With some lobbying from Los Angeles elected officials, Gov. Gavin Newsom Wednesday exempted fire-torn regions of Los Angeles County from a state law that allows duplexes and other housing units to replace burned-down single-family homes.

Newsom issued an executive order Wednesday allowing Los Angeles-area governments to limit development in neighborhoods impacted by January’s wildfires.

The order provided local elected officials the ability to suspend provisions under Senate Bill 9, a 2021 law that allows property owners to build up to four units on their land that was previously designated for single-family
homes.

“We will continue to assist communities in rebuilding safely in ways that are responsive to local concerns,” Newsom said in a statement. “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.”

This exemption affected locations in high severity burn areas, such as Pacific Palisades and parts of Malibu and Altadena. The order will be in effect as long as Newsom’s state of emergency remains active for the Los Angeles region.

It also established a seven-day pause on SB 9 developments in the affected areas while local governments develop their own standards. Following Newsom’s action, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a similar order to prohibit SB 9 applications within Pacific Palisades burn area.

“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,” Bass said in a statement. “I thank Gov. Newsom for working with my office to provide some sense of solace for a community working to rebuild.”

In a statement issued Tuesday, Bass said SB 9 was passed to create more housing — something the state desperately needs.

“Legislators in Sacramento could not have foreseen the bill’s impact on the Palisades community as it works to rebuild from one of the worst natural disasters in state history,” Bass said in a statement.

More than 5,000 single-family homes were damaged or destroyed by the Palisades Fire. Bass warned that SB 9 could allow developers to change those properties into multiple-unit residencies, which could drastically further challenge ingress and egress in a very high fire hazard severity zone.

“It could fundamentally alter the safety of the area by straining local infrastructure,” Bass said in her statement. “I oppose this usage as it relates to the rebuilding in the Palisades, and I look forward to continuing work with Gov. Newsom and state leaders to advocate for the Palisades community and identify a path forward as we continue to rebuild.”

City Councilwoman Traci Park, who represents Pacific Palisades, wrote a letter Tuesday to Newsom’s office expressing her opposition to SB 9. She warned that the law could lead to an “unforeseen explosion of density.”

“Given the widespread destruction of the Pacific Palisades, its topography, and limitations to infrastructure, ingress and egress, I am requesting that SB 9 and other laws permitting increases in density be suspended until such time an analysis can be conducted to determine the capacity of our evacuation routes and infrastructure can adequately accommodate this increased density,” Park wrote.

The Pacific Palisades Community Council — a body of residents representing the Palisades — also sent a letter requesting Newsom and Los Angeles elected officials suspend SB 9, and take additional measures to protect
their neighborhood.

“We write now to urgently request that our government officials take immediate steps to protect the community from forced additional density that will result from opportunistic developers seeking to take advantage of the widespread destruction of single-family homes caused by the Palisades Fire to build multi-family housing under the streamlined procedures of SB 9,” the letter said. “These efforts, if unchecked, pose a grave risk to public safety, and ultimately, to preservation of the essential character of Pacific Palisades.”