Matt Mahan

policy document that we as a city and counties as well have to submit to the state to basically show that we have zoned to create room for new housing and that we have programs and policies at the local level that will in fact enable that housing to get built.

And we had some critiques of our plan, and it was a slow back and forth, a slow process for getting it passed.

And like most other, many other cities in the state, we did not meet one of the deadlines for approval.

And the state has an accountability mechanism that I would suggest is much more effective.

It's not fun to be on the receiving end of it, but it's much more effective than lawsuits, which is what's called builder's remedy.

And I think that a lawsuit should be the last resort here.

I feel very strongly that our next governor cannot bring a lawyer's mindset to this problem.

It is a market failure.

It is a process failure.

It's the cost stack.

It's the efficiency.

It's innovation like modular work.

But in this case, when cities fail to meet permitting deadlines, when they try to use fees and local building codes to block housing, when they don't deliver on actually enabling housing to get built, I think the state should override and create buy-write mechanisms for developers to move ahead projects, whether or not the city likes it.

I think that's an accountability mechanism that's more effective, frankly, because

What we see with these lawsuits is they drag on for years, they get appealed, and eventually maybe the court tells the locality, go back and update your policies, update your general plan, update your housing element or whatever it is.

And we're not actually seeing housing get built.

Huntington Beach is not building more housing, to your point.

San Diego, I think, was sued, I think, when Mr. Becerra was the AG, and one of the projects with 2,000 units still

hasn't gotten built.

So I think the legal path is not particularly effective if we actually want to build housing.