With some advocacy from Los Angeles elected officials, Gov. Gavin Newsom was expected Wednesday to exempt fire-torn regions of LA County from a state law that allows duplexes and other housing units to replace burned-down single-family homes.
Newsom planned to issue an executive order Wednesday allowing Los Angeles-area governments to limit development in neighborhoods impacted by January’s wildfires. The order would provide local elected officials the ability to suspend provisions under Senate Bill 9, a 2021 law that allows property owners to build up to four units on their land that was previously designated for single-family homes.
This exemption would affect locations in high severity burn areas, such as the Palisades, parts of Malibu and Altadena.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the law was passed to create more housing — something the state desperately needs.
“Legislators in Sacramento could not have foreseen the bill’s impact on the Palisades community as it works to rebuild from one of the worst natural disasters in state history,” Bass said in a statement.
More than 5,000 single-family homes were damaged or destroyed by the Palisades Fire.
The mayor warned that SB 9 could allow developers to change those properties into multiple-unit residencies, which could drastically further challenge ingress and egress in a very high fire hazard severity zone.
“It could fundamentally alter the safety of the area by straining local infrastructure,” Bass said in her statement. “I oppose this usage as it relates to the rebuilding in the Palisades, and I look forward to continuing work with Gov. Newsom and state leaders to advocate for the Palisades community and identify a path forward as we continue to rebuild.”
City Councilwoman Traci Park, who represents Pacific Palisades, wrote a letter Tuesday to Newsom’s office expressing her opposition to SB 9. She warned that the law could lead to an “unforeseen explosion of density.”
“Given the widespread destruction of the Pacific Palisades, its topography, and limitations to infrastructure, ingress and egress, I am requesting that SB 9 and other laws permitting increases in density be suspended until such time an analysis can be conducted to determine the capacity of our evacuation routes and infrastructure can adequately accommodate this increased density,” Park wrote.
The Pacific Palisades Community Council — a body of residents representing the Palisades — also sent a letter requesting Newsom and LA elected officials suspend SB 9, and take additional measures to protect their neighborhood.
“We write now to urgently request that our government officials take immediate steps to protect the community from forced additional density that will result from opportunistic developers seeking to take advantage of the widespread destruction of single-family homes caused by the Palisades Fire to build multi-family housing under the streamlined procedures of SB 9,” the letter said.
“These efforts, if unchecked, pose a grave risk to public safety, and ultimately, to preservation of the essential character of Pacific Palisades.”