The Brief

California’s western burrowing owls may soon see greater protections as a petition to list some populations of the bird as endangered has advanced through a state agency.

This is the first major hurdle advocates for the species needed to clear, and some protections could take effect on a preliminary basis as soon as October. Still, there are several more steps before the state considers some populations of the owl to be endangered.

Path to protection

The process of protecting the burrowing owl started after six environmental groups filed a petition for some populations of the species to be listed as endangered. This week, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife recommended passing the petition to another state board for another level of approval: designating the species a “candidate” to be considered endangered.

“We're hoping they take action in October,” said conservation advocate Jeff Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that recommended the protections for the burrowing owl. “I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be [designated as a candidate species]. It really does qualify.”

The committee will hear the petition later this month, and the next step will take place on Oct. 10 in front of the Fish and Game Commission, which sets rules that the Department of Fish and Wildlife enforces. At that point, the Fish and Game Commission will determine whether the burrowing owl meets the standards to be listed as a “candidate” for protections.

If the owl qualifies, the commission will determine what protections are needed. In that case, the owl would remain protected during a full review process conducted by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, which will last 12 to 18 months.

Conservation advocates for the burrowing owl say time is already running out for many populations across the state, and that this will be a big help for the owl.

“It's a good feature of the state version of the Endangered Species Act, this kind of precautionary principle,” Miller said. “That's especially needed for a species like the burrowing owl.”

The wildlife protection law

The western burrowing owl is relatively widespread, from Canada to the Western U.S. to Central America and is not listed as a protected species overall. But under the California Endangered Species Act, certain populations of an animal can still be protected. (This plays an important role in conservation: Consider how many populations of mountain lions face threats due to human development even though population numbers for the species overall are not cause a concern.)

State officials will decide whether to protect certain populations of the owl or focus on specific areas that are most threatened.

For their part, petitioners are only asking to protect the southwestern population of burrowing owls, which used to extend into Los Angeles County but are now largely confined to western Riverside County and southwestern San Bernardino County, according to Miller.

“Those are places where development is just proceeding at a pretty breakneck pace, so we're losing those populations very quickly,” Miller said.

The petitioners are also asking for burrowing owl populations in the Central Coast and San Francisco Bay Area to be considered endangered.

About the burrowing owl

The western burrowing owl, which Miller described as “adorable,” is different from many other species of owl in that it makes its home from burrows created by mammals like the California ground squirrel — and it’s unique that it both nests and roosts underground.

The western burrowing owl’s habitat is mainly grasslands and low-lying flat areas that are also targeted for farmland and construction, especially as California’s housing and development boom expands even further into the species’ habitat. This construction has caused burrowing owl populations to plummet in certain regions.

“We are losing burrowing owls everywhere, including places where they were formerly very numerous, and it was thought they were kind of the strongholds for the species,” Miller said. “Just since 2018, we've just seen the numbers plummet statewide.”

Even in a worst-case scenario where the species went extinct locally, you may still see burrowing owls in Southern California. But that doesn’t mean the native populations are coming back. Many owls breed in more northern habitats and migrate south, but conservation experts are concerned with maintaining a steady breeding population in all parts of the state.

While populations overall are on the decline, preservation efforts of some breeding populations in California have seen success. A few populations in urban counties have survived due to organizations like the San Diego Zoo performing “triage emergency measures,” including captive breeding and the feeding of juvenile owls, Miller said.

In her State of the City address this month, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass boasted that her administration had fast-tracked the construction of more than 30,000 affordable housing units.

A Crosstown analysis of the data indicates the pace of actual building may be considerably slower. Bass’s Executive Directive 1 was supposed to slash red tape and accelerate approval times for housing projects that consist entirely of affordable, or below market rate, units. She said builders already had broken ground on 6,000 of them.

Of the 32,838 units plan-approved under ED1 through the end of last year and listed on the case summary dashboard, 4,993 have been issued building permits for new construction, a Crosstown analysis found.

Just 26% of affordable units entitled during ED1’s first year, 2023, have been granted building permits, all of which have been approved for two years or more.

“Mayor Bass was correct in her statement that 6,000 units are currently under construction,” the mayor’s press office said in a statement to Crosstown. The mayor’s office did not provide a clear explanation as to how that total was calculated.

The slower-than-advertised pace of affordable units is just one part of a broader stagnation afflicting the city’s home-building sector. Last year, a total of 7,892 apartment units were permitted, according to data from the Department of Building and Safety. That includes everything from affordable units to luxury apartments. It represents a 1% increase from the year prior but a 34% decrease from 2019.

