How Harris Obstructed California Home Construction

She says she wants to clear away ‘red tape,’ but as attorney general, she produced a lot of it

By Joel Kotkin and Michael Toth. Mr. Kotkin is a fellow at Chapman University and a senior research fellow at the University of Texas’ Civitas Institute. Mr. Toth is a founding partner of PNT Law, based in Austin, Texas. Excerpts:

"As California’s attorney general, she wielded the state’s environmental laws against new residential developments, exacerbating the affordability crisis that her campaign plan aims to address. 

Years of excessive housing regulations and legal attacks on developers have left much of California unaffordable today. Median house prices in the Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose metropolitan areas are more than 300% above the national average. In 2021 California had the nation’s second-lowest homeownership rate at 55.9%, slightly above New York.

California’s depressing homeownership rates are a direct result of the policies embraced by Ms. Harris and her fellow Golden State progressives. As attorney general, she put the interests of climate activists ahead of aspiring homeowners. She opposed regional plans that would have allowed for more growth on the suburban fringe, where housing is more affordable. In the end, restrictions on building on the periphery pushed millions of Californians to flee to more affordable states.

Shortly after taking office in 2011, Attorney General Harris issued a comment letter criticizing a plan to add 79,000 housing units in northern Los Angeles County’s Santa Clarita Valley. Rather than removing the regulatory burden around new-home construction, Ms. Harris directed the local planners to develop a “detailed” Climate Action Plan, set “binding emissions reduction targets,” and demonstrate that the plan would “curb low-density sprawl and increased driving.”"

"In 2012, the attorney general joined a lawsuit brought by two environmental groups against a plan to expand the highways around San Diego."

"Californian baby boomers and Gen Xers have homeownership rates closer to those in the rest of the country, but the rate is nearly half the national level for Californians under 35."

"The African-American homeownership rate in California was roughly 36% in 2021—well below the national rate of 44% and nearly one-third lower than it was 20 years ago. California’s Latino homeownership rate ranks 41st nationwide."

"Most Californians, according to a survey by former Obama campaign pollster David Binder, oppose legislation that bans single-family zoning."