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Topanga forum spotlights housing, wildfire and infrastructure as State Senate candidates debate solutions
Summary
Candidates Zenon Ali Crow and Ellen Evans addressed local voters on housing affordability, permitting reform, home hardening, electrical infrastructure and wildfire policy. Zenon advocated state‑scale building and a statewide code; Evans emphasized permitting fixes, binding pre‑application meetings and electrical upgrades.
Two candidates for State Senate District 24 — Zenon Ali Crow and Ellen Evans — appeared at the Topanga town council meeting and laid out competing approaches to housing, wildfire mitigation and infrastructure.
Zenon Ali Crow described his upbringing in the district and centered his remarks on housing affordability and the need to build at scale. He proposed the state act as a builder in order to deliver housing quickly and affordably, argued for a statewide building code to reduce local barriers and suggested factory‑style modular production to increase supply. "If we enable the state to be an actual builder... and churn out units of housing every single day," Zenon said, "that is how we're actually going to tackle the amount of quantity that we need to do this." He also argued that environmental review statutes (discussed in the meeting as "SQA") sometimes preserve the status quo and can hinder infill projects.
Ellen Evans presented a practical, implementation‑focused portfolio of reforms aimed at shortening the time from approvals to construction. She said the state should require binding pre‑application meetings that identify all applicable codes up front, and she proposed requiring code citations for every plan‑check correction so applicants understand the rule basis for changes. Evans emphasized electrical infrastructure upgrades to reduce fire risk and called for workforce development to staff building trades and utility upgrades.
Both candidates discussed wildfire issues and home hardening. Zenon said sustained funding and insurer incentives for home hardening are needed, including rebates tied to mitigation that could reduce insurance costs. Evans stressed the age and condition of local electrical distribution infrastructure and argued for planning and investment to support future housing and grid resilience.
Audience questions covered water availability, converting water‑intensive farmland to housing, and whether CEQA/SQA review should be reformed. Candidates differed on emphasis — Zenon pushed statewide solutions and regulatory reform to unlock infill, while Evans highlighted procedural fixes, enforceable pre‑application clarity and local infrastructure planning as ways to speed projects without discarding environmental review.
Both candidates invited follow‑up and engagement; the council closed the meeting after the forum.
