"Nothing to Get Hung About": The Impact of SB 9 and SB 1123 on Altadena
- jill3430
- Jul 1
- 2 min read
by Anthony Manousos
State Senator Sasha Perez is pushing SB 1090, a bill that would take away from Altadenans the right to use SB 9 and SB 1123 for three years. LA County Supervisor Catherine Berger supports SB 9, which allows homeowners to split their lots and sell a portion of it to someone who wants to build a home, as long as the homeowner lives on this site for at least three years. SB 1123 allows homeowners to split their lots for up to 10 homes. Perez claims that SB 9 and SB 1123 will benefit greedy developers and be detrimental to Altadena residents. Is this claim true?
It is understandable that many Altadenans want to preserve the historic character of their town and are therefore wary of increased density. They want to "protect" single-family neighborhoods.
However, restricting affordable and multifamily housing would also change Altadena’s demographic character. Moderate-income homeowners and renters may no longer be able to afford to live there. Home prices often rise after disasters—sometimes by as much as 40% within three years. [i] According to the Altadena Tenants Union, many “naturally occurring affordable apartments and ADUs” were destroyed in the fire and are unlikely to return. Rent-controlled apartments were also lost and will likely be rebuilt at market rates, leaving many low- and moderate-income renters unable to come back.
Homeowners are also struggling to finance rebuilding. According to the Greenline Housing Foundation, which helps homeowners of color rebuild, SB 9 has been a lifeline for many homeowners of color. Under SB 9, a cash-strapped homeowner can split a lot and sell part of it to someone who wants to build. The homeowner must continue living in the home for at least three years after the split. SB 9 is not designed to benefit “greedy developers” but rather needy homeowners.
SB 1123 has been criticized because it allows up to 10 homes on a lot. That may sound alarming, but in practice these homes would look like three-story condos and be priced like condos—around $700,000 per unit, rather than more than $1 million for a typical single-family home.
A typical single-family lot could accommodate three or four homes under SB 1123. A 10-unit development would require about half an acre. This Google search shows typical projects in the City of Los Angeles under its small-lot subdivision ordinance, which inspired SB 1123.
A major limitation on SB 1123 is that 75% of abutting properties must be occupied by “urban uses”—meaning they cannot be fire-destroyed lots. This is likely the bill’s biggest constraint.
Overall, these two bills would have a modest impact on Altadena—and that impact would likely be mostly beneficial. As the Beatles song says, there is "nothing to get hung about."
