Rebuilding process begins with utility restoration - Santa Cruz Sentinel
SCOTTS VALLEY — The road to recovery will be winding, littered with downed trees and crossed power lines. Even as some limited evacuation orders issued in response to the CZU August Lightning Complex Incident were lifted this week, some 50,000 residents remained displaced from their homes Friday morning, Cal Fire officials said. According to information from the Santa Cruz County Damage Assessment Map, with some 70% of the county’s damaged properties surveyed, there had been 554 single-family residences out of 788 total structures destroyed countywide by the fires. In a newsletter Friday, 3rd District County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty said he was working with 5th District Supervisor Bruce McPherson to ease the rebuilding process in the wake of the fires. Ahead of Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, the two are asking that county Planning, Public Works and Environmental Health staff develop a streamlined permitting process, including a cap on permit fees, allowance for residents to ...