SANTA MONICA, CA — A proposed study examining whether Santa Monica's transportation network has enough capacity to handle demand during a major evacuation remains unfunded more than a year and a half after the Palisades Fire threatened the city's northern border.
The detailed evacuation-capacity study could cost more than $150,000, but the money has not been budgeted and the City Council did not allocate funding for the work when it approved the city's Safety Element, Local Hazard Mitigation Plan or Palisades Fire After-Action Report, city officials told Patch.
The disclosure follows the council's Sept. 22 consideration of an independent review of Santa Monica's response to the January 2025 Palisades Fire, which resulted in 36 recommendations aimed at improving the city's response to future emergencies.
Six of those recommendations have been completed, while the others are either in progress or still being evaluated for need and funding, according to the city.
Santa Monica already has evacuation routes and recently revised its evacuation zones to better reflect local hazards and make them more recognizable to residents. Officials have also identified the number of residents and estimated the number of visitors who could be within those zones at different times of day.
What the city does not yet have is the more detailed transportation analysis contemplated by the proposed capacity study.
"This detailed study examines the capacity of the local transportation system during an evacuation condition and compares it with evacuation travel demand," city officials told Patch.
Santa Monica's adopted Safety Element, approved by the council in February 2025, identifies evacuation routes for three high-impact, time-sensitive emergencies: wildfire, tsunami and inundation caused by a failure of Stone Canyon Dam. The Safety Element also addresses a state requirement that cities identify evacuation routes and their capacity, safety and viability under a range of emergency scenarios.
Santa Monica publishes its evacuation zones through Genasys Protect, whose data is also used by apps including Watch Duty. The city noted that a tsunami triggered by a major local earthquake would require people in affected zones to evacuate without vehicles because of the limited time available.
The question of Santa Monica's evacuation capacity surfaced during the council's Sept. 22 discussion of the Palisades Fire After-Action Report. Chief Resilience Officer Lindsay Call told council members that the Community Development Department had identified potential funding for an evacuation-capacity study and that the work was moving forward.
When Councilmember Lana Negrete asked when the study was expected to be completed, Call said, "There's not a contract yet," adding that officials were still working through timing, staffing and funding.
The city subsequently told Patch that an evacuation-capacity study could cost more than $150,000 and that the funding is not currently budgeted.
"No funding was allocated by City Council for the study when the Safety Element, Local Hazard Mitigation Plan or Palisades Fire After Action Reports were approved and adopted," city officials said. Officials did not provide Patch with a timetable for awarding a contract or completing the study, nor did they say whether a consultant has been identified.
The city also did not say whether the study would incorporate projected population and housing growth or examine how evacuations and road closures in neighboring Los Angeles could affect Santa Monica's transportation network during an emergency.
During the council discussion, one council member raised the possibility of restoring north-south connections through the city as part of any long-term reconfiguration of the Interstate 10 corridor and asked how that could affect evacuation routes. Call said the issue could potentially be evaluated as part of the capacity study.
The capacity study is separate from another preparedness project already underway: a new citywide evacuation response plan. Call told council members that a multi-departmental working group was developing that plan, while Community Development was separately pursuing the capacity study.
The city subsequently told Patch that Santa Monica already has a Brushfire Traffic Services Functional Brushfire Evacuation Plan and Tsunami Response Plan that have previously guided disaster response and evacuation activities.
The new citywide plan will establish roles and responsibilities across city departments, a concept of operations for response activities and detailed alert and warning procedures. It will also include information about community support services, including assistance for people with access and functional needs.
Call drew a distinction between the two projects during the council meeting, describing the evacuation response plan as more focused on response tactics while the capacity study could examine longer-term transportation issues. The city's existing planning documents also identify people with disabilities and households without access to vehicles among populations that can face particular challenges during an emergency.
The Palisades Fire began Jan. 7, 2025, ultimately burning more than 23,000 acres north of Santa Monica. No Santa Monica acreage or structures burned, but the threat prompted evacuation orders and a curfew as city firefighters monitored the northern border and coordinated with other agencies working to prevent the fire from spreading into Santa Monica.
The city later selected Jacob Green & Associates to conduct an independent review of its response. Call told the council that the consultants reviewed emergency plans and policies, documentation from the incident and public communications, and interviewed council members, city leadership and current and former staff.
The resulting report produced 36 recommendations spanning multiple city departments. Call told council members that progress since the fire includes a 76 percent increase in identified Emergency Operations Center staff representing departments across the city, technology upgrades and the revised evacuation zones.
She also acknowledged continuing staffing constraints within emergency management. Asked about staffing during the council discussion, Call said Santa Monica has two emergency-management positions, although her additional responsibility for 911 dispatch means the effective staffing level is closer to 1.5 positions.
The emergency-services position that was vacant during the Palisades Fire has since been filled, Call said, but she noted that the small team remains vulnerable to absences while simultaneously handling emergency preparedness, response and planning for major events. Of the After-Action Report's 36 recommendations, six have now been completed, city officials told Patch.
Officials did not provide a numerical breakdown showing how many of the remaining 30 are actively being implemented and how many are still being evaluated for need or funding. They cautioned that some preparedness measures, including community education and Emergency Operations Center staffing, require continuing work rather than a one-time project or policy.
Santa Monica's broader Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, adopted by the City Council in November 2025 and approved by the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services and Federal Emergency Management Agency in spring 2026, establishes mitigation priorities for hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis and wildfires.
The evacuation-capacity study would answer a more specific question: how Santa Monica's transportation capacity compares with the demand placed on it when people need to evacuate. For now, officials have estimated that potential demand, but the study designed to measure the transportation system against it has no contract and no dedicated funding.
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