The Brief

A year and a half after the Eaton Fire burned thousands of homes, Altadena residents are grappling with a question shaping the community’s future: Should rebuilding efforts make room for dense, more affordable housing, or should they seek to recreate the same kind of single-family housing that existed before the fires?

The debate has triggered advocacy around a new bill, lawsuits against L.A. County from developers, petitions from neighbors and emergency town council meetings.

On one side are Altadena residents rallying behind proposed state legislation to temporarily block developers from using California density laws to build multi-unit housing on single-family lots.

They say they want to stop out-of-town developers from building structures like duplexes and bungalow courts, which residents say threaten the neighborhood’s identity and will lead to congestion on narrow roads.

On the other side, developers are looking to build denser housing under existing laws that expedite lot subdivision.

But the county has delayed or denied some of their applications, leading at least three developers to file lawsuits in L.A. County Superior Court.

How we got here

In July 2025, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order allowing local governments to prohibit new duplexes in burn zones such as the Pacific Palisades and Malibu. But the order didn’t include most of Altadena, which technically isn’t in a very high fire-hazard severity zone.

“When residents from my community had initially seen this executive order, they were pretty concerned and upset that they were not included,” state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez said.

“We need protections as well,” said the senator who represents the area.

That’s why some residents are supporting Pérez’s Senate Bill 1090 — which is headed to a full Assembly vote in August.

The frames of new buildings rise next to 411 Punahou St. in Altadena, where a multi-unit complex has been at the center of a rebuilding controversy.

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Sena Chang

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On the ground

On Punahou Street, near Farnsworth Park, nearly every single-family home was destroyed by the Eaton Fire.

More than a year and a half after the fire, rows and rows of empty lots remain scraped raw and swallowed by untended weeds. “Altadena is not for sale” signs lay strewn among fallen branches and charred shrubs.

On a handful of properties, wooden frames are beginning to take shape.

Altadena residents began noticing plans to build multi-family complexes this spring.

Their focus was drawn to 411 Punahou St., where a single-family home once stood. In March, neighborhood captain Angela Uriu spotted digital renderings showing a sleek, multi-unit complex with parking spaces.

At a community rally in support of SB 1090, the project at 411 Punahou St. was a topic of discussion.

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Brian Feinzimer

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For Beautiful Altadena

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Her home on the same block, a one-story Cape Cod-style house built in 1939, burned to the ground in the fire.

“We have a small street, and it felt like [the developers] made no attempt to be neighborly in the aesthetics of the structure and how they faced our street or the neighbors on either side,” Uriu said.

She soon started a petition opposing the development, which was one signature shy of 1,500 on Thursday.

Uriu is among a growing number of residents who say the rebuilding process has opened the door to predatory outside developers.

“You have speculative developers for whom their entire business plan relies upon purchasing these lots, getting plans approved for the lots, and then flipping them,” said Shawna Dawson Beer, who founded the community activism group Beautiful Altadena in 2015.

“That should not be easier than getting people home and getting people to rebuild their homes,” she added.

A legal battle brews

Recently, developers in Altadena haven’t gotten housing applications approved under SB 1123, leading some to sue the county. Only a few SB 1123 applications were approved after the fire, according to the county’s permit finder.

This spring, L.A. County sent out one-paragraph rejections of SB 1123 applications to developers, saying that the properties’ perimeters were not substantially surrounded by developed parcels — a requirement for projects to qualify for SB 1123.

“We actually voided all applications because [SB 1123] was meant to be infill building, and there’s nothing around,” L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger told the California Assembly at the beginning of July. Barger’s district includes Altadena.

The decision to void the applications was based on guidance from the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development, according to Anish Saraiya, the director of Altadena recovery in Barger’s office.

Kensington Homes, Caldev and other development companies quickly sued the county, alleging that the rejections were based on “a pretextual political decision to prevent increased density in post-fire Altadena.”

The county Department of Regional Planning wrote in a statement to LAist that new applications for multifamily projects under SB 1123 can’t be approved “based on current law.” The department did not elaborate.

