Quick Take
Five years after the CZU fire, Army veteran Justin Walker says Santa Cruz County has blocked his family’s rebuild through shifting rules, repeated geologic demands and legal stonewalling. Despite early promises to fast-track fire survivors, he argues that the county has treated his property differently from neighboring rebuilds. The result: hundreds of thousands in costs, lost years of family life, and land impossible to build on. He has filed a $1 million lawsuit against the county. His case, he writes, shows how post-disaster bureaucracy can become a quiet crisis for wildfire survivors across California.
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I am a disabled U.S. Army infantry veteran who served my country and then finally found stability in 2016, when I bought a home for my growing family in Boulder Creek using a Veterans Administration loan. It was a place of peace for my wife, our infant son and then our second child, who came in late 2017.
But in August 2020, during our firstborn’s fifth birthday, the CZU Lightning Complex fire destroyed everything we had built, turning our lives upside down.
We turned to our local government for support, and we were buoyed by the county’s early promises to disaster survivors. In the beginning, it seemed as if they were actually going to try to help victims go home quickly. The county created the “CZU rebuild directive,” to help residents fast-track rebuilds. The county promised to help us get permits, and said we were a priority.
Instead, over the past five years, Santa Cruz County has subjected us to endless delays, denials and outright obstruction.
Right after the fire, county officials assured us rebuilding would be straightforward. They promised a fast, affordable process with perks like expedited permitting — cheaper than permitting new construction — and even the option to expand our home while still qualifying as an “in-kind” replacement.
CZU FIRE, FIVE YEARS LATER: Read Lookout’s series on the aftermath of the ruinous 2020 blaze
Encouraged, we acted quickly. We hired a private crew for debris removal, but the crew’s equipment sat idle for weeks awaiting county approval. Once cleared, they finished the job before the new year, yet the county dragged its feet on signing off our post-cleanup soil tests until February 2021.
The real nightmare began with geologic approvals.
We hired two independent geologic firms, the second one after the county pushed the first to quit because it made unrealistic demands. Both firms concluded our property was safe to rebuild on with standard precautions.
That cost us more than $20,000 in testing fees, and it took two full years of battling the county to accept the reports. We ultimately had to hire an attorney to get the reports approved. That cost us even more – both time and money.
We finally received our pre-clearance in August 2022, almost exactly two years after our home was confirmed destroyed.
We had a huge sense of relief and thought, finally, we could rebuild and give our family stability. But then, disaster struck again: a county-owned water main broke multiple times in the neighborhood, triggering a nearby landslide. This led a former county geologist to come onto our property uninvited. He crossed a locked chain and walked past our “no trespassing” signs. I saw him and confronted him. Shortly after, he declared our geologic reports invalid.
The county then promised to pursue a Federal Emergency Management Agency buyback of my property, offering what my wife and I considered a lifeline to escape the ordeal. The county even brought FEMA representatives to our neighborhood to discuss with me and other property owners affected by the water main break options for FEMA and the county to buy our homes at their pre-fire value.
It was another case of disillusionment.
As we pursued the buyback, county planning director Matt Machado told me he personally saw a “bulge” on my property. He didn’t clarify what he meant, but he told me he needed to add a “notice of geologic hazard” on our title. He said it was a necessary step toward the FEMA buyback.
We were apprehensive. We worried the notice would tank our property value if the buyback didn’t happen. We also had our privately hired geologist check our property for any land movement after the water main break. “No detectable movement of the landslides has occurred since the points were set,” his report reads.
We appealed the hazard notice, and as we waited for a hearing, we received an email from the county that we were no longer eligible for the buyback.
That again left us with nothing.
A month later, the county’s own hearing officer ruled that no hazard notice could be recorded because there was no proof of an actual hazard on our land. Whatever the “bulge” Matt Machado allegedly saw amounted to nothing.
This should have been our chance to build again. Instead, it kicked off the next round of frustration.
The county now demands a seventh geotechnical report. It wants access to my neighbor’s property before it will grant us permits to rebuild. But our neighbor – rightly skeptical of having the county on his land – has denied access.
This is making our rebuild impossible. When we point this out, county counsel claims that there are “other paths forward.” But, despite our repeated requests, county counsel has not explained what those paths are.
We believe county counsel is acting in bad faith – stalling our case as long as possible, rather than admitting the county is at fault. We have had to hire lawyers to fight for our rebuild, and we believe the county is hoping we will run out of money and give up.
Our property sits uninhabitable, yet we’re still forced to pay full property taxes on land classified as “buildable”— land the county won’t let us rebuild on without demanding more geologic testing on neighboring private property which we cannot legally access.
This feels like the very definition of a regulatory taking, turning our greatest hardship into an ongoing betrayal by the system meant to help us.
Remarkably, identical nearby neighboring properties — facing the same burn scar, the same landslide risks from the broken water main and the same geologic conditions — have been fully rebuilt and reoccupied without these obstacles.
I am a general contractor, and I personally rebuilt the home directly across the street from where our home once stood without issue and with county approval, while we remain stuck. I am well aware of the steps that need to be taken to successfully rebuild in my neighborhood post-fire.
The county’s inconsistent treatment raises serious questions about fairness and selective enforcement.
The county seems more invested in red tape than in solutions for residents, including veterans who’ve sacrificed so much. Rather than partnering with us during this grueling rebuild, they’ve piled on denial after denial, leaving families like mine in limbo.
If this can happen to us — while other neighbors rebuild freely — no wildfire survivor is safe, especially as fires rage more intensely across California.
Five years on, these delays and bad-faith tactics have kept us from recovering and cost us hundreds of thousands in testing and legal fees, and five years of lost time. If we had been allowed to rebuild our home as it was, I believe our home would today be worth close to $600,000.
We should have been spending that time enjoying the toddler years of my children’s lives. Instead, we have spent five years stressing about how we’re going to get past this – financially and emotionally.
My lawsuit against the county seeks to highlight these failures and demand accountability. Wildfires are only getting worse, scarring more land vulnerable to landslides and hazards.
Santa Cruz County says it’s trying to protect itself and residents like me from future disaster. But its approach sets a dangerous precedent: It is prioritizing barriers over aid for survivors.
We deserve better — real solutions, not endless roadblocks. Veterans and families who’ve lost everything shouldn’t have to wage legal war against our own government just to reclaim our lives.
It’s time for change, before more survivors are left behind.
Justin Walker, a licensed general contractor and former Boulder Creek resident, lost his family home in the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fire. For over five years, he and his wife, Tracy — who paused her career to raise their young children — have fought regulatory delays and bureaucratic hurdles from Santa Cruz County to rebuild.