Axe Construction is a licensed Class B general building contractor that rebuilds homes and businesses destroyed in the Palisades Fire. Pacific Palisades is inside the City of Los Angeles, so the rebuild runs through the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety under the Mayor’s emergency executive orders, and we handle it end to end: design, engineering, permits, insurance-scope coordination and construction, under one contract.
AXE CONSTRUCTION INC · CSLB Lic #1069232 · Class B General Building
The City of Los Angeles. Pacific Palisades is a City neighborhood, so the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety issues the permits and City Planning sets the zoning path. That is different from Malibu, which is its own city with its own rebuild center, and from unincorporated pockets in the Santa Monica Mountains such as Sunset Mesa and Topanga, which are permitted by Los Angeles County. The first thing we confirm for any family is which of the three their lot falls under, because the executive orders described on this page apply only inside the City.
For City of Los Angeles rebuilds there is one front door: the L.A. One-Stop Rebuilding Center at 1828 Sawtelle Boulevard, where ten City departments sit under one roof to handle Palisades Fire permits, questions and clearances.
The devastating Palisades Fire of January 2025 destroyed 6,845 structures, according to CAL FIRE, most of them homes, and displaced many residents across the town. The rebuilding process is now underway on every street: the City of Los Angeles reports new permits filed and issued every week, the first families have received certificates of occupancy, and framed houses stand next to vacant lots waiting on insurance or design. The pace varies block by block. The data on permits, average review days and construction starts is published on the City’s Permitting Progress Dashboard, and the community groups that formed after the fire are a real source of support and hope for homeowners who want to recover their homes rather than sell the ground. Our job is to help one family at a time get through the government process and back home.
Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council rewrote the permitting process for the burn area through a series of emergency executive orders, designed to streamline rebuilding for eligible projects while non-eligible projects, those outside the like-for-like envelope, still have a path.
Here is what each order does for a homeowner:
Together these orders are why LADBS has said it completes the initial plan review for Palisades submissions in about six days. The orders streamline the permitting process; they do not relax the building code, which is covered below.
Founder
Like-for-like is the fastest path by a wide margin: no planning clearance, no coastal permit, no public hearing, and the fee program covers the whole project. The 110% allowance applies to footprint and height, measured against what stood immediately before the fire, so a modest expansion and a full interior redesign are both possible inside it.
Going beyond 110% moves the project to Emergency Executive Order 8. The design is then checked against current zoning, including the Baseline Hillside Ordinance on sloped lots, coastal-zone standards, and setback rules the old house may not have met. It is allowed, it just takes longer and the fee program stops at the 110% line. We lay both options against your lot, your insurance scope and your family’s plans before design starts, so the choice is made with numbers.
Pacific Palisades sits in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, and the executive orders do not relax the building code. Every rebuild is built to the code in effect when the permit issues. Since January 1, 2026 that includes the 2025 California Wildland-Urban Interface Code, Title 24 Part 7, which absorbed the requirements that used to sit in Chapter 7A. In plain terms: a Class A fire-rated roof assembly, ember-resistant vents listed by the State Fire Marshal, ignition-resistant or noncombustible exterior walls, enclosed eaves, tempered multi-pane windows, and defensible space around the home. These wildfire standards exist to protect the new home from the next ember storm, and they are the main reason a rebuilt home performs differently from the one that was destroyed. On canyon and bluff lots, slope, drainage and fire department access shape the site plan as well. See the full list on our Los Angeles wildfire rebuild page.
An insurance-funded rebuild has two sets of numbers: what the policy pays and what the rebuild costs. We put them side by side before design starts, compare the scope of loss with the current building code and the wildfire code, identify items that ordinance-or-law coverage may fund, and flag gaps so you can take them to your carrier early. Throughout construction we coordinate directly with your adjuster to keep the scope aligned. We are contractors, not public adjusters or attorneys for your claim, and we cannot change what your policy covers; what we can do is make sure nobody is surprised by the difference.
Here is what each order does for a homeowner:
“An insurance scope is a contract too. I read it against the lot and the building code before anyone picks a floor plan, so the homeowner knows where the numbers land before they commit.”
Founder
Founder Tomer Fedida is a licensed California attorney and the qualifying general contractor on CSLB License #1069232. He earned his law degree at Loyola Law School and spent 14 years in Los Angeles real estate development before leading Axe Construction. In the Palisades that background shows up in three places most builders leave to chance: the contract you sign, the executive orders and coastal rules your permit depends on, and the insurance scope that funds the work. Axe Construction does not provide legal services; it builds with the fine print already read.
Here is what each order does for a homeowner:
“Most construction disputes start in the contract, not on the job site. I went to law school before I became a contractor, so every agreement we write spells out scope, allowances, change orders and the schedule in plain terms. When nothing is left vague, there is nothing to argue about later.”
Founder
Learn more about Axe Construction
Lost your Pacific Palisades home or business to the fire? Call (323) 729-3140 or Schedule a rebuild consultation through our contact page. Bring your insurance scope and your lot’s status. We will walk the site, confirm your path under the executive orders, and show you where the numbers land before you commit to anything.
"A rebuild ordinance is a legal document first. I read it the way I was trained to, line by line, before we draw anything. That is how we know what a lot allows and what it does not, and it is why our plan checks run with fewer surprises.”