At least three lawsuits allege that the delay and denial of these applications were inconsistent with the county’s past actions and messaging.

Brick Work, a land use startup suing the county, submitted applications to build multifamily homes in late 2025.

“We were just going about business as usual,” founder John Jung said.

But county officials in March declared the project ineligible due to the urban infill requirement, Jung said.

Multiple lawsuits cite a now-offline brochure published by the L.A. County Planning Department, which provided guidance on using SB 1123 and SB 9 to split lots for Eaton Fire survivors. They allege that the county changed its position by replacing the brochure this spring.

“Content on the Disaster Recovery webpage is updated regularly to reflect the latest information in the most accessible form, and this particular brochure has been replaced by other content,” the Department of Regional Planning wrote in a statement to LAist.

At the heart of the lawsuits is a thorny question: What counts as urban infill after a neighborhood has burned?

One lawsuit filed by Kensington Homes argues that the definition of a “qualified urban use” can also include remnant residential structures left following the fire. Therefore, it argues, “virtually all of the land in Altadena qualifies for the program.”

Jung argues that although the lots are currently vacant, “the use is still residential, and they’re all in the midst of rebuilding — they’re not going to stay vacant,” he said.

The county’s current interpretation stands contrary to the purpose of SB 1123, according to Jacob Pierce of Abundant Housing L.A., a pro-housing nonprofit.

“The county’s interest in reading a temporary post-disaster condition as disqualification does not pass the smell test,” he said.

But supporters of SB 1090 say that SB 1123’s urban infill requirements were never intended to include burned lots. They argue that fire-scarred blocks should not be treated the same as intact urban neighborhoods.

“There is no question that an entire town that was wiped off the map overnight is not urban infill,” said Dawson Beer, the community activist.

UC Davis law professor Christopher S. Elmendorf says that the statute doesn’t directly address the issue.

But, Elmendorf noted, “it would be strange for the city to declare that the sites are ‘not urban’ because the existing uses burned, while at the same time it issues permits for the rebuilding of single-family homes.”

Rebuilding on their own terms

SB 9 projects, on the other hand, are still being approved by the county. More than 5,600 parcels were damaged or destroyed in Altadena. Fifty-seven, including 411 Punahou Street, have active permits invoking SB 9. Only two have been completed, and 14 are under construction.

But this was enough to unite Altadena residents in opposition. Similarly, a handful of SB 9 applications brought the Palisades community together against “opportunistic developers” last year, leading L.A. Mayor Karen Bass to suspend SB 9 in very high fire-hazard severity zones.

At a June 16 town council meeting in Altadena, more than 450 residents packed the overflow space to voice concerns about the developments and push for housing density exemptions under SB 1090. An “emergency” community meeting on Zoom was held later that month, gathering more than 100 residents.

Recovering and rebuilding after a traumatic event like a large-scale fire can cause friction within communities, said Megan Mullin, a public policy professor at UCLA.

“There can be a tension between what individuals and households need for their own recovery and the vision that a community has for what it wants to be in the future,” Mullin said.

Altadena town council Chair Nic Arnzen addresses Altadena residents at a June rally for SB 1090.

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Brian Feinzimer

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For Beautiful Altadena

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Among those who are critical of SB 1090 are residents who plan to earn additional income by renting out secondary units.

Geoff Ramsey-Ray’s insurance claims were not enough to cover the cost of rebuilding his home on two acres of land, leading him to pursue a lot split under SB 9. Selling the second lot is “the only feasible way” he can stay in Altadena, he said.

The SB 9 approval process has been slow, Ramsey-Ray said.

“Ironically, preventing the speculators is also hurting some of us in Altadena who are trying to find a way to afford to rebuild here,” Ramsey-Ray said.

Many SB 1090 advocates say they’re targeting only out-of-town developers, and the latest version of the bill carves out an exemption for community land trusts and affordable housing organizations.

Veronica Jones, president of the Altadena Historical Society, hopes for a middle ground.

“We just want to protect what makes Altadena Altadena,” she said.

Whether that middle ground can be reached — or even exists — remains a question.

What comes next?

