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August 2026 September 2025
Voting OpensRebuilding for Palisades Community Data Shows Progress in PostCouncil Election. What to Know About the Fire Palisades Candidates The numbers indicate a surge in permitting The candidate field activity, particularly includes longtime in recent months residents, displaced New data from Pali Builds, a homeowners community platform tracking recovery and community from the January wildfires, shows significant rebuilding momentum in volunteers focused Pacific Palisades, with 179 new home permits approved since the fires and 160 on recovery. lots sold generating nearly $478 million in sales, highlighting a robust but uneven
By Carlos housing market.Reyes
The numbers indicate a surge in Voting is open in the Pacific Palisades permitting in recent Communityactivity, Council particularly election for Area and months. At-large Representative seats that will From January to August 2025, Los serve two-year terms. Angeles approved 179 benew in Electronic ballots may cast homes from Aug. theat 90272 zip code, 21 8 a.m. through Sept.with 4 at 8 approvals p.m. only accelerating over time:website, only twopacpalicc. in March through the council’s but jumping to 76 in August, according org. Eligible voters include people whose principal residence is in Pacific Palisades, those who lived in the community at the time of the Jan. 7, 2025, fire and intend to return, property owners of record, and operators of businesses with a street address in the area (including those whose businesses were destroyed but who plan to reopen). Voters may select their Area Representative and an At-large Representative. Candidate statements are
to Pali Builds’ September 1 analysis. Processing times for new building available the council website. permits onaveraged around 63-77 At-large days in summer months, up from 31 Chrisin Spitz, 35-year resident of days March,a suggesting growing Via Bluffs/Friends who is temporarily administrative demands as applications displaced and Builds, rebuilding, is seeking the increase. Pali founded by locals At-large seat. in A retired litigation to fill gaps officialbusiness data, continues attorney, on the Office PPCC tracking Spitz until has the served LA Mayor’s board forcomprehensive 18 years, including as At-large provides figures. Representative pastAugust chair and1 Home sales since data 2022, through secretary. currently chairs the Land7 reveals 160Helots sold since the January Use and is vice-chair of the fires,Committee totaling $477.7 million. Westside Regional Alliance of Councils. The market shows stark disparities byArea area:1 Area 8 led with 11 sales at an Bart Young, a 29-year average $10.6 million and Castellammare median $10.2 million, whose contributing $116.4 million resident home was destroyed in in volume, Area hadserved 16 sales the fire, is while running. He 2has on averaging $1.7 million. Area 5 saw the the Castellammare Mesa Homeowners most activity board with 48and salesfounded averaginga Association $2.1 million. security Buyer committee. composition from neighborhood January Area 2 to July included 85 individuals (53%), 64 entities (40%), andDiane 11 Two candidates are competing. unknown (7%),30-year pointing to substantial Bleak, a nearly Highlands resident institutional in fire, the recovery. whose home investment survived the is a nurse anesthesiologist and has advocated on water supply, fire safety, evacuation and public health issues. Kambiz Kamdar, a 16-year Highlands resident and current Area 2 second alternate, is a general contractor focused on rebuilding. He serves on the PPCC Infrastructure Committee local along with city leaders and andother officials, boards. rallied against the bill. “SB 79 is Area 3 worse than existing laws,” 100 times Julia Palisades Nilsen Residents Lombari Association (formerly Pacific President Jessica Rogers said, warning of risks in wildfire-prone areas like the Palisades, citing inadequate evacuation routes and infrastructure strain. In August, the Los Angeles City Council voted 8–5 in opposition to SB 79, led by Councilwoman Traci Park and Councilmember John Lee. Park, whose district includes the Palisades, called it a “Sacramento attempt to hijack By Zach Armstrong local planning,” silencing residents. The Pacific Palisades A celebrity chef Community has his eyesCouncil set on alsointersection urged Newsom to Boulevard veto the