Altadena, CA town hall erupts as residents who lost homes in Eaton fire push back against developers seeking to build high-density housing, not single-family homes

Hundreds of Altadena, California residents attended a town hall meeting on Tuesday, pushing back on building proposals that would see single-family neighborhoods turned into neighborhoods of multi-unit buildings following the devastating Eaton Fire.

The town hall meeting centered around a bill proposed by State Senator Sasha Renee Perez, Senate Bill 1090, also known as the "Keep Altadena Land in Altadena Hands Act." Perez’s presentation stated, "Large-scale investors are aggressively pursuing properties at below market prices from devastated Eaton Fire survivors to pursue their own density projects in the area, a practice often called 'disaster capitalism.'"

The proposed bill would place a five-year moratorium on state density laws such as SB 9 and SB 1123 in designated Altadena ZIP codes. Current laws can allow for developers to build up to 10 housing units as high as three stories on a single residential lot. Perez’s bill aims to protect Altadena neighborhoods from such development.

During her presentation, Perez revealed to residents that between February 2025, the month following the fire, and July 2025, around 49 percent of properties sold went to developers. A gasp and murmurs rose from the crowd.

Per the California Post, Los Angeles County has voided over a dozen of applications that were submitted under SB 1123, finding that the law applies only to areas that are built out.

Before opening it up to comments from concerned residents, the town council noted that there were at least 450 people both inside the room and waiting outside the building.

During comments, one resident, Vanessa, raised issues with the current infrastructure of Altadena and how high-density housing would strain this. "One think that I want to point out specifically is that high-density housing is inappropriate for Altadena. We don’t have the infrastructure for it. We were already having infrastructure issues before the fire. We all know this. I mean, if the wind blows the wrong way, the electricity goes out."

"So, with more housing in our community, there’s more residents, there’s more impact on our infrastructure, our streets, our safety, and also affecting the feeling of our community."

Another resident, Neil, called for local officials to "push Newsom to do something. He is the one that can get retroactive relief and stop all these applications, all these developments." A separate resident agreed with him, saying, "it seems like we need a new executive order, so we should sort of concentrate on communicating with the governor’s office. His points are spot on. We’ve sent a signal that, you know, these developers better speed up and get their applications in right now, so that’s not good."

A longtime resident of the town, Beth, said, "stop this exploitation of our misfortune. No exploitation of our misfortune. That’s what this is. We do not have leadership. We elect all of you and there has been no leadership. I have a toxic home that I cannot go in without a P100 mask, but yet, LA County cannot declare that a public health emergency."