To the editor: Gov. Gavin Newsom has gotten front-page headlines with irrelevant gestures on easing regulations to rebuild in fire-stricken areas.

The California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, generally does not apply to single-family homes, let alone rebuilds. Furthermore, as your article confirms, rebuilds of most single-family homes are also exempt from coastal development permits.

As we learned in Santa Barbara after the Paint fire in 1990, when the county quickly moved to exempt rebuilds from the planning process, most people of means did not want to rebuild what they had before but were willing to wait for something “bigger” and better. One can expect that the owners of beach houses in Malibu will “want” what residents of more modest, diverse areas in Altadena in fact do need.

Worse, the application of these “exemptions” in Malibu will likely trash the state’s efforts to address sea-level rise in new construction.

Two years ago, Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 1078, which would have established a revolving loan fund to allow local jurisdictions to purchase vulnerable coastal properties affected by climate change. Insurance companies will now pay out billions on those same coastal properties and leave the rest of us, coastal residents or not, without coverage.

Now would be a good time for the state to take steps to purchase or condemn what is left of the vacant land beneath the ruins at its current “value” as a developing public beach.

Jana Zimmer, Santa Barbara

The writer, a member of the California Coastal Commission from 2011-15, is author of the book, “Navigating the California Coastal Act.”

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To the editor: I have a favor to ask our governor: Please help me convince my friends not to flee our state. Already fed up with homelessness and home prices, they view these fires as the final nail in the California coffin.

I try to tell them we have an opportunity to astound the rest of the country with how swiftly and ingeniously we can rise from the ashes. World-class creativity and technological innovation flourish here as nowhere else and can help us reimagine and rebuild flame- and quake-resistant communities.

Good luck with that, they snicker. And then they point to our notoriously clumsy, overly regulated bureaucratic apparatuses to conclude that we will fail.

I implore the governor to declare the current moment a clarion call to totally revolutionize and expedite the way we get things done. He must rise above politics and use this moment to truly recapture the energy and spirit that made California what it is — or was.

Jordan Sollitto, San Marino

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To the editor: I do not support shortcutting the regulatory process for rebuilding.

We actually need a new set of regulations for building in this region. We need new building codes. We need to landscape in a different way.

Letting people build according to our current codes is just a recipe for repeated disaster.

This might slow down the rebuilding, but it will make it much better in the long run. Our urban planners need to come up with building codes appropriate for our changing climate.

Mona Field, Eagle Rock

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To the editor: I listened to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass talk about cutting red tape for the rebuilding effort. People who have lost homes and businesses are inundated with problems, so this, if it happens, will make it a bit easier to rebuild.

But that raises a question: Why are there so many regulatory hurdles to building in the first place? If there is regulatory relief on the local level for those who have lost so much in the fires, why can’t unnecessary, cumbersome permitting simply be scuttled for good?

Alice Lillie, Pomona