bill, the of Sunset and referencing his Highway. emergencyWhat order limiting Pacific Coast is now dense housing in fire iszones. Gladstone’s Malibu set to become a “This opens the floodgates major new bill restaurant project. forLastdevelopers, and year, the displacement, California Coastal gentrification, approved with no regard for our Commission the demolition neighborhoods,” Parkstaple said Gladstone’s in a Sept. of oceanside dining 13 statement, Los Angeles Malibu to makenoting way forthat Wolfgang Puck’s has project: thousands of housing unitssituated under new a two-story restaurant construction. SB 79, she argued, would along Pacific Coast Highway. Designed by undermine years of planning to place late celebrated architect Frank Gehry, the housing along transit corridors. is set to yet-to-be-named establishment Days after18,000 its passage, Parka introduced span nearly sq. ft. with fine dining area, a bar directing and banquet rooms. a motion citydining departments to conduct a comprehensive 90-day Continue on page 4
Julia Breitman), the current Area 3 representative, is seeking re-election. An attorney whose family lost their home, she has emphasized recovery, public safety and neighborhood preservation. Elissa Ashwood, a third-generation Palisadian whose home was destroyed, has led neighborhood calls, served on Team Palisades and the Marquez Knolls Property Owners Association, and worked on emergency preparedness. Area 4 Three candidates are running. Rebecca Lobl, whose El Medio Bluffs home was destroyed, has served as a Team Palisades neighborhood representative and is working to establish a Firewise community. Karen Ridgley, the current Area 4 representative and a 40-year resident, is seeking re-election. She has focused on crime watch, evacuation planning and recovery issues, including displaced mobile-home residents. Eliana Bernstein, a 16-year Palisades resident who lost a home in the Highlands and now lives in Area 4, recently graduated from UCLA and works for a local recovery nonprofit. Area 5 May Sung, an Alphabet Streets resident since 2017 whose home is being rebuilt, is an architect and founding Team Palisades steering committee member. She has advocated for streamlined permitting and
infrastructure improvements. Area 6 Lorie Cudzil, the current Area 6 representative and a 14-year resident whose family plans to rebuild, is seeking another term. She has focused on recovery information, grants and safety issues in Potrero Canyon. Area 7 Sharon Kilbride, a longtime Santa Monica Canyon resident and sixthgeneration member of the Marquez family, is running. A retired corporate auditor, she serves on local neighborhood association boards and has been involved in historic preservation. Area 8 Andrew Wolfberg, the current Area 8 representative and a longtime resident, is seeking re-election. An estate planning attorney, he has served in multiple PPCC roles and worked on traffic safety and school-related issues.
Lawmakers Pass SB 79, Sparking Outcry Over Local Control Loss Some decried the bill, now on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk, for ignoring traffic, infrastructure, environmental, and public safety concerns
Wolfgang Puck is Building a Two-Story Restaurant in Pacific Palisades. Why Are Some Locals Worried? By Zach Armstrong Residents worry California lawmakers new bus at approved Senate Bill 79, astop controversial housing mandate some have decried for ignoring Puck’s Frank infrastructure and public safety concerns, in mid-September, prompting fierce Gehry-designed opposition from Los Angeles leaders. The legislation, authoredopen by Sen. Scott project could Wiener (D–San Francisco), allows for door to highermore multi-family housing development near transit stops, permitting taller and density housing, denser buildings closer to major transit hubs and allowing transit agencies to even as officials have build on their own land. The bill also requires a share of assured affordable housing repeatedly units in new projects. In late August, a crowd of Palisadians, otherwise.
assessment of SB 79. The motion instructs the Departments of City Planning, Transportation, and Housing, along with the City Attorney, to analyze the bill’s effects. The report will include
maps of areas within a quarter-mile and half-mile of transit stops subject to SB 79, impacts on rent-stabilized housing, historic districts, coastal zones, and high-risk fire and tsunami areas.