{"id":265552,"date":"2026-04-13T13:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T13:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/265552\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T13:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T13:35:09","slug":"can-sacramento-build-its-way-out-of-the-housing-crisis-experts-weigh-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/265552\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Sacramento Build Its Way Out of the Housing Crisis? Experts Weigh In"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

This story is part of our April 2026 issue. To read the print version, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n


\n
\n <\/p>\n

\n For more than a decade, elected officials have acknowledged that
\n the Capital Region is suffering from an affordable housing
\n crisis, one that\u2019s crippling the ability of locals to handle rent
\n and blocking thousands of families from the home-buying market.\n<\/p>\n

\n Experts agree that creating more housing supply is key to
\n stabilizing prices in the long run. Accordingly, city and county
\n leaders across the Capital Region have been trying to support
\n developers in quickly getting projects off the ground. The idea
\n behind this cooperation is that bringing new apartments and
\n single-family homes online, on a grand scale, will start to
\n alleviate the atmosphere of insecurity that\u2019s lingering from
\n Fairfield to Folsom \u2014 and everywhere in between.\n<\/p>\n

\n Comstock\u2019s recently summoned an expert panel to discuss how these
\n partnerships between builders and local municipalities are going.
\n Our gathering included Justin Walters, vice president of land
\n development and project management of Somers West; Ron Brown,
\n president and CEO of Brown Construction; Anton Garcia, vice
\n president of asset management for Taylor Builders; Kevin Carson,
\n president, Risewell Sacramento division; Craig Adelman, CEO,
\n Mutual Housing California; Milo Terzich, vice president for
\n development and entitlements for USA Properties Fund and Tim
\n Murphy, president and CEO of North State Building Industry
\n Association.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n A housing development in Sacramento. (Shutterstock photo)\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n We started by discussing whether the various elected officials
\n who have been asking builders for help have actually followed
\n through with directing their governmental staff to cut red tape
\n and streamline processes. Our development gurus in the room
\n agreed that, on the whole, public officials are now attempting to
\n quickly usher in new projects. However, they say that major
\n roadblocks remain, most notably in the form of excessive local
\n building fees, the ongoing forces of NIMBYism, and the
\n weaponization of the California Environmental Quality Act.\n<\/p>\n

\n On that last point, journalists have independently documented
\n that CEQA is sometimes used by labor unions and special interest
\n groups as a negotiation leveler for business contracts, rather
\n than for its original intent of guaranteeing clean air, soil and
\n water. Builders and a number of environmental advocates are now
\n gathering signatures for a potential upcoming ballot measure
\n called the Building an Affordable California Act, which is aimed
\n at spurring home creation and green energy projects in a way that
\n mitigates the misuse of CEQA.\n<\/p>\n

\n Here is how what was ultimately a solutions-oriented conversation
\n on all these topics transpired.\n<\/p>\n

\n Comstock\u2019s: I believe the term \u201chousing crisis\u201d
\n has been a part of the Sacramento region\u2019s political conversation
\n for nearly a decade. What\u2019s your view of the crisis level?\n<\/p>\n

\n Craig Adelman (Mutual Housing California): We
\n have, in my mind, a structurally deficient housing system in
\n California. And so, when I hear your question, I think of it
\n particularly through a lens of housing equity and housing
\n attainability. The region is falling further and further behind
\n on those measures. Market-rate housing is an important component
\n of producing the housing stock we need; and yet, both that and
\n our system, are not going to come anywhere close to meeting the
\n needs of the entire population any time soon. Frankly, not in my
\n lifetime. We have to recognize that.\n<\/p>\n

\n And so the region is trying to do what it can to address
\n affordability through both policy and subsidy, and it\u2019s an uphill
\n battle. We have seen, over the period you\u2019re asking about,
\n homelessness explode. We\u2019ve seen housing affordability become
\n less and less accessible, and those are failures. \u2026 I do think
\n the region is doing what it can, but we are swimming upstream
\n when it comes to meeting the needs of the Sacramento area.\n<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0More Affordable
\n Housing Can Happen: Lessons from six cities on getting it
\n built<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Justin Walters (Somers West): When it comes down
\n to the brass tacks, there\u2019s still a lot of hurdles to getting
\n projects approved. Every builder in the region is trying to get
\n their projects done quicker, while reducing fees as much as
\n possible, because at the end of the day, those fees go right down
\n to the end user, which is the homebuyer.\n<\/p>\n

\n Tim Murphy (BIA): It\u2019s been challenging to
\n educate local governments on fees and what effect the fees have
\n on overall housing attainability for families. \u2026 For our MSA
\n (metropolitan statistical area), the median home price is
\n $569,000, and someone needs $161,000 in income to qualify. So,
\n for every thousand-dollar increase in that median price of a
\n house, there are 575 families who are priced out.\n<\/p>\n