After swiftly passing two committee votes in the state Assembly in early July, SB 1090 awaits a full Assembly vote in August. Then it would go to the Senate and, if passed, on to the governor for his signature.

If passed in its current version, the bill would go into effect starting Jan. 1, 2027, which residents say leaves too much time for developers to continue building. They’re now fighting to get an urgency clause added to the bill, which would have the moratorium take effect as soon as the governor signs it.

An "Altadena is not for sale" sign lies on the ground of an empty lot near Punahou Street.

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“We might still be able to move forward even if the moratorium passes, because there might be language in there that allows existing projects to still move forward,” said Jung, one of the developers suing the county.

Meanwhile, the land on 411 Punahou Street was sold, with site plans for a multi-unit building approved last December. The empty lot has been cleaned and leveled.

Uriu, the neighborhood captain who lost her home nearby, is distressed.

“To think,” Uriu said, “that I’m spending my retirement and going to have to work the rest of my life to build this new home and have a five-unit complex with two stories next door looking into my backyard — it’s just a really hard pill to swallow.”

Residents say that the debate around SB 1090 is only one piece of a much larger recovery process mired in permit delays and insufficient insurance payouts. More than 18 months after the Eaton Fire, only 1% of homes have been rebuilt, and some survivors have left L.A. altogether.

“Everybody who wants to come home should be able to,” said Katie Clark, the co-founder of the Altadena Tenants Union. “And the reality on the ground is that for many of us, that is an uphill battle.”

Did you know Orange County was once home to one of the trippiest and perhaps the most prescient science fiction writers of the 20th century?

That man was Philip K. Dick, who once called Santa Ana home.

This week, the Philip K. Dick Festival will celebrate the work and honor the O.C. legacy of the sci-fi master at Cal State Fullerton.

‘A big idea guy’ 

Most stories about Philip K. Dick — or PKD as many fans refer to him — start out with a list of Hollywood adaptations of his work: Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall, The Man in the High Castle... and the list goes on.

Dick’s more than 40 novels and some 120 short stories are filled with explorations of what it means to be human, untrustworthy realities and generally mind-bending narratives.

“Philip K. Dick’s novels are basically impossible to film. But he’s a big idea guy and the ideas seem to excite a lot of Hollywood producers,” said David Sandner, an English professor at Cal State Fullerton.

The Pollak Library at Cal State Fullerton houses a Philip K. Dick archive, which includes original manuscripts, correspondence and recordings of the author talking as a guest speaker in the 1970s.

Philip K. Dick with his literary papers.

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“Science fiction is a world where you could be,” Dick can be heard saying on the recording. “You always feel this thin tenuous line between your world and a good science fiction novel.”

Some fans who read Dick now might feel that tenuous line disappearing more than ever. Take for instance the fictional news device known as a "homeopape" from his novel Ubik, first published in 1969. It prints out articles based on a user’s interests and allows them to dial in the specific, niche news they want to read. Sound familiar?

“He understood that the technology was going to get inside of our heads... Which is what the algorithms are doing now. Right? They’re being set and then they’re being shifted more and more to bring us under control,” Sandner said from the third floor of the Pollak Library, where the Philip K. Dick papers are stored.

Dick grew up and spent the majority of his days writing in the San Francisco Bay area. Still somewhat obscure and recovering from a self-harm incident in Vancouver, a professor at Cal State Fullerton named Willis E. McNelly invited Dick out to Orange County in the early '70s, where he continued to write, give guest lectures and eventually donate many of his papers to the library.

Patrice Prestinary, archivist and special collections librarian at the Pollak Library, said Dick’s papers have been moved to their own, more accessible spot because they are so frequently requested.

The collection of PKD-related material includes colorful 1950s and 60s-era paperbacks emblazoned with rocket ships and psychedelic visions.

Patrice Prestinary in the Pollak Library's PKD archives.

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Robert Garrova

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But Prestinary said many researchers who come here are seeking out the more personal ephemera.

“You know, writing to his mother and talking about really ordinary things like paying bills and his cat,” she said. “Sometimes they just want to know the man behind these stories that they love.”

