Fire recovery inching along as second anniversary approaches

By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer | Saturday, October 22, 2005 11:03 PM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO ----- Two years after the worst wildfires in state history incinerated more than 2,400 homes across San Diego County, just over two-thirds of fire victims are in some stage of active recovery.

They have rebuilt, are rebuilding or have filed plans indicating they intend to rebuild.

But long after nature has turned blackened hillsides and trees green again, statistics suggest the recovery remains heartbreaking for many.

Only one-third of all the destroyed homes have been completely rebuilt and had families move back in.

And almost one-third of all fire victims, 32.7 percent, remain in limbo, having not taken even the first official steps to rebuild, according to planning departments for the county and the cities of San Diego and Poway.

Speculation

Last week, officials speculated that there are numerous reasons why the recovery has been so slow for those lucky enough to have landed back on their feet ---- and why the process of rebuilding, for so many, never began.

Politicians and planners suggested the biggest hurdles for victims are probably cash-related. People could still be dickering with insurance companies for settlements, or they didn't get large enough settlements because they had too little insurance coverage. Or even worse, they had no insurance at all, and no money left to rebuild.

But officials cited other problems. The overwhelming need to rebuild may have created work crunches, making it hard for victims to find and hire architects and construction crews.

Some victims may have lost second homes, or vacation homes, and decided not to rebuild.

In the unincorporated county, where 85 percent of the destruction occurred, planners said rebuilding in some cases ---- most notably in Julian ---- has been blocked by disputes over property lines, questions about septic systems, and other planning issues.

Recovery slower in rural areas than city

The recovery is moving much more slowly in the unincorporated communities like Ramona, Julian, Valley Center and Lakeside, than in the city areas that burned in Poway and San Diego.

In affluent Scripps Ranch, 62 percent of the 320 homes destroyed during the 2003 wildfires have been rebuilt. In the city of Poway, 43 percent of the 53 homes destroyed have been replaced.

In the unincorporated county, however, less than a third of the more than 2,000 destroyed homes have been rebuilt.

And, another one-third of the county victims ---- representing 780 homes ---- haven't even submitted plans indicating they hope to rebuild.

Permitting differences

Ivan Holler, the county's deputy director of planning and land use, said part of the reason why the recovery has moved slower in the unincorporated county could be because in city areas, there is little planning detail to work out when homeowners want to rebuild. Destroyed homes were in areas with infrastructure, such as roads and sewer systems, and generally on level areas that didn't need grading, and which had distinct boundaries.

That's not always the case in unincorporated towns and communities. Many backcountry areas are sloped or hilly, requiring more detailed permits. Many don't have sewer access and rely upon septic systems that leach into the ground, requiring careful consideration of whether those septic systems could create public health problems.

In addition, Scott Gilmore, building permit processing coordinator for the county, said some homes that burned in places like Julian were actually built on ill-defined plots of land that were given away to people decades ago as part of newspaper subscription drives or when they bought cars. They were referred to as "tent lots" because they generally were only large enough to pitch a tent on. But some people eventually built homes on them. The fires that destroyed those homes have created boundary disputes that have blocked rebuilding in some cases.

But Holler, Gilmore and others said cash is probably the biggest reason why the recovery has moved more slowly in the county areas.

Scripps Ranch is an affluent community, where homeowners were very likely to have had adequate fire insurance coverage, and were quickly repaid and allowed to rebuild.

County officials said they have heard anecdotally that many unincorporated fire victims either didn't have any insurance, or had inadequate coverage, leaving them with less money than they needed to rebuild.

"I'm actually kind of surprised that we've seen this much activity," he said.

Gilmore said he has heard of several instances in which victims have rebuilt less-expensive homes because their insurance settlements didn't cover their expenses. In some cases, instead of rebuilding traditional wooden-framed, "stick and stucco" homes, people bought manufactured homes ---- cheaper houses built in factories and trucked out to home sites.

Of the 661 homes that fire victims have rebuilt in the unincorporated county, 192 were manufactured homes erected on private lots. Gilmore and others, however, said the county doesn't know if all of those manufactured homes replaced traditional houses, or other manufactured homes that were destroyed.

Mixed emotions

Officials, meanwhile, expressed mixed emotions about the state of the wildfire recovery.

"I wish it was moving faster," said Supervisor Bill Horn, a Valley Center resident who saw the Paradise fire ---- which destroyed 221 homes and was one of the four wildfires that collectively formed the October 2003 firestorms ---- kill two people and destroy 112 homes in community.

But Horn also said he was encouraged by the amount of rebuilding in Valley Center. Of the 112 destroyed Valley Center homes, 40 have been rebuilt and occupied, and another 30 are in the rebuilding process.

"I've got over 62 percent in the recovery process," he said.

Supervisor Dianne Jacob, whose East and North County district was devastated by the Cedar fire that killed 15 and torched more than 2,000 homes, said it had been a difficult two years for many of her constituents.

She said she was not surprised that the recovery numbers still show a third of victims haven't made any significant rebuilding progress.

Jacob said she believed that some victims lost vacation homes in places like Julian, and have simply decided not to rebuild.

But she said she also believed that a lot of victims ---- some who didn't have insurance and don't have the money to start over, and some who were just too "traumatized" by the disaster to care to rebuild ---- have moved away.

"We'll never have 100 percent rebuilds," she said.

Both Jacob and Horn said the county tried its best to help fire victims recover. It spent $6.5 million to help victims remove fire debris, set up local assistance shelters, permanently waived building permit fees ---- typically about $2,000 ---- for rebuilding, and created express lanes just for fire victims at county planning offices to speed up the permitting process.

The statistics do show that the rebuilding process has picked up steam in the last year, both in the county and the cities.

Nearly a year after the fires, planning records showed that fewer than 4 percent of all the homes that had been destroyed had been rebuilt, and that more than two-thirds of fire victims hadn't obtained building permits, the step needed to start construction.

Two years removed, 35.2 percent have been rebuilt and families have moved back in.

And an additional 26 percent of burned homes are under construction.

More troubles coming?

Still, some county fire victims who are part of the 36.5 percent who haven't yet joined the rebuilding process, could soon be facing all new pressures ---- even, possibly, being told to move off their land.

Jeff Murphy, chief of the building division of the county's department of planning and land use, said after the fires, the county gave more than 800 victims permission to live in temporary trailers on their charred property to give them time to rebuild.

Under normal conditions, it's an allowance the county will grant for one year, with the assurance that people are building certified, permitted, safe homes.

Last November, the county extended the temporary living arrangement for another year, recognizing how difficult it has been for fire victims to juggle their lives and try to rebuild.

Murphy said the number of victims still living in those trailers has dropped to about 110 people.

But on Nov. 1, that extension will again run out, leaving county officials possibly in the position of telling fire victims they must move away.

Murphy said no county officials "want to be put in that position." But Gilmore and others said county officials are struggling with the question of whether to make victims ---- two years after the fires ---- show some proof that they're trying to rebuild before extending the trailer exemption.

Gilmore and Murphy said the county is sending letters out to the victims encouraging them to start the process, a step as simple as filing plans, filing for a building permit ---- which can be done before finalizing financing plans ---- or even explaining what difficulties they may be facing.

"The (people) that I've heard from ... it was just confusion over what needed to be done," Gilmore said.

Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com

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