Tuesday, June 30, 2026

Altadena Coalition Rallies to Push SB 1090

By EDDIE RIVERA

Nic Arnzen, chair of the Altadena Town Council, addresses the assembled crowd of nearly 200 at the Monday, June 29, 2026, press conference. [Eddie Rivera / Pasadena Now]

Survivors, renters and preservationists stand together at fire-scarred property as Assembly hearing nears

On an empty, fire-scarred lot on East Las Flores Drive where a single family once lived among gardens and orchard trees, a coalition of Altadena residents gathered Monday morning, June 29, 2026, to make one request of the state Legislature: give them time.

The property at 425 E. Las Flores Drive, destroyed in the Eaton Fire, sits on nearly two acres split into three parcels. Under current state law, Kara Vallow, who lived there with her partner before the fire, said the lot could legally hold up to 30 housing units.

“This property that formerly held two people, and prior to our living here, one person, could now house 120 people,” Vallow said. “I am not selling it to a developer to build 30 houses on it.”

That math, organizers said, is the reason for SB 1090, known as the Keep Altadena Land in Altadena Hands Act. The bill, authored by State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez and co-authored by Assemblymember John Harabedian, would impose a five-year moratorium on two state housing laws, SB 9 and SB 1123, within Altadena ZIP codes 91001 and 91003. Those laws currently allow lot splits and added housing units on single family parcels statewide. The moratorium would apply to applications filed between January 7, 2025, and January 7, 2030.

Nic Arnzen, chair of the Altadena Town Council and a total loss survivor, said 16 council members voted last week to send a full letter of support for the bill.

“The real story is how this town stands together and fights for what is right for all of us,” Arnzen said. “We stand together to be sure our town is built back in a reasonable way.”

Several speakers described an amendment negotiated in recent weeks among neighborhood organizations, affordable housing advocates, community land trusts, tenant groups and fire survivors. Shawna Dawson, founder of Beautiful Altadena, called the bill’s two goals complementary rather than competing.

“It protects survivor-led recovery while preserving pathways for affordable and accessible housing,” Dawson said. “Those are not competing priorities. In Altadena, we have shown they can move forward together.”

Shannon Larsuel, co-founder of the Altadena Community Land Trust and a third-generation West Altadena resident, said her organization is in pre-development on a permanently affordable bungalow court west of Lake Avenue intended for displaced families. She said the project depends on an amendment allowing community land trusts and nonprofit developers to continue using SB 9 for affordable housing, even as the broader moratorium takes hold.

Katie Clark of the Altadena Tenants Union said renters made up roughly a quarter to a third of Altadena’s population before the fire, and said the bill is intended to keep developers from buying up lots in ways that would push rental prices beyond what former tenants could afford.

Hans Allhoff of Altadena Heritage addressed arguments that SB 9 and SB 1123 were designed for what he called intact communities.

“We are intact around the idea that our recovery must come first, and that we deserve to return to a place, and to neighbors, that tell us we’re back home,” Allhoff said. “That’s what SB1090 is about.”

Dave Skibinski, who lost his home of 32 years and is now nearing completion of a new house nearby on Palm Street, said he supports the bill because it would give residents time to return and rebuild on their own terms.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who is sponsoring the legislation, has said the bill responds to a gap left when Governor Gavin Newsom’s 2025 executive order suspending the density laws covered Pacific Palisades and Malibu but excluded most of Altadena.

SB 1090 is scheduled to be heard by the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee and the Assembly Local Government Committee on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. Community representatives plan to travel to Sacramento to testify in support of the bill and its negotiated amendment.