Los Angeles faces an acute housing shortage, a problem that has exacerbated a longstanding homelessness crisis and has contributed to rising unaffordability that burdens many of the city’s residents. According to the Southern California Association of Governments, the city of Los Angeles must produce 456,643 housing units during the decade, a pace it now appears certain to miss by a wide margin.

Despite the chronic need for more housing, builders say they are up against an array of obstacles in Los Angeles. Production costs are more than double the average costs in Texas, according to a RAND study. The controversial Measure ULA, informally known as the ”mansion tax,” has also been blamed for construction slowdowns. The levy, which went into effect in April 2023, adds a 4% tax on residential and commercial properties sold for $5.3 million or more, and a 5.5% tax on properties sold for over $10.6 million, including apartment blocks. The revenues are intended to be put toward affordable housing. But the extra tax makes building an apartment project and then selling it particularly burdensome.

Ari Kahan, principal of California Landmark Group, said his development firm has significantly scaled back their Los Angeles projects.

“We still explore unique opportunities, but we cannot afford the risk of both ULA and the inevitable other shoe dropping on another related issue in the city of L.A.,” Kahan said.

The city’s housing crisis has been at the forefront of Bass’s first term agenda. ED 1, which went into effect in 2023, was intended to fast-track construction by reducing approval times for affordable housing projects and shelters to 60 days. The directive prompted a flurry of new proposals. But moving those proposals from the drawing board to actual construction has been slow.

Building struggles

ED1 and programs that encouraged affordable housing, such as bonus diversity programs and the Transit Oriented Communities Incentive Program — which incentivizes low-income housing near bus and train stations — have been big enticements for new development. However, Kahan said Measure ULA has made it difficult for developers to turn a profit on those projects, and he predicts that most of them will never be built.

The measure has generated over $1 billion through January 2026. Critics assail the nickname “mansion tax” because the levy equally applies to multifamily apartment buildings and commercial properties, not just expensive single-family homes. Fifty-nine percent of transactions are single-family residences, 25% are commercial properties and 13% are multi-family residences, according to the ULA Revenue Dashboard.

Joe Donlin, director of United to House LA, the coalition of housing, labor and renters groups behind the measure, defended the tax and said it’s important to let the policy “breathe and take effect” to understand its full impact. He called the measure an economic engine for the city, adding that $400 million in ULA revenue went out to affordable housing developers last fall.

“We’re talking about hundreds of new homes being built, thousands of new construction jobs, investment in neighborhoods that haven’t seen investment like this in a long time,” Donlin said.

Donlin said Los Angeles’ housing struggles are likely due to stubbornly high interest rates, insurance costs and construction material costs around the time Measure ULA went into effect.

Stephanie Klasky-Gamer, president of LA Family Housing, said she has been able to sidestep Measure ULA because she manages the properties she builds instead of selling them. For her, one of the biggest affordable housing hurdles is a lack of federal assistance to help low-income tenants pay rent.

“[Los Angeles’s] largest housing gap is for our extremely and very low-income households. In order to make housing affordable to that target income group, it would require a larger allocation of rental subsidies,” Klasky-Gamer said.

President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget proposal aimed to cut over $26 billion from federal rental assistance programs, but the House Appropriations Committee rejected the cuts and increased funding for housing assistance programs. Tenant-based vouchers received $2.4 billion more than they did in the 2025 fiscal year, and the project-based rental assistance program received an extra $1.65 billion.

Westchester grows, downtown dwindles

In a rocky year for issued apartment permits, some Los Angeles neighborhoods showed marked increases, while others saw steep declines.

Westchester had 787 apartment units permitted last year, the most of any neighborhood. North Hollywood had the second most at 502, and Mid-City had the third most with 449.

Downtown saw a substantial dip in permits issued. Last year, 207 units were approved, nearly half as many as the year before and an 87% decrease from 2022.

The regression comes as downtown contends with a massive homelessness population. Downtown had the most non-emergency calls for homeless encampments, 8,417, of any neighborhood in 2025, according to MyLA311 service data.

How we did it: We examined all ED1-related projects on the city’s case summary dashboard and compared those with the Department of Building and Safety’s permits issued for new apartments. In addition, we compiled the number of apartment new units permitted for construction in the city over the past decade. In a previous article, Crosstown used a slightly different methodology to determine the number of permitted apartments in the city. The slight changes in methodology account for the difference in numbers in that article.

Have questions about our data? Write to us at askus@xtown.la

This story was originally published by Boyle Heights Beat on Feb. 24, 2026.

East Los Angeles is home to nearly 119,000 residents, but the community has no mayor or city hall.

So who makes decisions? Who fixes potholes? Who gets called to report illegal dumping?

