{"id":72223,"date":"2025-11-27T14:24:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T14:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/72223\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T14:24:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T14:24:08","slug":"californias-development-status-quo-is-unsustainable-and-deadly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/72223\/","title":{"rendered":"California\u2019s development status quo is \u2018unsustainable and deadly\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  Nov. 27, 2025 6 AM PT  <\/p>\n<p>To the editor: When it comes to building in wildfire zones, California seems content with the status quo. County and city governments are signing off on new homes in fire danger zones at a dizzying pace, without proper evacuation planning or home-hardening resources.<\/p>\n<p>An analysis by the Center for Biological Diversity, where I work, found that, since 2021, local officials have approved at least 61,000 homes in areas designated by the state as \u201cvery high fire hazard severity zones.\u201d This \u201cbuild now, deal with it later\u201d approach is no way to house Californians, especially with the warnings from Topanga.<\/p>\n<p>Residents there were told that when another wildfire comes barreling through, they may be told to shelter in place (<a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/environment\/story\/2025-11-24\/la-county-fire-topanga-shelter-in-place-plan\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cCan you survive a wildfire sheltering at home? For one community, L.A. County Fire says it may be the only option,\u201d<\/a> Nov. 24). What a horrifying prospect.<\/p>\n<p>As Los Angeles prepares to mark one year since the Palisades and Eaton fires, I sincerely hope cities and counties prioritize hardening existing homes and steer new development to safer areas close to jobs and transportation centers. The status quo is unsustainable and deadly.<\/p>\n<p>Tiffany Yap, Oakland<br \/>This author is a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nov. 27, 2025 6 AM PT To the editor: When it comes to building in wildfire zones, California&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[599,36357,7,9,8,8010,963,166,42345,4300,2072,63,42344,143,42347,9600,42346],"class_list":["post-72223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-area","tag-biological-diversity","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-center","tag-city-government","tag-county","tag-development-status-quo","tag-eaton-fire","tag-editor","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-new-home","tag-oakland","tag-proper-evacuation-planning","tag-topanga","tag-wildfire-zone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}