By SARAH SHMERLING and STEVE GALLUZZO
State Senator Ben Allen announced Wednesday, July 16, that he would be pausing Senate Bill 549—which, if passed, would authorize the creation of a “Resilient Rebuilding Authority for the Los Angeles fire recovery”—for the remainder of 2025.
“The Resilient Rebuilding Authority would provide a centralized, locally led governing entity to facilitate and streamline the redevelopment of the fire-impacted regions across Los Angeles,” according to a summary provided by Allen. “This includes through coordinating labor contracts and the mass purchasing of construction materials, as well as by allowing the authority to purchase, develop and resell lots to help as many residents and business owners return to the region as possible.”
The bill would make no changes to zoning or permitting laws, according to Allen, as well as provide “no requirements for the authority to develop new affordable housing units.”
“When we first introduced SB 549, we knew that it would be difficult to pull together a framework that would be both effective and gain widespread support within the tight timelines of this year’s legislative calendar,” Allen said in the statement about pausing the bill. “I appreciate the input of the folks who have weighed in about the bill, and along with legislative colleagues have decided that it would be best for us to pause the bill until next year to give us more time to see if we can get it right.”
Allen explained that for him to feel comfortable with the bill proceeding, it would have to be “deeply grounded” in “community input, empowerment and decision-making, including the support of impacted councilmembers.”
“I am also committed that any formed rebuilding entity that I’m involved with will have the flexibility needed to help rebuild impacted communities in a way that reflects the unique character and history of each neighborhood,” Allen continued. “Needless to say, I look forward to robust conversations with the community and city leadership.”
The day after the announcement it would be paused, Councilmember Traci Park and Allen spoke at a Pacific Palisades Community Council board meeting on the bill.
Park, who said she has been in “very close contact” with Allen and his team about the bill, said it “was a recommendation that came from the county’s Blue Ribbon Commission,” which “released its report several weeks ago.” Park detailed sending out an email to the community at the time, advising that there were “some pending legislative deadlines.”
Allen confirmed later during the PPCC meeting that the Blue Ribbon Commission report came on a Friday and he had a deadline of Monday to “pull this into a bill.”
“I thought there were some interesting ideas there,” Allen said, “but certainly it was my strong feeling, after a lot of conversations, that we just weren’t going to have the time to incorporate all of the community engagement and discussions that we really needed to do something that would build up support and properly incorporate and engage the whole community.”
The county’s Blue Ribbon Commission is a group of volunteers who were asked to participate in developing ideas and recommendations about potential recovery strategies, Park explained. It was first announced by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath on February 13.
The commissioners are “leading experts from diverse professional backgrounds to inform recommendations for LA County’s recovery and rebuilding effort,” according to Horvath. The recommendations are focused on “fire-safe reconstruction,” “resilient infrastructure,” “faster rebuilding” and “equitable recovery.”
Their report recommended the creation of a regional Rebuilding Authority, according to Horvath on July 1, “with the tools and powers needed to rebuild more affordably, sustainably and equitably across wildfire-impacted areas.”
Park described sending a letter to Allen and Horvath, raising “some of the concerns about governance,” adding that if an authority is to be created, she feels it should be “primarily led by the Palisades.”
“I want to be very clear that there are some things that a highly customized local authority could be helpful for,” Park explained. “The ability to manage and invest tax increment financing and to issue bonds to help the Pacific Palisades develop and invest in long-term infrastructure. It could be useful to pull contracts for the procurement of materials that could be offered to participating community members at discount prices. But I have a lot of concerns about proposed land banking and redevelopment, particularly if the community doesn’t have a primary seat in that decision making.”
Park said Allen has been “very, very gracious” in hearing the community’s concerns about the bill. When Allen spoke during the PPCC meeting, he said the key thing for him has been “trying to advance local leadership over the rebuilding process,” making sure “we remove statutory roadblocks that may be coming up in the recovery process.”
