Free wildfire and land services in Los Angeles County, California
25 programs in 8 categories, plus 4 local offices in Los Angeles County. Every listing names its source; ring ahead before you rely on one. Every local listing here was checked on or after 31 August 2026.
Los Angeles reads differently from the rural pages: the county fire department, not CAL FIRE, runs inspections on state responsibility ground, and the heart of the listing is Eaton and Palisades fire rebuilding, permit centres in Altadena and Calabasas, fee waivers that can pass twenty thousand dollars for qualifying owner occupants, expedited like for like review and free pre approved dwelling plans between 800 and 1,200 square feet. Two conservation districts, Antelope Valley and the Santa Monica Mountains, cover the county's opposite ends. One honesty note carried from the source: the public works main line could not be confirmed officially, so dial before relying on it.
Written from the listings on this page and reviewed by Larry Trimboli on 9 September 2026.
They get a short summary of what Los Angeles County has and a link back here. The address or number reaches our contact records, and a text says how to stop. Only send to someone who would want it.
Why Sierra Log & Timber cares about your vacant land
Sierra Log & Timber mills cedar log and timber home packages in Chico, California. A good part of our working week is spent with people who have just bought land, and the same thing happens every time: the grants, the chipping days, the defensible space visits and the permit desks are all real, and all scattered across a dozen county websites that do not link to one another. So we put them in one place and left it open. You do not have to be building a log home to use this, and reading it signs you up for nothing.
The offices behind these listings are in Lancaster and Topanga. 4 organisations and 2 programmes are recorded locally here. The local work runs to planning. When somebody asks us to price a package for a parcel in Los Angeles County, these are the desks we point them at first. Access, clearing and defensible space all come before anything we mill, and they are cheaper before there is a building in the way.
Building on rural land in Los Angeles County
What applies in this county rather than across California, each line with the source it was read from.
Where the building permit comes from
Los Angeles County Building and Safety issues building permits here.
The rules that apply across California, the building code the state has adopted, its wildfire construction standard, who issues a permit and whether you may build a house yourself, are on the California page, each with the source it was read from.
Common questions
Does Sierra Log & Timber run any of these programmes?+
No. Every organisation and programme on this page is run by somebody else: a county office, a state agency, a nonprofit, a utility or a tribe. We collect them, check them and publish them, and that is the whole of our part in it. What we do ourselves is mill cedar log and timber home packages in Chico, California.
Is this free to use, and does using it sign me up for anything?+
The directory is free and reading it signs you up for nothing. The two panels below are the only places on this page that ask for an address, both are optional, and they do different jobs: one tells you when this county's listings change, the other tells us that something here is already wrong.
How current are the Los Angeles County listings?+
Every organisation here was checked against its own website or an official directory before it was published, and nothing goes on the page without a working way to reach it. That does not stop numbers changing, offices moving or a programme running out of money. When one of those happens, the second panel below is how it gets fixed.
Outdated and incomplete listings (1)
Kept for the record rather than as recommendations: organisations that have closed or merged, and listings nobody has found a working contact for. If you know better, the form above is the way to say so.
No contact information found
UCCE Los Angeles County
Cooperative Extension
UC Cooperative Extension's office for Los Angeles County. Free and low cost advice from university advisors on plants, soil, pests and land management, and the base for the county's Master Gardener volunteers. In a county rebuilding after the Eaton and Palisades fires, the replanting and soil questions land here rather than at a permit counter.
They get a short summary of what Los Angeles County has and a link back here. The address or number reaches our contact records, and a text says how to stop. Only send to someone who would want it.