\n Comstock\u2019s: What exactly is the role that local
\n building fees are playing in making housing and rent prices so
\n high in this area?\n<\/p>\n

\n The average fee total in Sacramento County, before you turn a
\n shovel in the dirt, is $109,000 for a single-family home.\n <\/p>\n

Tim Murphy,\u00a0president and CEO,\u00a0North State
\n Building Industry Association<\/p>\n

\n Tim Murphy (BIA): In the last five years, fees
\n have gone up 25 percent. The average fee total in Sacramento
\n County, before you turn a shovel in the dirt, is $109,000 for a
\n single-family home. \u2026 That $109,000 doesn\u2019t include the costs
\n around what the environmental mitigation might be. It doesn\u2019t
\n include inclusionary zoning or affordable housing mandates. That
\n number is just for the critical infrastructure that goes along
\n with building a single-family home.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Kevin Carson of Risewell Homes.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n Kevin Carson (Risewell): The problem is, BIA may
\n get a big win on reducing a fee, but then lumber is up 21 percent
\n since December. And then building codes get updated every three
\n years, adding $8,000 to $12,000 to the price of a house. \u2026 We
\n need to look, globally, at what the whole price of a house is.\n<\/p>\n

\n Anton Garcia (Taylor Builders): We\u2019re building a
\n project right now that took 20 years to get\u00a0 certified.
\n These homes are going to sell for $500,000 to just shy of a
\n million dollars. So, a wide spectrum. It took 20 years to entitle
\n it, and an additional $100 million in costs for public
\n improvements, just to flush the first toilet. \u2026 There\u2019s not one
\n fee involved which doesn\u2019t go up every year for the cost of
\n living. And it\u2019s not just a 2 percent or 3 percent escalation; it
\n is a full-blown update to the fee.\n<\/p>\n

\n Comstock\u2019s: Are there any potential solutions to
\n the situation with fees beyond governments just abandoning them?\n<\/p>\n

\n Justin Walters (Somers West):\u00a0What every
\n jurisdiction could do is defer them. Builders should be able to
\n pay their building permit fee at the final inspection, so they\u2019re
\n not carrying those costs. Because we\u2019re not building one house at
\n a time. We might go in for 20 permits at once. That\u2019s more than
\n $2 million just on the fees; and if it\u2019s a five-to-six-month
\n build-out on a single-family house, and we don\u2019t have a buyer and
\n we\u2019re holding that house \u2014 maybe it\u2019s nine months \u2014 time is
\n money. Loans with interest are money. If we were able to defer
\n that burden until the close of escrow, that would be huge.\n<\/p>\n

Related: Finding Affordable
\n Financing: The flow of money to pay for low-income housing could
\n be slowing just as demand soars<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Anton Garcia (Taylor Builders): I agree. These
\n are impact fees. They\u2019re about impacts on schools, traffic, sewer
\n and water. The impact doesn\u2019t occur until someone is living in
\n the house, so I think it\u2019s only reasonable to ask that they are
\n deferred until someone moves in.\n<\/p>\n

\n Comstock\u2019s: Housing instability has touched so
\n many people in the region. Has that changed the traditional
\n dynamic of instant community pushback whenever a new project is
\n proposed? The so-called NIMBYism phenomenon?\n<\/p>\n

\n Kevin Carson (Risewell): Over the last 15 years,
\n it has gotten better. When we built The Cannery in Davis and
\n McKinley Village near East Sacramento, there was a lot of
\n pushback during the process for each, even though, today, those
\n are both projects that are well thought of. In fact, some of the
\n biggest opponents of McKinley Village ended up buying houses
\n there.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Ron Brown of Brown Construction.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n Ron Brown (Brown Construction): I will say about
\n The Cannery, being a Davis resident myself since 1968, it is a
\n great project. Yet, back when it was proposed, I\u2019d hear endlessly
\n from friends and family, \u2018Oh, this is bad.\u2019 It was a cannery
\n before, and you could smell it from August to October. The whole
\n town smelled of tomatoes. But it was still popular to complain
\n because it was one of the only things going on at the time.\n<\/p>\n

\n Craig Adelman (Mutual Housing): One of the more
\n interesting manifestations that I see now around traditional
\n NIMBYism is this realization of, \u201cOh, my family had to move
\n away.\u201d It\u2019s this mentality of, \u201cDidn\u2019t have a housing crisis
\n until it hit me, and I can\u2019t see my grandkids anymore.\u201d\u2026\n<\/p>\n