“We don’t want to add new layers of bureaucracy,” Allen said. “We don’t want to require new boxes for people to check.”
A rebuild authority would create a “one-stop shop” for people to do things like obtain permits and “connect with resources.”
“We’ve also heard community interest in providing low interest and soft second loans to bridge the gap between what insurance will pay for and what a new mortgage might be for a rebuilt home,” Allen said.
Allen said that the idea of “land banking” was “primarily focused on the Eaton side,” where in Altadena, they are seeing “far below fair market value purchases.”
“The benefit here was to require properties be bought at fair market value and then be offered first to whoever sold the property after the homes or businesses had been rebuilt, so … that the residents that were there before could come back, even if, at the time, they didn’t have the resources to handle all the challenges that they were facing,” Allen explained. “And then, of course, the authority could also use the land for community infrastructure like green space, fire breaks, etc., to try to do more to prevent the kind of tragedy that we saw from this urban wildfire from occurring again.”
Allen also explained that, due to Senate rules, there are a “limited amount of bills” that senators can put through, so “sometimes two different, but relatively similar ideas can be combined into the same bill.”
“We had this very simple, small bill that was making its way through the legislature, that we took the Blue Ribbon Commission report proposal relating to the authority and put it into, but they were always separate,” Allen said. “They never were connected, except for the fact that they were in the same bill.”
The section of the bill that was “totally unrelated to the resilient rebuilding authority,” Allen said, was related to giving “local governments some more flexibility to invest in their community, including things like density and transit.”
“There was no requirement or expectation for that type of financing system to be made in the areas impacted by the wildfires,” Allen said. “But what ended up happening was people saw that … and thought that they were both connected. And then all of a sudden, people thought that this bill was all about trying to mass build low income housing, homeless housing, mass transit rail projects to the Palisades.”
Park and Allen confirmed during the PPCC meeting that they are working to plan something together to talk with the community.
“We have not closed the door to this,” Allen said of the bill. “ … We just put a pause on it.”
PPCC also passed a motion regarding SB 549 during its meeting.
“We strongly support the principles of transparency and robust public engagement, and agree that community input and involvement in the governing structure must be an integral part of any path forward,” read the motion. “As Councilwoman Park noted, ‘Far more study and direct engagement with Palisades residents is essential before such powers are assigned to the Rebuilding Authority.’
“To that end, we believe it is critical for any proposal for a Rebuilding Authority or district to take into account data forthcoming from the NORC survey commissioned by PPCC, along with recommendations from the PPCC Rebuild Committee and additional community input. Our priority is to ensure the recovery moves forward in a way that is inclusive, informed and responsive to the needs of Palisades residents.”
Prior to the PPCC meeting, Horvath hosted a virtual town hall July 9 on the idea of creating a rebuilding authority for the fire recovery process. She was joined by Allen and a pair of Blue Ribbon Commissioners, Cecilia Estolano (CEO of Estolano Advisors and Better World Group who lost her home in the Eaton fire) and Tracy Quinn (a civil engineer and Palisadian whose house is still standing in the Highlands but who remains displaced).
“We convened a Blue Ribbon Commission of experts partnering with UCLA who held or attended approximately 60 community meetings, and made recommendations on how to recover resiliently, affordably and safely,” Horvath said.
“To be clear, and to address some misinformation, the authority is not proposing to take land use or permitting away from any existing jurisdictions,” Horvath added. “Instead, it creates an opportunity for a unified, regional approach to rebuild and the goals are to raise, bundle and administer funding. That can be done in a variety of ways, including tax increment financing, combining city and county funds, state and federal grants, philanthropy, and many more. The authority would be optional for cities that want to join in, for homeowners and businesses, and the rebuild will still be led with private sector participation. The idea behind this authority is to help streamline, accelerate and support the recovery process.”
A recording of the July 17 PPCC meeting is available at pacpalicc.org.
