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Duplexes can no longer replace single-family houses in the Pacific Palisades as rebuilding begins for the more than 5,000 homes destroyed by the January fire.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass ordered a ban on duplex projects in the Palisades. The move came after an order the same day from Gov. Gavin Newsom that granted local governments permission to suspend a state housing density law in burn zones.
The law at play, Senate Bill 9, allows single-family homeowners across the state to build duplexes and split their lots, potentially creating up to four units of housing on land previously zoned for one unit.
In the city of L.A., 72% of residential land is zoned for single-family homes.
In a statement Wednesday, Bass said: “SB 9 was not originally intended to be used in the rebuilding of a community that was decimated by the worst natural disaster L.A. has ever seen.”
Duplexes seen as threat to safety, neighborhood character
Bass thanked Newsom for his executive order giving local governments the option to suspend SB 9 in zones where the severity of fire hazard is very high. The governor’s order applies to the Palisades, Sunset Mesa, Malibu and the eastern foothills of Altadena.
“This executive order responds directly to requests from local officials and community feedback, recognizing the need for local discretion in recovery and that not all laws are designed for rebuilding entire communities destroyed by fires overnight,” Newsom said in a statement.
The exemptions come after Palisades residents, along with their city councilmember, Traci Park, pushed state and local leaders to cancel the application of SB 9 in their neighborhood.
They said increased population would make evacuations even more difficult during emergencies, and multi-family buildings would threaten the neighborhood’s “quiet, low-density” character.
How a handful of applications led to a social media uproar
A spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office said the city has received seven SB 9 applications in the Palisades since January. L.A. officials did not specify how many new units those applications sought to create.
Six months after the fires, L.A. had received about 400 rebuilding applications in the Palisades. SB 9 projects represent less than 2% of those applications.
Despite the relatively low number of SB 9 projects, homeowner groups and social media influencers have urged elected officials to stop what they see as “opportunistic developers” building unsafe, dense housing along the neighborhood’s narrow, winding streets.
“On one single-family lot, there could be up to eight to 12 new cars on a street that fire trucks couldn’t even fit on,” said reality TV personality Spencer Pratt in a recent TikTok video.
Since Pratt and his family lost their home in the Palisades Fire, he has become an outspoken critic of how Newsom and other California officials have responded to the disaster.
Pratt said in his TikTok video: “Everyone, message Newsom, Karen Bass and Senator Ben Allen and tell them: stop SB 9 in the Palisades immediately.”
Supporters of SB 9 had hoped the law would give displaced Palisades renters a few more options for returning to the high-cost neighborhood. They noted that because of the law’s owner-occupancy requirements, only homeowners who planned to live on the property for at least three years were allowed to split their lots.