East L.A. is not a city, and it’s not part of the city of L.A. Instead, it’s an unincorporated part of L.A. County, and even though it’s the most populous unincorporated area in California, community organizers say many residents are unaware of the problems that raises.

According to the L.A. County Planning Department, there are approximately 120 to 125 unincorporated areas in the county, which altogether represent two-thirds of its total area and one-tenth of its population.

“For the 1 million people living in these areas, the Board of Supervisors is their ‘city council’ and the supervisor representing the area is their ‘mayor,’” the department website says.

So what does it mean to live in an unincorporated community?

Let’s break it down:

What is an unincorporated community?

An unincorporated area is land within a county that has not been designated to be a city, meaning that it relies on county services, including for law enforcement, public works and local government.

Instead of being governed by a city council and a mayor, major decisions for East L.A. residents fall under the authority of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.

East L.A. residents have called for representation that’s more closely tied to their community and financial transparency, saying they want to know how their tax dollars are spent locally.

Who represents East LA?

East L.A., located in Supervisorial District 1, has been represented by County Supervisor Hilda Solis since 2014. Her term is set to end this year.

Solis also makes decisions for the nearly 2 million other residents who live in District 1, which covers more than 20 cities, stretching from Silver Lake to Pomona, as well as various neighborhoods of the city of Los Angeles, including Boyle Heights and downtown.

On a state level, East L.A. is represented by Assemblymember Jessica Caloza and state Sen. María Elena Durazo. Rep. Jimmy Gomez represents East L.A. in Congress.

Who provides key services for East LA residents?

Independent cities often provide residents with their own municipal services such as law enforcement, firefighting, animal control, trash collection, road maintenance, library services and parks.

Here’s a list of services available to East L.A. residents:

• First District Field Office – East Los Angeles
  
  • Services: Here’s how you can get in touch with Solis’ office if you have questions or concerns.
  • Location: 4801 E. Third St., Los Angeles
  • Contact: (323) 881-4601
• East LA Sheriff’s Station 
  
  • Services: In addition to serving East L.A., the station also serves the cities of Commerce, Cudahy and Maywood, as well as unincorporated Belvedere Gardens, City Terrace, Eastmont, Saybrook Park and Union Pacific.
  • Location: 5019 E. Third St., East Los Angeles
  • Contact: (323) 264-4151. For emergencies, call 911. 
  • Website: lasd.org/east-los-angeles
• LA County Fire Department
  
  • Services: The L.A. County Fire Department serves all of the unincorporated area within Los Angeles County, as well as 60 incorporated cities, 59 of which are in Los Angeles County and one in Orange County. 
  • Contact: (323) 881-2411. For emergencies, call 911.
  • Website: fire.lacounty.gov
• Public Works
  
  • Services: L.A. County Public Works responds to calls about graffiti, potholes, illegal dumping, homeless encampments, transportation services and building and safety permits, among other things.
  • Contact: Reports can be submitted online. Urgent requests can be made by calling the 24-hour line at (800) 675-4357.
  • Website: pw.lacounty.gov
• 211 LA County
  
  • Services: 211 L.A. County provides health and social service resources, including housing support, mental health care, financial assistance and recovery resources. During disasters, like wildfires and other crises, the line provides real-time information and can help people find shelter, food, financial help and emotional support.
  • Contact: Dial 211. Those unable to reach 2-1-1 service can call (800) 339-6993. TTY/TDD# (phone for hearing impaired): (800) 660-4026
  • Website: 211la.org

For a full list, check out this guide to unincorporated areas services for District 1.

Why isn’t East LA its own city?

Over the decades, multiple efforts to incorporate East LA into a city have failed. A recent fiscal analysis concluded that cityhood remains financially unviable for the region. Residents have continued their calls for more financial transparency and better representation. A new effort on the horizon may allow citizens to directly advise the county on issues unique to East LA.

How can residents make their voices heard?

The report that deemed cityhood unfeasible for unincorporated East LA last year recommended the formation of a Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) — a formal, citizen-led body that would provide residents with a structure for public input and give stakeholders a direct line of communication to county leadership.

At the first of six community forums on Saturday, Feb. 21, some residents deemed the MAC a stepping stone towards proper incorporation down the line. Others asked for better economic investment and access to a localized, itemized budget every year for residents to understand how their tax dollars are spent on improving social services and local businesses.

“Every problem we have, can be solved if we have a local government,” resident Francisco Cardenas. “We have nobody to complain to.”

Here’s everything you need to know about the MAC and the upcoming community forums where residents are invited to weigh in. The next meeting will take place Thursday at East L.A. Library, located at 4837 E. Third St. Register here.