Mary Leslie
President, Los Angeles Business Council
Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature on the bill to extend our pioneering cap-and-trade program served as a compelling reminder that, even in this turbulent political climate, California has the will and ability to address the central challenges of our time.
Another reminder of our capacity for innovative, home-grown solutions came earlier this month, with county approvals for the start of the Newhall Ranch master-planned community north of Los Angeles. The state has never seen a community quite like Newhall Ranch, proposed by California developer FivePoint. It will be a carbon-neutral development in the Santa Clarita Valley that tackles such critical challenges as climate change, water conservation, and the dire housing shortage that is severely threatening our economic competitiveness.
California’s housing shortage has reached crisis proportions. Booming demand and low development rates have pushed prices to the sky, forcing workers into long, road-clogging commutes and tapping the brakes on business development. A recent McKinsey Global Institute study found that California needs to build 3.5 million homes by 2025 to satisfy pent-up demand.
