The WeHo Heights Neighborhood Association sent a letter this week to the City Council, City Manager, and planning staff urging them to file a Transit-Oriented Development Alternative Plan before Senate Bill 79 takes effect on July 1.
They say the City is running out of time and that its hillside streets simply cannot handle more density without residents’ lives being put at risk.
“To increase the density of the neighborhood, preventing easy escape during panicked times, is not sustainable and puts every resident at extreme risk,” the letter said.
What Is a TODAP
Under SB 79, cities can adopt a Transit-Oriented Development Alternative Plan to help shape how the law’s required density gets distributed. A TODAP can’t reduce or stop mandated development capacity. It also can’t block SB 79. What it can do is help to steer where that growth goes — away from certain streets, certain zones, certain neighborhoods — while concentrating it elsewhere. Cities can also use a TODAP to exempt sites that meet specific criteria, including location in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. Beverly Hills adopted its TODAP on January 21 and submitted it to the California Department of Housing and Community Development for review.
West Hollywood has filed nothing.
The Neighborhood
Clark, Horn, Larrabee, Ozeta Terrace, Sherbourne and Shoreham are the only streets in West Hollywood north of Sunset Boulevard. About 1,100 residences. Roughly 80 percent renters. CalFire’s updated 2025 maps designate the entire area as a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. West Hollywood incorporated those maps into its community development and safety regulations following a 30-day public comment period through Engage WeHo. Heights residents showed up for that comment period.
The letter says they “expressed grave concerns about their safety in the inevitable event of wildfire disasters if new high density housing is permitted in this already densely populated hillside neighborhood with restricted evacuation access due to steep, narrow streets and diagonally parked vehicles that impede ingress/egress.”
The neighborhood has already had fires. Two burned in Horn Plaza, each causing more than $1 million in damage. On March 9, another broke out on St. Ives Drive, which borders the neighborhood.
During the January 2025 fires, WeHo Heights got an evacuation notice.
None of those fires were wildfires. The letter says the risk from an actual wildfire is worse.
One fire engine. That’s what typically makes it through. Additional units park on Sunset. Emergency responders drag equipment up the hill on foot.
“Emergency Access Vehicles have difficulty getting through our narrow, steep streets, often allowing only a single fire engine into the area with additional vehicles parking on Sunset and individual Emergency Responders dragging hundred pounds of equipment up the steep streets,” the letter said.
The Ask
The City of Los Angeles is already doing what WeHo Heights wants West Hollywood to do. A May 14 recommendation report from the LA Department of City Planning proposes building permanent exemptions for Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones directly into its SB 79 implementation ordinance. The LA proposal defines a new category called “Fire Restriction Areas,” covering places where a VHFHSZ and a hillside area overlap. Sites in those areas wouldn’t be eligible for the density incentives the law would otherwise force cities to allow.
“We see this as an important and urgent Public Safety issue, entirely distinct from other neighborhoods’ issues with SB 79,” the letter said.
The LA proposal also has backing from elected officials who represent West Hollywood. “The City of LA’s proposal is supported by our mutual state representatives, Congressperson Laura Friedman and State Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur,” the letter said.
West Hollywood’s History With the Neighborhood
West Hollywood has been here before. In September 2011, the City Council backed a downzoning of WeHo Heights from R4 to R4A during the General Plan 2035 process. Zone Map Amendments were finalized later that year. The R4A designation was meant to hold density down and keep new development in proportion with what was already there.
“We respectfully request that this zoning continue to be the ruling guideline for development in this neighborhood,” the letter said.
The Council voted 5-0 at its May 4 meeting to direct staff to research what the VHFHSZ designation is already costing West Hollywood property owners. Insurance increases. Inspection fees. Required landscaping removal. WeHo Heights is asking the Council to connect those same maps to what SB 79 could mean for their streets.
The Deadline
July 1. That’s when SB 79 takes effect. SCAG’s map of qualifying transit stops isn’t expected until June. West Hollywood hasn’t filed a TODAP. If nothing’s in place by July 1, the state framework applies.
The letter was signed by the full WeHo Heights Board of Directors: Chair Elyse Eisenberg, Treasurer Richard Wight, Bruce Brown, Richard Gitterman, Bjorn Johnson, and Gene Smith.
Related Coverage
West Hollywood Got Its Metro. Next Stop — SB 79? — The K Line vote, what SB 79 actually does, and what West Hollywood still doesn’t know about its exposure.
West Hollywood SB 79 Town Hall: Residents Demand City Act Before July 1 — Residents from WeHo Heights, West Hollywood West, and across the city pack a rooftop deck with 64 days left on the clock.
