PACIFIC PALISADES, CA — Bucking years of tradition, a family new to the California area had failed to build a single gingerbread house this Christmas season due to a backlog at the permit office.

"We're still waiting for the appropriate permits to build our gingerbread house," said Mona Riggs. "Baking gingerbread houses is a fun tradition we do every year, but at this point we'll be lucky to have one put together by the end of the decade."

According to sources, the January Pacific Palisades fire and its resulting destruction caused a significant logjam of processing permit applications. The city office has had to forward all applications to the county, where there was already a three-year backlog. The fire, however, was not the only cause for delay, but also the seemingly endless red tap

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