By Mary O’KEEFE

On Monday night representatives from Abode Communities met with the community, Crescenta Valley Town Council (CVTC) and its Land Use Committee (LUC) to share an update on the project at the northwest corner of Foothill Boulevard and Briggs Avenue, where the La Crescenta/Maylane Motel is currently located.

The initial proposal was for a five-story, 80-unit building of affordable rental housing to be built on the site. Of these apartments, 25 would be set aside for transitional-aged youth ages 18 to 24 who must have a juvenile living with them – either their own child or a child for whom they are caring. There would be one apartment set aside for a manager. The development would have 80 parking spaces. 

At a November 2025 meeting hosted by CVTC and LUC, Abode presented that initial project, which was met with great opposition by community members. 

At the time, community members as well as CVTC members voiced their concerns about the placement of the parking lot exit onto Briggs Avenue, of the design, the size of the building and the amount of apartments offered, in addition to other issues. 

At Monday’s meeting Abode representatives updated the audience with a new redesigned project. 

The new proposed project would feature 66 affordable units that would be serving incomes ranging from 30% to 70% Area Median Income (AMI). The project would include 25 units for transitional age youth (TAY) and one unit for an on-site manager, said Maegan Pearson, associate vice president of Real Estate Development, Abode Communities.

The amenities planned for the project include on-site laundry, a fitness room, residential services, on-site property management, landscaped open space, a children’s play area, bike parking and a community room, she added. 

“We’ve reduced the unit count to 66 units [from 80], which consists of 32 one-bedroom, and then 17 two-bedroom and 17 three bedroom [units] and 70 parking spaces,” she said. 

The mention of the number of parking spaces incited a loud rumble of disagreement from audience members – and that was just the beginning.

From the building’s color to the new design, most of the audience was not agreeable to anything presented by Abode and as the presentation continued the audience went from having respectful and insightful questions and concerns to making rude and disrespectful attacks, not only at the Abode representatives but to the LUC members as well.

Rudeness aside, the main focus of the November meeting and Monday’s meeting was a very real concern – evacuations and wildfire. Many of those in the audience live in the Briggs Terrace area, which features one way in and one way out. As numerous people pointed out, this project would add hundreds of people to this corridor, which is in the high and extreme high fire hazard area. 

Abode offered a traffic study, which it was not required to do by either the state or LA County; however, the study appeared to be done during times when traffic was the lightest in the area. 

There are three schools above Foothill Boulevard: Mountain Avenue Elementary (2307 Mountain Ave.), which is directly off Briggs Avenue, and Rosemont Middle School (4725 Rosemont Ave.) and Monte Vista Elementary (2620 Orange Ave.), which feed into Briggs traffic during student drop off and pick-up times. The traffic study did not appear to take this type of traffic into consideration. 

Another point that was made by a community member during the question/answer portion of the meeting dealt with water flow studies. It has been reported by the California Natural Resources Agency that water system issues during the Palisades Fire were due to an insufficient flow rate. There were also reports of residents not having any water available during the January Palisades Fire.  

This, along with the Eaton Fire, fueled the fear and the awareness of how important infrastructure is when it comes to building in the area. Representatives from Los Angeles County Fire Dept. who were at the meeting said that they are still reviewing the Abode proposal. 

Parking was another issue that was raised to a level of concern regarding fires and evacuations. With only 70 parking spaces provided for 66 units, there was an assumption that any additional vehicles would park on local streets, which would cause issues with evacuations.  

It was made abundantly clear that few in the audience approved of the Abode Communities project; however, that may not make any difference when it comes to the project’s approval.

“Under SB 35, authored by State Senator Scott Wiener, the state created a streamlined path for certain housing projects to move forward without going through the traditional local approval process. The intent was to accelerate the production of housing, including affordable units. That means qualifying developments can be built if they meet clear state standards, even if a city or county does not grant discretionary approval,” according to a spokesperson from the office of LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger in a previous CVW interview. 

According to the log for the meeting the project will go before the LA County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, May 12 (subject to change). The project needs approval from three of the five supervisors to move forward. Abode, a non-profit organization, is asking for funding from LA County. On May 12 the board will vote on the approval of “funding for a multifamily affordable housing development” and a “resolution declaring intent to issue multifamily housing mortgage revenue bonds or notes for the development and construction of affordable multifamily housing.” 

“The La Crescenta project [at Foothill Boulevard and Briggs Avenue],  submitted by developer Abode Communities was one of 12 projects recommended for funding by the LA County Development Authority  through Notice of Funding Availability for Affordable Multifamily Rental Housing 31 in the amount of $4.5M,” stated Elisa Vásquez, director of the Office of Public Affairs and Communications for the LA County Development Authority [LACDA]. “The proposal was originally for an 80-unit project with funding and 25 Project-Based Vouchers [PBVs] allocated to develop housing for Transitional Age Youth [TAY]. Following a community meeting held on Nov. 6, 2025, the developer reduced the scale of the project to 66 units while continuing to retain the 25 TAY units to be eligible for the recommended funding and PBVs.”

If approved by the board, the developer would then receive a funding commitment letter from LACDA and would apply for any remaining leverage financing, including tax credits.

The majority of the CVTC members voted not to approve this project and to send a letter stating their opinion to all LA County supervisors, Assemblymember Nick Schultz and State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez. 

It was advised that audience members email their concerns about the Abode Communities project to all LA County Supervisors: Supervisor Hilda Solis, email FirstDistrict@bos.lacounty.gov, Supervisor Holly Mitchell, email  HollyJMitchell@bos.lacounty.gov, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, email ThirdDistrict@bos.lacounty.gov, Supervisor Janice Hahn, email FourthDistrict@bos.lacounty.gov and Supervisor Kathryn Barger, email Kathryn@bos.lacounty.gov.