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A Special Evening with Industry Leaders
On April 20, 2023, BIASC leadership, members and elected officials gathered to attend A Special Evening with Industry Leaders at the historic Richard Nixon Presidential Library. The first half of the evening’s program featured networking and a housing and economic update by Scott Wild, Senior Vice President of John Burns Real Estate Consulting. The second half of the program featured a panel of BIASC Leadership, including Randall Lewis (The Lewis Group of Companies), Michael Battaglia (New Home Co.), and Greg McWilliams (Five Point) moderated by Jay Prag. This panel of industry experts highlighted the importance of building relationships within BIASC community, and with elected representatives at both the state and local levels of government. The key component to advocacy in the building industry is housing policy.
Randall Lewis, Owner, Lewis Group of Companies
“For those BIA members in the first five years or early in their career, I recommend engagement at the BIA committees which provide great opportunity to network and access industry leaders.”
“How do builders/developers help increase housing production? We need to continue to work with BIA to support elected officials that value housing and also build coalitions that support housing. BIA is the best hope to solve the housing crisis.”
Greg McWilliams, Chief Policy Officer and Vice President, FivePoint
“We continue to have state legislation proposed that undermines local cities ability to meet their RHNA requirements. We need bold leadership that opposes legislation that will lead to a de facto moratorium.”
“We also continue to see CEQA weaponized to kill projects. We need CEQA modernization where there is pre-approval applied to the buildout for approved housing elements. We also need to set a shot clock for CEQA comments and approvals that should ends at 270 days!”
Michael Battaglia, President, Southern California, The New Home Company
“BIA is the tip of the spear in advocacy to help our company and other BIA members with a variety of issues from enraging utilities to improving certainty in local cities planning and engineering departments.”