West Hollywood Inclusionary Housing Ordinance Reviewed Ahead of SB 79 Deadline — The affordability rules that would govern whatever gets built here once SB 79 kicks in.
All the NIMBYs in the comments who are afraid of a 5 story building should go live in rural Texas then. People desperately want to live here in homes, not on the street and yet these same people complain about homeless people as well.
NIMBYS = NOT PROGRESSIVE
It isn’t about NIMBYs its about protecting a city and being organized. Stuff will still be built, but is it necessary to destroy the Rainbow District for example with a 5 story building in the middle of bars?
I plan to attend tonight’s town hall with Tom Steyer who says he is in favor of housing density around transit hubs. I will ask to be a participant and ask him specifically should he become governor, how he would address the threats a city of 1.9 square miles would face under SB79. If there is time, I will give more details of our plight.
Good luck and thank you Carolyn!
Do we know if any of the candidates would review SB79 if elected? I know Steyer has said he’s all for it as I’m sure it’s not anywhere near where he lives. I believe Steve Hilton said he was against it.
Here’s what I wrote to Tom Steyer tonight. Please let me know of any inaccuracies. I am in the midst of moving out to make way for our building being tented for termite fumigation, so a bit rushed. I understand that you are in favor of housing density around transit hubs as spelled out in CA SB79, which goes into effect this July. Since this law legally overrides existing zoning laws in order to build around planned subway lines, would you be amenable to making adjustments for cities that will be overrun by development? I ask because I live in… Read more »
Surely blocking housing and driving up costs so people have to live farther away and commute via car is great for his environemntal agenda.
Some more info here on station qualification: the state issued clarifications and definitions in a set of guidelines here: https://www.hcd.ca.gov/sites/default/files/docs/planning-and-community/sb-79-mpo-advisory.pdf A station only qualifies for SB79 upzoning based on the following definition: “An existing or planned transit station or stop identified in a region’s federally or state-mandated transportation improvement program (TIP) that is served by any of the following: light rail or heavy rail, high- frequency or very high-frequency commuter rail, or eligible bus service (see also “Bus Service”). Planned TOD stops in a region’s TIP may be limited to include only those with any amount of committed construction funding.”… Read more »
One point of clarity, while SB79 does for sure kick in on July 1, it only applies to qualifying transit stations that are identified on a map being created by the S. California Association of Governors. I believe this map has not yet been released and there is a very open question about whether the proposed new K Line stations in West Hollywood will qualify since they have only been given a conditional approval and the conditions have not yet been satisfied. In other words, the stations are not yet fully approved and thus shouldn’t appear on the SCAG map… Read more »
Can we all join forces and sign a petition urging Erickson to listen on this issue? Or do we have to sue him for mismanagement and abuse of his position? This affects all of West Hollywood and he’s supposed to support our views. What is his problem? And stop listening to Solomon.
The current West Hollywood City Council majority of Byers, Erickson, Hang is inexplicably dragging their feet on this. Common sense suggests guiding forced increased density to where it will do the least harm. Unfortunately, these three are not known for their display of that faculty. Come November, voters will finally have the opportunity to give Byers the boot (like the sound of that!) and create a more resident- centric City Council. Perhaps then local cities including West Hollywood could investigate banding together to defang SB79 via legal challenge, alternate State Senate bill, and/or proposition as applicable. A smart current CA… Read more »
Jay, the problem is that Erickson, and in turn that means Byers and Huang as they have no original thought, in his candidacy for California State Senate District 24, is supported by California YIMBY, and various builders. So he’s pushing SB79 in self interest to get to Sacramento.
Thank you for your insight, WeHo Pete!
Didn’t need yet another reason NOT to support Erickson’s doomed State Senate run but you just gave me a major one.
Common Sense = blocking new housing from being built during a housing crisis aka Jay logic.
I live on Clark Street and I know intimately how difficult it has been to get in and out for the past six months while they were blocking Clark Street with the construction of that monstrous billboard above The Whiskey. We had to take a detour around narrow Ozeta Terrace onto Larrabee, where there is a ton of construction going on. It was hellish, and if they allow more construction on our steep narrow densely, populated streets, it will not only be hellish, it will be downright dangerous! However, I’m afraid that with the city council majority that we have… Read more »
Right on, Mikie!
They should not only ban new constriction but we should start tearing down homes so fewer people can live here.
WeHo Council is hellbent on destroying our City in order to give free rein to developers. Erickson, Byers and Hang have no intentions to adapt SB79 to our neighborhoods in spite of the dangers and displacement. They want utter destruction. VOTE THEM OUT!