Following California’s disastrous week of wildfires, local AIA chapters are joining public officials and allied organizations in relief and recovery efforts, reports AIA San Diego Communications and Programs Director Dawn Quisenberry. The component is offering assistance to city, county, and state officials and continues to hone its disaster response efforts by working with local chapters experienced in earthquake recovery efforts.

Earlier this week, with assistance from AIA San Diego, county officials agreed to self-certification of qualified architects, allowing them to stamp and approve drawings for replacement buildings of the same size as their original structures. The county’s Board of Supervisors passed an emergency resolution to waive building permit fees related to rebuilding structures damaged by the fire. If the owner decides to increase the size, he or she would simply pay a fee for the additional square footage, Quisenberry explains. Plans are also under way for teams of architects and engineers to assist the county building department with site plan checks.

AIA San Diego Executive Director Elizabeth O’Malley asked chapter members via e-mail to help secure documents requested by clients whose structures have been destroyed or damaged. Fourteen people died, and more than 280,000 acres and 2,820 buildings (including 2,232 homes) fell victim to the Cedar Fire, the worst of San Diego County’s blazes.

AIA San Diego, site of the 2003 AIA National Convention, currently is assembling a response corps in partnership with the local landscape architects, structural engineers, and the building industry and organizing a coordinated communications effort to handle questions from victims, the media, and the general public. The group also aims to create committees for recovery issues that will arise in the coming months and years.

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