The man behind those stories spent the last 10 years of his life in Orange County, including at a two-bedroom apartment in Santa Ana.

Pink beams and O.C. friends 

During that period, Dick had some of his most trippy, spiritual experiences, including a run-in with a pink beam of light that he believed imparted transcendent wisdom.

“He himself is a character. And once you start learning about his life and the experiences that he had... It’s interesting because then his own life became like his novels,” author and Dick researcher Keith Giles told LAist. Giles will release a set of PKD-inspired novellas from seven authors at this week’s festival.

But it wasn’t just transcendental experiences — Dick was making plenty of more terrestrial friends in Orange County, too. Those include author Tim Powers, who will be part of a panel called “Phil’s Orange County Friends” on Aug. 22.

“In a lot of ways, I think he really felt like Orange County saved his life,” said David Agranoff, author and co-host of the Dickheads podcast.

“I don’t think he felt like he could change his life if he didn’t go somewhere else,” Agranoff said, citing Dick’s struggles with substance use in the San Francisco Bay area.

Dick died in 1982, just a few months before the release of Blade Runner, which was loosely based on his novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The film skyrocketed his name into the mainstream.

“He’s this 20th century writer who’s almost more relevant today than he was then,” Agranoff, an organizer of the festival, said.

The festival features a wide range of talks and panels exploring everything from quantum physics and artificial intelligence to death and the afterlife in the author’s works.

“He wrote about all those things and it gives us a chance to talk about not just science fiction, but philosophy and politics,” Agranoff said. “And the festival becomes this way to expand out into the universe... from the view that Phil gave us.”

Progressives across the country are undeniably having a moment.

Voters are rallying behind populist, insurgent-left candidates like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Michigan senate hopeful Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and Randy Villegas in California’s 22nd Congressional District.

But in the race to succeed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as San Francisco’s representative in Congress, the city’s voters are split between two Democratic candidates who both claim the title of “progressive.”

The major fault line? Housing and urban development.

San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, who has Pelosi’s endorsement, is pitching herself as a fighter for working families who’s immune to the influence of corporate PACs and the deep-pocketed tech industry that supports her opponent, state Sen. Scott Wiener. She has characterized Wiener, a fierce advocate for LGBTQ rights who made national headlines for a bill to unmask ICE agents, as a “corporate Democrat bankrolled by billionaires.”

But Chan’s own legacy of thwarting housing development projects and zoning changes in her district could turn off some progressive voters, especially those new to city politics. San Francisco voters have for decades tended to oppose new building projects, favoring neighborhood preservation over additional housing.

That attitude largely contributed to the housing crisis the city now faces. Rent costs have hit a historic high as Bay Area tech workers hit the AI windfall — one recent industry report found the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment has surpassed $4,000.

“Progressivism in San Francisco has really become very tied to this identity where it doesn’t say ‘yes’ to a lot of stuff,” said Jane Natoli, a housing advocate who lives in Chan’s supervisorial district and supports Wiener.

“For whatever reason, especially on issues such as housing, San Francisco progressives have largely said ‘no.’”

In the June primary, voters chose Wiener and Chan over former Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez staffer Saikat Chakrabarti, who excited younger voters with his messages echoing those of Mamdani and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. The tech millionaire aligned with Wiener on the need to turbocharge new housing construction, yet embraced the anti-establishment, anti-corporate attitude.

“I really liked him so much because it was like a very ‘Yes, and’ approach to YIMBYism,” said Alex Vanscoy, Chakrabarti’s former field director. Now he backs Chan, who has promised not to take any corporate PAC money, saying “taking money from lobbyists is a huge issue to me.”

Wiener and Chan concur that affordability is the top issue for San Franciscans and agree the city suffers a shortage of housing across all income levels. But they differ profoundly on the role of state and federal governments in fixing the issue.

What’s the root of the housing crisis?

Wiener believes the state should ensure that local governments actually build new housing, rather than just promise to do so, especially cities and counties that have long resisted new construction. As a standard-bearer for the abundance and Yes in my Backyard movements, he authored legislation, eventually signed into law, that eliminated regulatory hurdles for certain building permits, pleasing both labor and developers. City officials have told the Legislature that the “streamlining” policy has shortened the average permit wait times from years to three to six months.