Policies effective November 15, 2025 or later can earn up to 12 separate discounts on the wildfire portion of the premium. Details: what to know, how to apply
FreeStatewidefrom California Department of Insurance
Under Insurance Code section 2644.9, effective October 14, 2022, all admitted property insurers that use wildfire risk in pricing must offer premium discounts for 12 specific… Details: what to know, how to apply
A reimbursement programme covering 75 to 90 percent of costs for non industrial private forest landowners; the 90 percent rate applies when the applicant owns less… Details: who qualifies, how to apply
Technical help for private forest landowners and the Forest Stewardship programme, delivered in California through the CAL FIRE partnership. Details: what to know
FreeNationwidefrom USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
Federal help to stabilise a watershed after a disaster, which after a fire means the burn scars, the slipping slopes and the choked channels the fire… Details: what to know, who qualifies
FreeStatewidefrom California State Board of Equalization
Revenue and Taxation Code section 170 calamity relief: after a loss over 10,000 dollars in a county declared calamity, the assessor reappraises to the damaged value… Details: what to know, how to apply
Free to qualifying landowners, from Los Angeles County Public Works
Permit fee waivers and refunds, approved June 17, 2025, for qualifying owner occupants rebuilding single family homes; the waived fees can exceed 20,000 dollars. Like for like expedited review, the Archistar eCheck AI pilot and a bundled projects pilot run alongside.
The line that decides most cases is where the property sits: this covers unincorporated Los Angeles County only. You have to show that you both owned the property and lived on it before the fires. A garage or an accessory dwelling unit counts even if it was the only thing destroyed, and a standalone accessory unit you will live in while the house is rebuilt qualifies too. Commercial property, multi family housing and rentals you did not live in do not. If you have already paid the fees you can claim them back with the county's fire rebuild fee deferral or refund form. Not everything is covered: the deferral is for zoning, building and soils review, building permits and inspections, fire department review and inspection and public health fees, and not for utilities, school district fees, addressing, survey records or your designer and builder.
Email me when this page changes
Numbers change and programmes run out of money. Leave an address and it is held against the Los Angeles County page so you can be told when a listing here is added, changed or removed. No account.
What is stored is your address and which county page you left it on, and nothing else: no name, no location, nothing about what you read. It is used for that one notification and for nothing else, it appears nowhere on this site, and this site cannot read the list back. Nothing has been sent to any address yet, because the notices are not built; when they are, every message will say how to stop them.
Something on this page is wrong?
Numbers change, offices move and programmes run out of money. If something on this page is wrong, tell us and a person will check it.
Financial and technical cost share for conservation practices on cropland, rangeland and private non industrial forestland. Details: who qualifies, how to apply
FreeNationwidefrom Federal Emergency Management Agency
Individual Assistance, disaster case management and Hazard Mitigation Assistance after a federal disaster declaration; preparedness guides at ready.gov. Details: what to know, who qualifies, how to apply
FreeStatewidefrom California Public Utilities Commission
Self Generation Incentive Program battery incentives: the Equity budget at 850 dollars per kWh and the Equity Resiliency budget at 1,000 dollars per kWh, which can… Details: what to know, who qualifies, how to apply
Home repair loans to around 40,000 dollars, and grants to around 10,000 dollars for owners 62 and over, to remove health and safety hazards in eligible… Details: what to know
Free technical advice on forest health, tree mortality and CFIP applications from regional CAL FIRE Forestry Assistance Specialists. Details: what to know, how to apply
Nationwide
from United Policyholders
Free guidance on insurance claims, contractors, rebuilding and avoiding scams: the little yellow book, the Ask an Expert forum, and in person and Zoom clinics in… Details: what to know
Who qualifies Requires a destroyed residence. Owner occupants who both owned and lived in the property before January 7, 2025.
Three standard accessory dwelling unit plans, A, B and C, between 800 and 1,200 square feet, that the county has already reviewed and approved. Free to use, and worth looking at before you hire an architect, because the design and the county's review of it have already been done.
The three county owned plans are free to download and use: Plan A at 1,200 square feet with three bedrooms and one bathroom, Plan B at 1,200 square feet with two bedrooms and one bathroom, and Plan C at 800 square feet with one bedroom and one bathroom. Free plans are not a free permit. You still lodge a Regional Planning application with a site specific plot plan for your own ground, then a residential new construction building permit with the plan set and energy calculations, and you still pay plan check and permit fees. The plan check engineer will hand you a referral sheet of other agencies whose approval you need before the permit can be issued.
What you send goes to the people who maintain this directory and appears nowhere on this site. Your email is used to reply to you and for nothing else.
