The Eaton fire that tore through Altadena in January 2025 destroyed thousands of homes and reshaped one of Los Angeles County's most storied unincorporated communities. Now, as residents rebuild, many are uniting behind a bill in Sacramento meant to give them a say in what rises from the ashes.
What the bill would do
The measure, Senate Bill 1090 from State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez of Pasadena, would impose a five-year pause on two statewide housing laws — SB 9, which lets owners split single-family lots and add units, and SB 1123, which streamlines building multiple homes on some lots — within the Eaton fire area, Pérez's office said. Supporters cast it not as a permanent ban on density but as breathing room for a community still in the earliest stages of recovery. The bill advanced out of an Assembly committee on July 1, CBS Los Angeles reported.
The fear driving it
Behind the push is anxiety about who ends up owning Altadena. Residents and local officials point to a surge in investor purchases of fire-damaged lots, and to the risk that outside buyers could carve up single-family parcels before longtime residents have even decided whether to return, Pasadena Now reported, citing real-estate data showing investors accounted for a large share of recent lot sales in the area. Backers also note that fire-struck communities on the Westside, near the Palisades, were effectively shielded from the same density laws, and argue Altadena — historically a Black and working-class community — deserves the same protection.
The counterargument
The bill is not without critics. Housing advocates argue that SB 9 and SB 1123 are tools California badly needs to ease a severe housing shortage, and that carving out exemptions — even temporary, even for a disaster zone — chips away at statewide efforts to build more homes. Some contend that added units could actually help residents finance rebuilding or let more people afford to live in Altadena. The tension is a familiar one in California: local control and neighborhood character on one side, the state's housing-supply imperative on the other.
What's next
Altadena's status as unincorporated territory, governed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors rather than its own city council, has long left residents feeling their voice carries less weight in regional decisions. SB 1090 must clear further votes before it could reach the governor. For its backers, the bill is less about zoning arithmetic than about a principle: that the people who lived through the fire, not speculators, should decide what Altadena becomes.