Chan has largely opposed new housing and development projects, saying she’s prioritizing tenants who would be displaced and small businesses that could lose business during construction. She has said that the “urban renewal” of the city’s Fillmore district from the 1950s through 1970s had detrimental effects on San Francisco’s Black community and doesn’t want the same to happen in other neighborhoods. The backlash to that urban renewal gave rise to the modern San Francisco progressive.

“I think we’re starting to see the real divide show up,” said Eric Kingsbury, a Wiener supporter and member of the San Francisco County Central Committee, the local Democratic arm. “I would really expect to see a lot of discomfort, because if you are pro-housing and you’re an otherwise progressive person, you have a candidate in this race, and it’s Scott Wiener.”

Chan, who is one of the four most left-leaning members on the San Francisco board, recently voted against moderate Mayor Daniel Lurie’s family zoning plan — a state-mandated revamp that seeks to increase density and building heights near public transit stations and on major thoroughfares. Chan previously led an effort to sue the state on the grounds that its housing requirements unfairly targeted San Francisco. She said she opposed Lurie’s plan because it didn’t include enough safeguards to prevent demolition of rent-controlled units and displacement of tenants and small businesses.

“I think for people to say that she’s anti-development is kind of ridiculous,” said Norman Yee, a former San Francisco supervisor who supports Chan. “All she wants is to make sure that number one, tenants don’t get displaced, and two, to make sure that community concerns are addressed.”

In 2021, Chan helped kill a proposal for a nearly 500-unit mixed-income development proposed for an empty parking lot a block from a BART station, prompting The San Francisco Chronicle editorial board to excoriate the then-eight progressive supervisors for sabotaging “seemingly all earnest attempts to deal with this city’s housing crisis.”

Outside of housing, Chan also railed against a plan to build an express lane for a bus route that was one of the busiest in the country prior to the pandemic, protesting the loss of parking spaces and arguing that small businesses would suffer during the construction. The city’s transit agency approved it anyway.

Chan has objected to Sacramento involvement in local planning and zoning. She argues that corporate developers and the Wall Street real estate industry have convinced lawmakers like Wiener to allow them to bypass local review and zoning regulations — an attack Wiener described as “tired” and untrue.

“We can still have accountability, we can still have environmental review and improve government efficiency at the same time,” Chan said.

Chan points to her support of a recent 98-unit affordable housing development for seniors, which she features in her campaign launch video. Chan highlighted that no existing tenants had to be displaced since it was built on the site of an abandoned funeral home.

“I always make this joke that if anybody got evicted from the site, it was a ghost from the funeral home,” Chan said.

In the video, Chan touts that she would “build real affordable housing, not the Sacramento version that destroys our neighborhoods.”

Wiener said the building, which opened last November, was made possible largely because of his Senate Bill 35, a landmark law Wiener introduced to fast-track building permits, along with close to $60 million in state funding.

“If you’re trying to make it harder and more expensive to build housing, or even impossible to build, then that’s not progressive,” Wiener said. “That’s conservative.”

It’s still unclear whether San Franciscans who supported Chakrabarti, who won about 18% of primary voters in June, will coalesce behind Chan or Wiener in November.

Other divisive issues

Housing isn’t the only issue in the race.

Wiener, who is Jewish, alienated some progressives by resisting using the word “genocide” to describe the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. After public pressure mounted following a tense candidate forum, Wiener reversed himself and explained his decision in a video on social media.

The reversal landed awkwardly at best and offended enough members of the Jewish community that he was forced to step down as chair of the Legislative Jewish caucus. Others deemed his change of heart performative and “too little, too late.” Months later, pro-Palestine hecklers berated and harassed him so aggressively at the city’s trans march that he left the event.

Wiener’s back-and-forth on the use of “genocide” has created trust issues for a lot of younger voters, said Kaizen Betts-LaCroix, another former Chakrabarti staffer who supports Chan. Betts-LaCroix said Chan’s unequivocal opposition to military aid to Israel and her rejection of corporate PAC money are main reasons they back her.

