Common Ground

A community engagement strategy for the Altadena rebuild

A collaboration of Altadena Village · CoLab · Alting · Altagether

Presented to CAPS · May 21, 2026

Why we’re here

Altadena’s commercial and public spaces are being rebuilt. There’s no process for the community to shape what they become and see the impact of their input.

Why we’re here

No coordination across scopes, entities, or schedules

Scope

Entity

2026

2027

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

CIP

LA County Public Works

Survey

Comment period TBD

Land use

LA County Regional Planning (WSGVAP)

Refresh cycle TBD

Sewer

LA County Sanitation

Ongoing rebuild interaction

Water

Las Flores · Lincoln · Rubio Cañon · Foothill

Ongoing restoration & planning

Stormwater

LA County Flood Control

Stormwater windows TBD

Energy

Edison / SCE

Undergrounding & restoration planning — ongoing

Gas

SoCalGas

Gas restoration ongoing

Schools

PUSD · Private

Decisions TBD

Multi-benefit

LA County Parks & Rec

Parks & green corridors TBD

Urban canopy

LA County · TreePeople · Altadena Bloom

Urban canopy restoration TBD

Private rebuild

Outside investments & developers

Active rebuild projects ongoing

New permits & projects TBD

Outreach

Paradigm (for Edison)

Engagement windows TBD

Master plan

Toole (for LA County)

Master plan in progress

No engagement scheduled

And the PFA The Public Financing Authority is required to meet every two months since January — but hasn’t yet.

What’s missing

Five gaps — and the values that close them

01

Proximity

Neighbors know what their block needs — but there’s no channel for that knowledge to land in County decisions.

02

Local agency

Neighbors have coordinated a shared vision, but no defined path to the County’s infrastructure rollout, between agencies, or with community efforts.

03

Coordination

Agencies plan in parallel, on separate schedules, with no shared way to coordinate.

04

Visibility

Plans, decisions, and deviations are hidden until they’re locked in — and community input disappears into a black box. Visibility goes both ways.

05

Trauma-informed

No engagement design built for a community that’s been through this much.

“Right now recovery feels like attempting to have a sip of water from eight fire hoses that are going on full blast. It’s impossible.” Mike Tuccillo · Altadena resident & block captain

The network we build on

150+ Altagether blocks across Altadena

Map of Altadena showing the Altagether block-captain network

Each shaded area is a block with a captain — the existing distribution and facilitation network this process runs on. Placeholder image

What we’re proposing

Five steps — information flows down, consensus flows up

01

↓Scope

Define and gather requirements for ongoing community initiatives such as:

ARecovery Master Plan / CIP
BCommercial corridors
CPublic right-of-way & guidelines

WhoCounty agencies · utilities · developers · consultants · commercial-owner network

05

↑Shared record

The record goes public — tracked on a dashboard, visible to all stakeholders.

WhoAll stakeholders

02

↓Training & Distribution

Through existing channels — Altagether’s 150+ block captains and the commercial-owner network, trained to facilitate with on-call backup.

WhoAltagether + CoLab (training)

04

↑Aggregation

Block deliberations compile into a coherent record — organized by area, corridor, zone, and by the project owner’s own categories. Private dialogue stays private; outcomes become public.

WhoCaptains record · synthesized by AI

03

⟳Facilitating Discussion

Altagether Block Captains facilitate local input sessions, with community support, resources and clear guidelines.

WhoAltagether captains + CoLab · commercial-owner network · Public · Experts

Where we start

Fair Oaks Corridor — Pilot

Map of the Fair Oaks Corridor showing residential and commercial blocks in the pilot area

The pilot tests Scope A — getting block-by-block feedback into the Recovery Master Plan before it locks. Fair Oaks North & South residential blocks plus commercial blocks, anchored by a community church. Placeholder image

Where we start

Fair Oaks Corridor — Pilot

01

↓Scope

Scope A/C · Recovery Master Plan / CIP (Mobility · Stormwater · Sewer · Water · Energy · Multi-Benefit)

05

↑Shared record

Structured packets to CIP — manually plotted on map. No automated dashboard yet.

02

↓Training & Distribution

Altagether’s 8 block captains and the commercial-owner network, trained to facilitate discussion.

04

↑Aggregation

Compiling decisions and feedback through Google Form and AI notetakers · per-category compilation. Manual aggregation — no dashboard yet.

03

⟳Facilitating Discussion

Ensure distribution of customized Survey, information sessions, discussion groups, Zoom calls — with support from experts and county resources.

Fair Oaks is the hand-hacked version — the framework works while we build the automated tools (real-time dashboard, auto-aggregation) once funded.

Where we start · Work in progress

Fair Oaks Corridor — Pilot

2026

2027

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

CAPS coalition co-signToday

May 21

ATC Land Use CommitteeBriefing & ratification

Jun–Jul

EIFD advocacyAt PFA hearings

Funding push

Delivery guidelines + Captain toolkitv1 by end of June, then iterate

Build & iterate

Block Captain trainingAltagether facilitation cohorts

Mid-Aug kick-off →

Fair Oaks pilotHand-hacked live use case

Pilot in flight

Dashboard MVPPublic visibility layer

Build & launch

Iterate from pilot

Refine

Scale to additional corridors

Roll out

Who pays

Who pays for what

Project owners

Pay for their own delivery — out of existing project budgets.

EIFDAltadena Wildfire Recovery Infrastructure Financing District (AWRIFD)

Funds the engagement infrastructure — administered through the PFA, a small fraction of the $2B financing layer.

Local professionals

Do the work — expert consultants, facilitators, mediators, legal, translators from inside Altadena, so dollars recirculate.

Team & partners

Collaboration team

Altadena Village

Esther Kim

CoLab

Megan Hinchliffe Gerig · Gabriella Caparco-Robertson

Alting

Petra Wennberg

Altagether

John Mayo · 150+ block captains

Partners

What we want from you today

Community endorsement — carry it forward.

Today

Buy-in on the overall approach

Next steps

TodayCAPS coalition co-signs the framework — or surfaces feedback that feeds the next phase
Today – Jun 4Feedback & refinement — informal conversations from this room outward; integrate inputs from CAPS, ATC, and community partners
Late MayBuild out the full structured proposal — expand owners, milestones, dependencies, and deliverable specs
JunOutreach & circulation — share the plan with EFC, ACONA, ART, Altadena Rising, My Tribe Rise, Hands in the Soul, broader CAPS coalition, ATC, partners, and community
End of JuneWorking group publishes v1 delivery guidelines and block-captain toolkit
JuneATC Land Use Committee briefing · first captain training cohort scheduled
Jul – DecPFA hearings: advocate for an EIFD earmark for engagement infrastructure
Fall 2026Fair Oaks corridor pilot launches using the guidelines