State legislation aimed at expediting wildfire recovery has drawn support from Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles county officials, but a group of Altadena residents blasted the recently signed Senate Bill 782.
The bill, which Newsom signed Oct. 10, allows cities and counties to create “disaster recovery financing districts” designed to raise and reinvest revenue directly into impacted neighborhoods, hastening recovery by eliminating long delays associated with other state funding sources, according to LA County Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger, whose 5th District includes fire-ravaged Altadena.
“This bill was passed without community input, rushed through under the label of an ’emergency,’ and it strips away our right to protest,” Shawna Dawson Beer from the group Beautiful Altadena said in a statement. “The Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD) is a tool the County already has access to under existing law. The only difference this bill makes is removing public protections — why?”
Beer, a longtime community organizer who lost her home located west of Lake Avenue, added, “Our town of 43,000 lost 9,000 homes and businesses. We are a community still in recovery. And we are a community that has been fighting years of County mismanagement, lack of accountability, and neglect — most painfully seen in the total absence of a functional emergency plan during the Eaton fire. Now they want to silence us entirely while taking even more control.”
According to Barger’s office, SB 782 streamlines procedural steps that often slow disaster recovery efforts, making it easier for local governments to form infrastructure financing districts and start work quickly. An EIFD enables local agencies to share incremental tax revenue more easily and fast-track key planning steps.
Money generated through disaster recovery districts must be spent within the affected area for repairing and replacing damaged housing and infrastructure, hardening buildings and landscapes against fire risk, supporting economic recovery and investing in “resilience upgrades” to better protect communities in the future, county officials said.
Altadena Beautiful members said SB 782 “removes the public’s right to protest, and expands the district 120% beyond the fire zone — potentially including wealthier neighboring towns like La Cañada.”
The group also observed that state law allows developers to split and build upon single-family properties.
Protections against that are “being quietly overridden by LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, even as Supervisor Lindsey Horvath has paused (Senate Bill 9) enforcement for the Palisades fire zone,” according to a statement from the residents group. “Governor Newsom previously exempted Altadena from SB 9. The county is now pushing it forward anyway.”
“Altadena was exempted. The Palisades was protected. Why are we being left behind?” Beer said. “SB 782 is not about recovery — it’s about control. And it’s happening without a vote, without input, and without consent. Why aren’t we getting the same protection as the Palisades? This is a blatant double standard and a betrayal of a recovering community that has already endured enough. Altadena deserves equal treatment.”
Helen Chavez, a spokesperson for Barger, challenged Altadena Beautiful’s criticisms.
“The claims being made about Senate Bill 782 and SB 9’s application in Altadena are inaccurate and misleading,” she said in an email.
“Supervisor Barger remains firmly committed to a community-driven recovery process — one grounded in transparency, accountability, and respect for public input,” Chavez said. “Any suggestion that she is acting to ‘silence’ Altadena residents or bypass state protections is simply false.”
SB 782, authored by state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena, creates a framework for generating and directing local revenues to fix parks, roads, streetlights, flood control systems and infrastructure, Chavez said. EIFDs are governed by a Public Financing Agency Board that is tasked with providing public oversight and community participation in decisions.
“The bill does not remove public protections — it accelerates access to urgently needed recovery funds before local tax base growth limits that opportunity,” Chavez said.
“The County faces roughly $1.5 billion in infrastructure repair and replacement costs in Altadena alone,” she added. “Supervisor Barger has been clear: any EIFD created under this bill will be narrowly focused on supporting Altadena’s fire recovery, with full transparency and community input guiding funding priorities.”
Chavez also took issue with Altadena Beautiful’s SB 9 analysis.
“Assertions about the ability to ‘override’ Governor Newsom’s SB 9 protections are factually incorrect,” she said. “The Governor’s Executive Order only allows local jurisdictions to suspend SB 9 lot splits and duplex construction in areas designated as Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones (VHFHSZ) — not throughout entire communities. In Altadena, the vast majority of parcels, including most of those impacted by the Eaton Fire, are outside of the VHFHSZ.
“By contrast, the Palisades area — where SB 9 implementation was paused under Mayor Bass — is entirely within a VHFHSZ, which is why broader restrictions apply there,” Chavez continued. “In unincorporated Los Angeles County, including Altadena and the Santa Monica Mountains, the Department of Regional Planning has already administratively suspended SB 9 lot splits and SB 9 accessory dwelling units within VHFHSZ zones, consistent with the Governor’s order.”
Altadena Beautiful member Stephen Sachs cautioned that land-use “decisions will be centered around whatever can be done to increase the taxable rolls in Altadena,” he said during a recent podcast. “The quickest way to do it is to increase the number of units on the land, increasing land values and structures from the property tax perspective. Remember, the majority of the ‘tax growth’ within the new Climate Resiliency District will occur for the oldest residences and increasing their values from 1975-1976 values to modern rates. SB9 is an indication of where it is going clearly.”
Sachs also warned of the potential for gentrification to result after rebuilding happens.
“We understand gentrification will occur, but it will be without input from our community,” Sachs said. “Decisions will be made around creating more taxable value, which might leave other community decisions and compromises by the wayside. We are all for creating a (financing) district, so long as there is accountability. … There is no competition here. There is no control. There is no accountability. There is no way to withdraw the ‘license’ which this bill creates if the intent is not met. There is no way to shut off funds if promises are not kept. It is those things that scare us.”
Barger expressed support for Newsom’s signing and Pérez’s sponsorship of SB 782, calling it “a pivotal moment for communities across California still healing from wildfires and other disasters,” the supervisor said in a statement. “With Governor Newsom’s signature on SB 782, that I was proud to sponsor, we now have a mechanism to rebuild with resilience, restore critical infrastructure, and revitalize neighborhoods hurt by catastrophe.
Barger said she “will continue working with our County teams, planners, fire safety officials, and community leaders in and around the Eaton area to move quickly and responsibly to establish a disaster recovery financing district to uplift survivors and rebuild stronger. …
“Because the funding will stay in the community, it creates a path toward long-term stability and economic renewal rather than temporary fixes,” she said.
Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for the governor, said Newsom “did not exempt specific communities but provided local authorities with the discretion to adjust SB 9 rules and limit development under these rules in those areas of the Eaton and Palisades fire burn scars that are designated as very high fire hazard severity zones.”
In addition to SB 782, Newsom signed a number of other bills related to recovery from the January wildfires.
“Together with the legislature, we’re putting the lessons we learned in January into action and delivering the most significant upgrade to California’s disaster response and recovery efforts in years — supporting wildfire survivors now and in the future,” Newsom said in a statement.
Information on the legislative package is available from the governor’s office.
Pérez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The full text of SB 782 is available on the State Legislature’s website. SB 9 is also online.
The podcast with Altadena Beautiful members is available at buzzsprout.com/2534093/episodes.
Updated Oct. 16, 2025, 12:48 p.m.
