Altagether · Neighborhood input

Neighborhood input

Altagether brings what Altadena neighbors think to the people making decisions, block by block. Surveys go out through Altagether’s block captains and local community organizations, and the results come back to you.

Altadena’s building rules

The County’s reviewLA County Planning is reviewing Altadena’s Community Standards District (CSD), the part of the County’s zoning code with building standards specific to Altadena, and is exploring ideas for possible changes. It is an early, first-pass discussion. Nothing has been decided.

The focus groupThe County formed a focus group to give a first round of input on the rules. Altagether holds a seat on it.

Altagether’s surveyThe County asked focus group members to bring back what their communities think. Altagether took the initiative to do that with a neighborhood survey, which it wrote and runs itself. It has three rounds, one for each set of rules the group discusses, so the County hears from neighbors block by block.

Round 1 · Yards, height, fences, parkingClosed

Single-family homes. Open October 3 to 12, 2026. 616 neighbors answered.

The four proposed changes the County raised, as asked in the survey:

Yards: the same setbacks on every lot: 20 ft front, 5 ft sides, 15 ft back, and 10 ft on the street side of some corner lots.
Height: houses up to 35 ft tall on every lot, as in the rest of the County.
Fences: front fences and hedges up to 6 ft, in place of today’s 42-inch limits.
Parking: two covered spaces for every house, however many bedrooms.

The report went to LA County Planning and its Altadena focus group on October 14, 2026. No one’s individual answer or comment appears in it, and zones with fewer than 5 answers are combined for privacy.

Report (PDF) Spreadsheet (CSV)

Round 2 · The rest of Altadena’s building rulesComing next

The rest of the Altadena CSD: mainly commercial and, to a lesser degree, multifamily standards, plus procedures, as the County described it. The County’s focus group is scheduled to take these up from late October.

Round 3 · Rules for rebuilding after a disasterLater

The County’s disaster recovery ordinances, including the one for the Eaton Fire. The focus group is scheduled to take these up in December.

How to take the next round

Public linkWhen the next round opens, a public link to take the survey will be posted on this page, open to everyone in Altadena.

Your block captainCaptains share each round’s link with their zone. Not sure who yours is?
Find your captain at altagether.org

The newsletterStay up to date with Altagether’s neighborhood newsletter.
Subscribe at altagether.org/newsletter

No captain yet?Some blocks still have no one. Help your neighbors hear about each round by becoming a captain.
Join at altagether.org/join

Questionsinput@altagether.org

Nothing has been decided. Today’s rules stay in effect until the County formally adopts new ones. These are Altagether’s surveys, not LA County’s.

The rules themselves

The current rules in the County code that Round 1 asked about, plus the County’s own guides. The same links were in the survey.

Altadena’s rules for single-family lots§22.320.090, part D.1. Yards, height, fences and parking are all here.
Countywide yards and height§22.18.040, parts C and D.
Countywide fences, walls and hedges§22.110.070.
Countywide parking§22.112.070. The table of required spaces.
The temporary rules for rebuilding after the fireChapter 22.258.
Countywide design rules for new houses§22.140.520, part F.
LA County Planning: the code and how the County reads it
LA County Planning: plain-language summaries

Links open the official LA County code (Municode) or LA County Planning’s website.