars in federal disaster funding?
The Los Angeles Times has already reported that the City faces a lawsuit filed December 23, 2025, in Los Angeles County Superior Court by the State Alliance for Firesafe Road Regulations and the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations. That suit cites 75 building permits the plaintiffs say were approved in Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones (VHFHSZ) in violation of the State Minimum Fire Safe Regulations — the state rules governing road width, turning radius, dead-end length, and setbacks that are meant to keep evacuation routes passable during a wildfire.
The Coalition’s appeal, filed in a separate case involving a hillside project on Crane Boulevard, adds a new dimension: it points to the City’s own planning and disaster-preparedness documents, which repeatedly told federal and state authorities that Los Angeles was enforcing the very regulations the lawsuit says it was ignoring.
“This isn’t just a City department that fell behind on paperwork,” said Mark Kenyon, Chair of the Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition. “The City put a specific promise in writing to FEMA — that it would enforce these road-safety rules — and that promise helped keep federal disaster money flowing to Los Angeles. Our review of public records shows the City never built the process needed to keep that promise.
Neighborhood leaders across this City are asking the same question we are: why does it take a lawsuit and a citizen appeal to get City Hall leaders to maximize the wildfire safety of their own firefighters and hundreds of thousands of existing hazard zone residents?”
What the City Told the Federal Government
Since July 1, 2021, the State Minimum Fire Safe Regulations (14 Cal. Code Regs. § 1270 et seq.) have applied to new construction in the City’s Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones. According to the Coalition’s appeal, the City has never adopted the administrative program — required notice to CAL FIRE, a review process, and enforceable permit conditions — needed to actually apply those regulations to each building permit issued.
Yet in its 2024 five-year update to the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, submitted to FEMA as a condition of remaining eligible for pre- and post-disaster federal funding, the City listed “ensure compliance with State Minimum Fire Safe Regulations” as one of its wildfire mitigation strategies. On October 31, 2025, the City Council adopted an update to the Safety Element of the General Plan that incorporated the entire Local Hazard Mitigation Plan — including that same compliance pledge — while the Safety Element’s own text never explains how, or whether, the regulations are actually being enforced on the ground.
The Coalition’s appeal also cites a May 15, 2023 letter from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state agency, to City Planning Director Vince Bertoni and Building and Safety Permit and Engineering Bureau Chief Bihn Phan, warning that the City was issuing permits without complying with the Fire Safe Regulations. The Coalition confirmed with the Conservancy’s staff that Bertoni and Phan never replied to the letter.
Hundreds of Neighborhood Leaders Asked to Join a “Bucket Brigade”
On September 12, 2026, the Coalition sent an action alert to hundreds of Los Angeles Neighborhood Council leaders and community activists, asking residents to form what it calls a “Bucket Brigade” — an appeal to ordinary Angelenos to do collectively, in letters and public comment, what firefighters and old-fashioned bucket brigades once did by hand: put out a fire with a brigade of water buckets before it spreads. The alert asks recipients to sign a petition that calls upon City leaders to enact a proper enforcement program, send a letter to the Board of Building and Safety Commissioners and the City Council demanding immediate change, and share the action alert on their social media and with Neighborhood Council Boards.
The alert notes that City department heads have known since July 1, 2021 that the Fire Safe Regulations applied to new hillside construction, and that they continued approving projects in hazard zones even after the Conservancy’s May 2023 warning went unanswered. The City Department Heads cannot say they did not know of the existence of and deadline to comply with the Fire Safe Regulations.
Why It Matters
The Fire Safe Regulations exist to keep hillside roads passable for both fleeing residents and incoming fire apparatus. On January 7, 2025, the Palisades Fire forced residents to abandon vehicles on gridlocked evacuation routes; bulldozers cleared cars from Sunset Boulevard so fire engines could pass. The Coalition contends that every hillside permit approved without the required road-safety review adds people, cars, and structures to evacuation routes that were already inadequate — and that the City’s FEMA and Safety Element filings gave state and federal regulators, and the public, a false sense that those risks were being managed.
The Coalition’s appeal asks the Board of Building and Safety Commissioners to revoke the permits at issue in its test case and to ask the City to adopt, within 90 days, a written program implementing the state regulations — including CAL FIRE notice, an exception process, and legally enforceable permit mitigations to ensure communities are safe —before any more permits are issued in the City’s highest fire-hazard zones.
About the Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition
The Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition is a community-based advocacy group of residents, property owners, and professionals in the Mount Washington neighborhood of Los Angeles, formed to address hillside development that proceeds without meaningful compliance with state and local environmental and safety laws. The Coalition has filed an environmental and pattern-and-practice lawsuit against the City and a related Fire Safe Regulations appeal to the Board of Building and Safety Commissioners.
See Timeline and Source Documents Below
Media Contact:
Mark Kenyon, Chair
Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition Phone: (323) 533-0115
Email: mark.b.kenyon@gmail.com
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Timeline
July 1, 2021
State Minimum Fire Safe Regulations take effect for new construction in the City’s VHFHSZ. No City implementing program is adopted.
May 15, 2023
Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy warns City Planning and Building and Safety officials the City is issuing permits without complying with the regulations. The City does not respond, according to the Coalition’s appeal.
July/Sept. 2024
City submits its five-year Local Hazard Mitigation Plan update to FEMA, listing enforcement of the Fire Safe Regulations as a City wildfire mitigation strategy.
January 7, 2025
The Palisades Fire forces gridlocked evacuations on narrow hillside streets.
October 31, 2025
City Council adopts the updated Safety Element, incorporating the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan’s enforcement pledge without describing how the regulations are applied.
December 23, 2025
Hillside Federation and State Alliance for Firesafe Road Regulations file suit alleging 75 permits were approved in violation of the state regulations; the Los Angeles Times reports on the filing days later.
June 15, 2026 & July 2, 2026
Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition files its appeal to the Board of Building and Safety Commissioners.
September 2026
Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition releases action alert, video summary, petition for signature, action network letter to City Council and Board of Building and Safety Commissioners, and supporting documents
CBSC Source Documents
• CBSC appeal to the LADBS Board of Building and Safety Commissioners, and the May 15, 2023 Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy warning letter (attached as an exhibit): available at or on request from the media contact below .https://craneblvdcoalition.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/cbsc-ladbs_board_appeal.pdf
• September 12, 2026 Neighborhood Council action alert: available at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/protect-la-hillside-communities-revoke-illegal-permits-enforce-state-fire-code or on request.
• Los Angeles Times, “City of L.A. ignored fire safety as it permitted development in high-risk areas, lawsuit alleges,” by Noah Haggerty, Dec. 31, 2025. https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-12-31/la-city-ignored-fire-safety-as-it-permitted-development-in-high-risk-areas
• City of Los Angeles Local Hazard Mitigation Plan: emergency.lacity.gov/local-hazard-mitigation-plan
• October 31, 2025 Safety Element update and September 3, 2025 staff report: available from the Los Angeles City Clerk's Council File index https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=25-0987 or on request.