Altadena residents – In the weeks since the Eaton fire devastated Altadena, residents have turned their grief into political action—flooding meetings, voicemails, and lawmakers’ inboxes as Senate Bill 1090 moves toward a Wednesday vote. The measure would pause certain multi-unit b
On a hot June evening in Altadena, the town meeting didn’t just draw a crowd—it pulled the community into the same room, around the same urgency, for the first time in more than a year.
More than 450 people flooded the June 16 Town Council meeting. determined to push back against what many residents describe as an effort to reshape their neighborhood after the devastation of the Eaton fire. For some. the unity has felt almost unreal—especially in a place where the recovery from January 2025’s firestorms has left families still scrambling for basic stability.
“This is the first time pre- or post-fire that we have been able to unite and find enough common ground to stand together,” said Shawna Dawson Beer, leader of Beautiful Altadena, a community advocacy group formed a little more than a decade ago.
Over the last several weeks. that unity has rallied around Senate Bill 1090. which would pause multi-unit building projects in the L.A. County neighborhood. Residents say the fight is rooted in what happened after the fire: plans submitted or work begun on at least 13 single-family lots that would create subdivisions for multi-family housing. according to Altadena Recovery Watch. a local group of fire survivors.
The proposed legislation is designed to slow that process. The bill creates a carve-out from laws in California that expedite transitioning single-family lots into multi-family housing—intended, proponents say, to help alleviate the state’s housing crisis without swallowing Altadena’s identity.
“We heard over and over again from community members, those who lost their homes or who were affected in some way by the fire, to make sure that the community stayed the community that was there before the fires,” said state Assemblymember John Harabedian (D-Pasadena) in an interview with The Times.
Harabedian and state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Alhambra) co-authored the bill, also known as the Keep Altadena Land in Altadena Hands Act. The bill would grant an exception to SB 9 and SB 1123, which created pathways to develop on single-family lots.
“The people of Altadena are demanding protection from speculators who are buying land from distressed fire survivors and trying to exploit the intent of existing laws,” Pérez said in a statement announcing the legislation.
The momentum began building earlier than many residents expected. On June 14, the Altadena Town Council announced it would meet two days later with an agenda that kept “the community’s two preoccupations — utility costs and the rules governing rebuilding — front and center.”
Those concerns moved from public discussion into urgent procedure. Emergency Town Council meetings were held June 24 and again on Monday on Zoom, with each meeting building on the previous one’s momentum and hundreds of residents in attendance.
Before Monday’s Zoom meeting, a crowd gathered for a news conference in West Altadena. Altadena Town Council Chair Nic Arnzen said the effort aimed to keep pressure on the bill as it moved through the process.
“I stand here with just part of an unprecedented alliance that will keep focus on this bill moving forward and will continue to do so with every challenge and obstacle,” Arnzen said. “Because there is nothing we can’t overcome if we stick together.”
In interviews and on rally lines across the neighborhood. residents described the organizing as a response not only to loss. but to what they fear comes next. Noel Minor. a former land-use attorney who is part of Altadena Recovery Watch. said he felt something rare in what the community has done in recent weeks.
“I think that more communities should do this kind of grassroots organizing because it’s the only way to educate our leaders and our decision-makers about what’s going on on the ground,” Minor said. “I don’t know that I have ever seen so much of the community come to a singular event ever.”
Altadena residents have also escalated outreach to lawmakers at a faster pace. They have flooded the inboxes and voicemails of state and local lawmakers, hoping the bill passes its first hurdle Wednesday when it is up for a vote by two committees.
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger will be joined by several Altadena residents in Sacramento to speak in favor of the bill.
For Gary and Mary Lyzenga, the emotion behind the push is tied to more than zoning. Their concern is that the scale of redevelopment could gut families and neighborhoods, especially those trying to come home after the fire.
“It’s heartbreaking to see multi-generational families, diverse communities being gutted,” Gary Lyzenga said. He acknowledged that Altadena has had apartments and condos, but he said the worry is the way high-density development would fit—on narrow streets without sidewalks and parking.
“It’s not that we don’t think that there needs to be development,” Lyzenga told The Times. “but it shouldn’t be of this predatory nature where developers are swooping in.”
Some residents want the bill to go further than the timetable in its current form. They are pushing for the carve-out from development to extend beyond 2029. arguing that recovery may take longer than the law’s initial window as residents deal with insurance payouts and litigation with Southern California Edison. among other issues.
“It should never be easier for speculative developers to buy up land and build for-profit housing that is not affordable than it is for fire survivors to come home,” Dawson Beer said.
If the bill passes, it would move next to the Assembly floor when legislators are back from recess in August. Wednesday’s committee hearings are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Altadena Eaton fire Senate Bill 1090 Keep Altadena Land in Altadena Hands Act housing development SB 9 SB 1123 L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger John Harabedian Sasha Renée Pérez post-fire recovery