Earlier this year, the Eaton fire destroyed more than 9,000 structures in the Altadena area. In the aftermath of the blaze, hundreds of signs reading “Altadena is not for sale” have urged residents not to sell affected properties to real estate developers because it would harm “the soul” of the community. The quest for community preservation is understandable but California desperately needs more housing.
The Golden State has the second most expensive home prices in the nation, second only to Hawaii. As of December 2024, the median price for a mid-tier home in California is nearly $800,000. The situation is even worse in Los Angeles, where the median home costs nearly $1 million.
The affordability crisis results from an artificial scarcity of housing, which has been fueled by regulations that limit urban development. Single-family zoning limits housing development to individual houses and promotes urban sprawl.
A 2024 report by UC Berkeley’s Other & Belonging Institute indicates that more than 95 percent of total residential land in California is zoned as single-family only. Currently, nearly all of Altadena, Malibu, and Pacific Palisades is zoned as such. This type of development is inefficient at housing large populations.
According to the National Multifamily Housing Council, detached single-family homes contain 3 housing units per acre on average, whereas multi-family housing can have as many as 176 units per acre. Developers in California had no option to build up, so they built out, ultimately creating a “drive until you qualify” market.
This self-inflicted pressure to build outwards ultimately led to the development of more housing in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), where civilization collides with wildlands. The buildup of fire-prone vegetation in those areas over time has created increased wildfire risk. All of the areas affected by the wildfires in January are part of California’s WUI.
In December 2024, Los Angeles County officials approved a new land-use plan to mitigate wildfire risk in Altadena by restricting development in the foothills and allowing more density in the community’s interior. Tragically—Altadena’s geographic risk became evident just weeks later. In the spirit of this plan, eliminating zoning regulations would enable denser development in Altadena’s core.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has suspended compliance requirements mandated by the California Environmental Quality Act and the California Coastal Act to accelerate rebuilding in the areas affected by the wildfires. The suspension of those requirements is an admission that those regulations stifle development. The same is true of single-family zoning.
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Eliminating discriminatory zoning laws in these communities will allow people from more diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to live there. Sacramento legislators should then follow this example and liberalize housing markets for the whole state moving forward.
Kristian Fors is a research fellow at the Oakland-based Independent Institute and director of the California Golden Fleece® Awards. He was raised in a community adjacent to Altadena.
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