Victoria Franklin Dillon shares her challenges and hopes as she and her family try to rebuild
The matriarch of a family who has lived in its Malibu home for more than seven decades resolutely stands, a statuesque picture of valiant strength who is tormented by worry and uncertainty. Her expression evinces an unenviable combination of resignation and just a glimmer of optimism as she acknowledges that Lady Luck — aided by herculean efforts exerted by herself and relatives — has helped to save the family’s home above Pacific Coast Highway many times as wildfires literally scorched the property’s trees and landscapes stopping just short of destroying the family home.
Not so in the Palisades Fire, unfortunately. Indeed, Victoria Franklin Dillon shares a harrowing tale about how she barely got out alive during the latest and largest inferno to assault Malibu. “I had to cut part of a felled tree with a chainsaw in order to free my truck to escape from the oncoming wildfire,” Victoria recounts in a tone that reveals that she is still strongly affected by just how close a call she experienced.
Victoria well knows that rebuilding the home will be a much more herculean task. She knows that, like many Palisades Fire victims, she has extremely difficult decisions to make: Should she and the family stay and rebuild or sell and bid adieu to Malibu or do something in between? Should she acquiesce in the Army Corps of Engineers’ plans to cut down a row of eucalyptus trees that have stood adjacent to the home for 70 years and are marked for governmental crucifixion in the next few days or weeks? Or should she protest killing the trees which, even as we gather on her inferno-decimated parcel, are beginning to bloom with new life and clearly help to hold a slope in place? Should she pay a structural engineer to evaluate whether a retaining wall can be repaired or whether it must be replaced? Should she pay a geotechnical expert to evaluate whether the road and bridge leading up to her home — over which she only has an access easement — can be widened to the satisfaction of the Fire Department and the current Code requirements and whether the ground is stable enough to build? Should she consider paying for architectural plans and if so, when?
The decisions that Victoria must make are innumerable: What to do first? Who to trust? How to pay for all that needs to be done? Such questions tear at her very soul. There are so many “what ifs” and “shoulds” ahead for Victoria and her family as there are for many in Malibu and Pacific Palisades. One who loses a home to wildfire finds it hard to take it all in, to clear one’s mind, to make the best decisions.
A Malibu local struggles to stay in Malibu
“I’m the Victoria that Victoria Point in Lechuza Beach is named for!” Victoria shares, managing a smile despite the current tragic circumstances that led to her standing amidst the ashes of her home, a home where she and her sister were raised, and where her and her sister’s children grew up; a home where their clan enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving feast just months ago, as they had for decades; and a home where Victoria and her daughter have created lovely art for decades.“Roxanne Beach Road was in the Broad Beach area and was named after my sister. Dad was the first to put a sewer system in the Broad Beach area,” she said.
It’s hard to get more local than that.
“My family has been in Malibu since the 1950s,” Victoria continues, noting that even considering the possibility of not living in Malibu anymore is excruciating for her and her sister who share ownership of the home. “My dad owned a home in the Colony in the 1960s and he built this home that just burned down as a spec home — it was made of wood and glass and was designed by the illustrious architect Bill Beckett.” Victoria hopes the home can be built again exactly as Beckett built it because it was, she reverently says, “a work of art.”
Like many Palisades Fire victims, Victoria is underinsured. She needs advice — wise counsel from one without pecuniary motives — and quickly. Like many fire victims, Victoria needs to decide whether to hang in there and pursue rebuilding or make decisions concerning whether to consider selling and, if so, when to do so.
What it will take to rebuild the home
The city’s team of staff and consultants at the Rebuild Center were, Victoria notes, “so very kind.” However, she concedes that, “the building codes are the building codes and their provisions are mandatory,” that is, they cannot be excused, no matter how equitable it might be in a given situation to afford some flexibility to a long-term Malibuite.
If one is underinsured, the costs of rebuilding a fire-burned home is daunting. Victoria and her family not only have to go through the arduous process of complying with all the California Building Code’s requirements, the Los Angeles Building Code and Malibu’s Building Code mandates in order to construct a residence and ultimately, to get a certificate of occupancy. That possibly includes putting in a new septic tank, although Victoria is quick to note that “the septic was working just fine on the day of the fire.” The family also has to deal with reconstructing the road and a bridge, property they have an easement for, but do not own, a fact that may complicate their rebuild. At the City Rebuilding Center, a fire department official told Victoria there must be space for a fire truck to turn around and there must be a fire hydrant supported by a water line that would provide sufficient water to fight a fire.
Then, there’s the fact that the parcel is near a landslide. Indeed, a home that Victoria’s father built many years ago on a property adjacent to Victoria’s lot was destroyed by a slide event several decades ago. LA County Building Code Section 110.2.3.6 and other applicable laws set forth many provisions imposing restrictions on any replacement structure in a landslide area. That necessitates Victoria and her family obtaining geotechnical reports provided by a California-licensed geotechnical engineer or a California-licensed geologist.
Every separate applicable Code requirement — whether city, county, or state — requires evaluations, reports and other conditions precedent to successfully getting the required government authorization to rebuild a new home.
Lacking the acumen, aptitude, and experience of professionals who can conduct such studies and author such reports, and lacking in massive amounts of money, Victoria and her family must find their way, and it is unclear whether they will be victorious in rebuilding. Victoria’s is only one of hundreds of families struggling with all of these realities.
