E X E C U T I V E D E P A R T M E N T
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
EXECUTIVE
ORDER N-32-25
WHEREAS
on January 7, 2025, I proclaimed a State of Emergency to exist in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties due to fire and windstorm conditions that caused multiple fires, including the Palisades, Eaton, Hurst, Lidia, Woodley, and Hughes Fires; and
WHEREAS these fires devastated communities across the Greater Los Angeles Area and collectively burned over 47,900 acres, destroying or damaging more than 16,250 structures, including homes, small businesses, and places of worship, placing this disaster among the most destructive in California history; and
WHEREAS I have issued numerous Executive Orders to provide relief to impacted communities, protect survivors, and expedite and aid recovery efforts, including by suspending or partially suspending housing laws that serve important roles in increasing the supply of affordable housing but could present barriers to recovery if applied to homes substantially damaged or destroyed as a result of this emergency; and
WHEREAS
Senate Bill 9, a law I signed in 2021, supports the creation of critically needed housing at all income levels through gradual density increases by requiring ministerial approval of duplexes and lot splits, but was not tailored for circumstances like the present situation in Los Angeles, where more than 13,000 homes were destroyed, including more than 5,000 single-family homes in the Palisades Fire that fall into a designated very high fire hazard severity zone; and
WHEREAS
community members and local officials have expressed
concern about the potential for widespread SB 9 development concentrated in neighborhoods rebuilding from destructive fires in very high fire hazard severity zones to crowd evacuation routes, and while SB 9 already requires development in these zones to meet updated ingress and egress standards, and allows local governments discretion to deny a project that would have a specific, adverse impact on public health and safety that cannot be mitigated, the unprecedented scale of this disaster calls for affording local governments increased discretion to ensure that SB 9 development in the rebuilding areas appropriately accounts for fire safety concerns.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GAVIN NEWSOM,
Governor of the State of California,
in accordance with the authority vested in me by the State Constitution and statutes, including the California Emergency Services Act, and in particular, Government Code sections 8567, 8571, and 8627, do hereby issue the following Order to become effective immediately.
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT:
1. G
overnment Code sections 65852.21 and 66411.7 are suspended in very high fire hazard severity zones, as identified by the State Fire Marshal pursuant to Government Code section 51178, within the boundaries of the Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles County until August 6, 2025.
2. U
pon the expiration of the suspension in Paragraph 1, Government Code sections 65852.21 and 66411.7 are suspended in very high fire hazard severity zones, as identified by the State Fire Marshal pursuant to
ATTACHMENT A
Government Code section 51178, within the boundaries of the Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles County, to the extent that sections 65852.21 and 66411.7 limit discretion in approval of applications for development of two units on a single-family parcel as described in section 65852.21 or lot splits as described in section 66411.7. Pursuant to these suspensions, local agencies that issue development or parcel map approvals may impose local review standards including, but not limited to, designating any areas within the affected very high fire hazard severity zones where development and lot splits pursuant to Government Code sections 65852.21 and 66411.7 may be permitted, regardless of the limitation on local standards for approval that would otherwise apply.
3. Local agencies may develop orders, ordinances, resolutions, standards, rules, or guidelines for implementing Paragraph 2, and the California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 of the Public Resources Code, commencing with section 2100), and regulations adopted pursuant to that division, are suspended for any such order, ordinance, resolution, standard, rule, or guideline.
I FURTHER DIRECT that as soon as hereafter possible, this Order be filed in the Office of the Secretary of State and that widespread publicity and notice be given of this Order.
This Order is not intended to, and does not, create any rights or benefits, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity, against the State of California, its agencies, departments, entities, officers, employees, or any other person.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have
hereunto set my hand and caused
the Great Seal of the State of
California to be affixed this 30th day
of July 2025.
_________________________
GAVIN NEWSOM
Governor of California
ATTEST:
__________________________
SHIRLEY WEBER, PH.D
Secretary of State