The senator and his campaign have also faced criticism for negative and mean-spirited attacks, including repeating the misleading claim that Chakrabarti lived in Maryland and a now-defunct parody AI chatbot that mimicked Chan and cheekily criticized her obstructive record on housing and other issues.

Pelosi, who has wielded her influence to boost Chan’s campaign, immediately denounced the site and rallied several high-profile Democrats, including seven female members of Congress and former Mayor Willie Brown, to join her.

“Women have spent generations fighting to have our own voices heard in the halls of power,” Pelosi declared on social media. “We should not have to now fight against artificial intelligence putting words in our mouths.”

Within days, Wiener’s campaign deactivated the site, took down the billboards promoting it and apologized for offending voters, acknowledging that the site “missed the mark.”

Lawmakers on Thursday killed a controversial plan that could have allowed grizzly bears to one day return to California.

The Assembly Appropriations Committee spiked Inglewood Democratic Sen. Laura Richardson’s Senate Bill 1305. The measure would have tasked the California Department of Fish and Wildlife with creating a “roadmap that evaluates whether, and under what conditions, reintroduction of the grizzly bear is feasible and advisable.”

As is typical with the Legislature’s appropriations committees, lawmakers didn’t discuss the bill; nor did they take public testimony before the committee’s chairperson, Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks of Oakland, announced the decision.

Wicks later told reporters that before intentionally reintroducing grizzly bears, the state must figure out how humans can best coexist with predatory wildlife. She pointed to the controversial return of gray wolves to California and the subsequent loss of cattle.

“The state needs to really invest in how we are actually addressing and dealing with those conflicts,” she said.

Grizzlies once lived across most of California. As many as 10,000 may have roamed before the Gold Rush. They were so prevalent that when California settlers tried to form their own nation, they called it the Bear Flag Republic. A grizzly bear is memorialized on California’s flag.

Settlers systematically exterminated the animals. They were gone by the 1920s, leaving the smaller black bear as California’s only surviving native bear species.

Two Native American tribes consponsored the bill, and several animal welfare and environmental groups supported it. They argued that bringing the second largest land predator back to America’s most populated state would right an ecological wrong and help restore California’s degraded ecosystem.

Opponents included ranchers, hunting associations and rural communities. They argued California is far too populated with people to sustain another apex predator. Rural communities are already overwhelmed with conflicts with mountain lions, black bears and wolves that attack livestock and wander into their towns, opponents said.

The measure set aside no funding for the study, but it allowed for a future Legislature or an outside group to do so.

Yue Stella Yu contributed reporting.

Irvine opened a new pedestrian bridge this week that lets you pedal, scoot, or walk over the 5 Freeway.

I threw my bike in the car and went to check it out.

I parked at Cypress Community Park in Irvine and was soon biking over the 5. The bridge is only for pedestrians, bikes, and scooters — so no cars to worry about.

A new bridge in Irvine opened this week. It stretches across the 5 Freeway and connects to other trails in the city.

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Jill Replogle

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The bridge, which opened on Aug. 11, is a key link in Orange County’s network of trails that can take cyclists and pedestrians all the way from the hills to the Pacific Ocean.

“It looks like they nailed it. This is great," said James Connolly, who was on a scouting trip from his home in Costa Mesa.

“ I wanna take my e-board, which can go about 30 miles, and go all the way to here and then turn around and go back, you know? It looks like that's feasible now," he continued.

The new bridge in Irvine opened this week.

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Jill Replogle

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LAist

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Sadia Kahn was trying to keep up with her two young boys, who were on scooters.

“ It's our first time here. We've been watching the construction for a while, so yeah, we're excited," she said.

Khan said she has come to really appreciate Irvine's network of parks and trails.

“Prior to having kids, it would just give me like the heebie-jeebies by how like manicured it is and then you have kids and you're like, "Oh, I get the hype," she said. "We've drank the Kool-Aid is what I'm trying to say.”