A proposed affordable apartment complex at Briggs Avenue and Foothill Boulevard would replace an 80-year-old motel in La Crescenta, and residents want Los Angeles County to look harder at wildfire evacuation before more people are added to the site.
The neighborhood sits in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, a designation from the state fire marshal. Residents and local leaders say Briggs and Foothill already offer only one way out, and that hundreds of homes sit above the corner where the new building would go. ABC7 reported Friday that they are urging the county to reconsider.
What the 66 Homes Would Be
The current proposal is for 66 rental homes that could house hundreds of residents. Developer Abode Communities says those homes would serve households earning 30% to 70% of Los Angeles County's Area Median Income. Twenty-five units would serve transitional-aged youth ages 18 to 24, who must have a juvenile living with them.
ABC7 describes an earlier version of the proposal as five stories. Crescenta Valley Weekly describes a redesigned version and lists resident amenities.
The unit count has already moved once. Crescenta Valley Weekly reported that Abode revised an initial 80-unit plan down to 66. The revision did not end the argument over whether this corner can absorb the project.
One Narrow Way Out
Residents and leaders say the new homes could create a dangerous evacuation bottleneck. Briggs Avenue is a primary evacuation route, and they describe it as extremely narrow. Chris Kilpatrick, a member of the Crescenta Valley Town Council, has called the site probably the worst place in the community for a development of this kind.
Past evacuation drills are the evidence they keep returning to. Kilpatrick said those drills showed it took the community hours to get out, and that the exercises exposed traffic problems when residents leave. Tatyana Esmaelian has said the foothill location could create serious wildfire evacuation problems and that the project is inappropriate for a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone.
Esmaelian is asking the county for an evacuation study before it moves forward, and for an assessment of risks specific to this neighborhood. Residents told ABC7 they are not opposed to affordable housing itself. Kilpatrick said they support reasonable development and safety. Esmaelian's line is narrower: they oppose a project that, because of where it sits, would put existing residents' lives at risk.
Studies the Council Says Are Still Missing
The local paper trail is older than Friday's television report. On Nov. 17, 2025, the Crescenta Valley Town Council Land Use Committee said the applicant had not submitted a traffic study, a fire or evacuation study, or an infrastructure analysis. In a letter of recommendation, the committee asked the Town Council to request that Los Angeles County immediately suspend all project approvals unless studies and written findings addressed the concerns in that report.
By May 2026, Abode was pointing to a traffic study. Glendale News-Press reported the developer's conclusion that the project would not negatively affect vehicular circulation around the site. The same coverage said the Town Council found that the revised proposal still did not resolve the public-safety, infrastructure, traffic, evacuation and compatibility issues identified in the November 2025 report.
A traffic finding about everyday circulation is not the same document as a fire-evacuation study. The sheriff's department has said it is working with the fire and public works departments to review the situation, and that it is committed to working with stakeholders on safety around the site. That review is underway. It is not a completed evacuation study with published findings.
Law, Density and a Familiar Corner
Supervisor Kathryn Barger represents the district that includes the site. She was unavailable for an interview. Her office said California law prevents local governments from blocking projects like this because of the affordable housing crisis.
Density-bonus law is also part of the debate over the project.
This corner has been a density argument before. In 2019, the Los Angeles Times reported a separate proposal for 68 residential units, two underground parking garages and ground-floor retail in place of an 11-room motel. Most of about 50 people at a community association meeting at the La Crescenta Library opposed what they saw as an oversized project, and the motel's future turned into a broader argument about how much density the neighborhood wanted.
Funding Vote, Then a Long Construction Clock
ABC7 reported that county supervisors are expected to vote on public funding for the complex within the next couple of months. That vote has not happened in the reporting available now, and no funding commitment is established.
Abode's stated goal, as of a May 4, 2026 update, is to begin construction between 2028 and 2029 and finish by 2030. Those are targets, not approved start or opening dates. Between the expected funding vote and any groundbreaking, the unresolved piece residents keep naming is still the same: an evacuation study of a narrow primary route in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, before hundreds more people are planned onto the corner.