\n At the end of the day, California has given way too much power to
\n homeowners who don\u2019t really care about something like The
\n Cannery: They just care about change. They don\u2019t want it. That\u2019s
\n because they see it as a threat to the biggest asset in their
\n household, which is their home. And as long as we both empower
\n those folks and have a system where they are feeling economically
\n threatened by the addition of new housing, we are going to
\n continue to shoot ourselves in the foot. \u2026\n<\/p>\n

Related: Residential Renaissance: New
\n affordable apartment complexes offer appealing amenities such
\n rooftop terraces, courtyards and shared community
\n spaces<\/a><\/p>\n

\n (Mutual Housing) has a development under construction right now
\n at 16th and T streets in downtown Sacramento. It\u2019s a five-story,
\n appropriate urban-dense multi-family development. There\u2019s a
\n historic old home next door, and the daughter of its owners \u2014
\n who\u2019s a resident there as well \u2014 came to the groundbreaking of
\n our project. It ended up being a good example of some of the
\n generational complexity around this issue. The daughter was
\n really excited to see that an old auto repair shop at a prime
\n intersection was now becoming housing. But, she said, \u201cMy folks,
\n they\u2019re upset about the shadow on their house.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Tim Murphy (BIA): I do think the newer
\n Yes-In-My-Backyard movement, or the YIMBY approach, is real, and
\n it\u2019s budding.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n A housing development under construction in West Sacramento in
\n 2026. (Shutterstock photo)\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n Comstock\u2019s: Let\u2019s talk about the relationship
\n between CEQA reform and solving the housing crisis.\n<\/p>\n

\n Milo Terzich (USA Properties): NIMBYs wouldn\u2019t
\n even exist if CEQA didn\u2019t give them the power to. We build
\n projects all over the state, and we get more CEQA challenges from
\n labor unions than we do from NIMBYs. We\u2019ve seen CEQA challenges
\n in some communities that we\u2019re building in, and the challenges
\n came from the city next door, just because they didn\u2019t get a
\n transportation agreement. Very few CEQA challenges are
\n environmentally related. Very few. It\u2019s labor \u2014\u00a0 and it\u2019s a
\n lever they get to pull.\n<\/p>\n

\n NIMBYs wouldn\u2019t even exist if CEQA didn\u2019t give them the power
\n to.\n <\/p>\n

Milo Terzich,\u00a0vice president for development and
\n entitlements, USA Properties Fund<\/p>\n

\n Anton Garcia (Taylor Builders): CEQA is its own
\n business. That\u2019s the least-kept secret. \u2026 There\u2019s a lot of
\n appreciation around the environment when it comes to development,
\n or at least more than I think people would ever really recognize.
\n If you really sit in these meetings, and look at the open space
\n management that we\u2019re looking at \u2014\u00a0 with us buying off-site
\n mitigation pieces of land to be put into perpetuity for
\n conservation, essentially forever \u2014\u00a0 I think people would
\n recognize that we\u2019re trying to do our best to really conserve
\n what we can, while still trying to meet the needs of the public
\n in delivering housing in the most affordable way.\n<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0Can a State
\n Office Building Become a Home? To help solve the housing crisis,
\n the State of California has identified excess sites for
\n conversion to affordable housing<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Milo Terzich (USA Properties): CEQA has been the
\n No. 1 barrier to housing in California over the last 40 years,
\n bar none. You can say that costs are, but if we didn\u2019t have to
\n run the risk of not getting our CEQA approvals, it wouldn\u2019t cost
\n so much, and that cost wouldn\u2019t ultimately be on the homebuyer.\n<\/p>\n

\n Ron Brown (Brown Construction): I agree. When it
\n comes to CEQA and the pressure that comes from labor groups
\n through it, that needs to be removed from the law. I personally
\n don\u2019t understand how it\u2019s allowed to be used as a weapon like
\n that. I mean, I know why they use it \u2014\u00a0 I\u2019ve been involved
\n in a lot of those discussions. They\u2019re being allowed to utilize
\n it to hamstring projects, so that they can force the developer\u2019s
\n hand into certain agreements.\n<\/p>\n

\n Tim Murphy (BIA): CEQA is not going to go away,
\n but I\u2019m very optimistic about the ballot initiative that is going
\n to be coming forward later this year (the Building an Affordable
\n California Act). It was designed with input and negotiations with
\n the environmental community. This is something that I think is
\n going to be broadly appealing to a lot of different voter blocks.\n<\/p>\n

\n Kevin Carson (Risewell): There\u2019s no question
\n that if builders get the development timeframe down from six
\n years to two years, they\u2019re going to get financing, and they\u2019re
\n going to get people interested in projects. Right now, time
\n delays and costs are still making that affordability a huge
\n issue.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u2013\n<\/p>\n

\n Stay up to date on business in the Capital Region:
\n Subscribe to the Comstock\u2019s newsletter
\n today.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is part of our April 2026 issue. To read the print version, click here. …\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-265552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}