The executive order imposes a seven-day pause on SB 9 projects, which permit duplexes and lot splits on single-family parcels, allowing Pacific Palisades to craft tailored fire safety standards
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on July 30 empowering Pacific Palisades officials to limit Senate Bill 9 development in the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone devastated by January’s Palisades Fire. The order addresses local fears that increased housing density could endanger residents in a community still recovering from the loss of over 5,000 homes.
The executive order imposes a seven-day pause on SB 9 projects, which permit duplexes and lot splits on single-family parcels, allowing Pacific Palisades to craft tailored fire safety standards. Local authorities can now impose mitigation measures or restrict SB 9 development in specific areas, ensuring safer rebuilding. The order, effective during the ongoing state of emergency, responds to urgent calls from Los Angeles City Councilmember Traci Park and the Pacific Palisades Community Council.
“Residents were forced to abandon cars and flee on foot during the Palisades Fire at current density levels,” Park wrote in a July 28 letter to Newsom. She warned that developers are exploiting SB 9 to convert destroyed single-family homes into multi-unit structures, risking an “unforeseen explosion of density” in an area with limited evacuation routes. Seven SB 9 permit applications, including properties on Hartzell Street, Galloway Street, and Amalfi Drive, are pending, though none are approved.
The Pacific Palisades Community Council, in a parallel letter, demanded an immediate halt to SB 9 permits until evacuation route analyses, required by state law AB 747, are completed. “The community has suffered enough,” the council stated, citing the fire’s “singular, devastating conditions” and the potential for denser development to cause catastrophic evacuation delays.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who banned SB 9 applications in the Palisades fire zone on July 30, praised Newsom’s action. “SB 9 was not meant for rebuilding a community decimated by L.A.’s worst natural disaster,” Bass said.
SB 9, enacted in 2021 to ease California’s housing crisis, allows up to four units on single-family lots but was not designed for disaster-stricken areas, critics argue.
