Q&A with BIA San Diego CEO Lori Pfeiler

Lori Holt Pfeiler is the first female to head the Building Industry Association of San Diego in the organization’s 85year history. After 18 years on the Escondido City Council, including 12 as mayor, she led Habitat for Humanity in San Diego for nine years before moving to BIASD in 2021.

Southern California Builder: Let’s start by having you introduce yourself to the members of BIASC.

Lori Pfeiler: Back in 1992, I ran for office because I wanted to make decisions so that people could lead better lives. I didn’t know anything about housing when I got elected because that is not often what you run on; you run on better jobs and no crime. Interestingly, , I ended up serving on a 4-1 council and was the 1, so I didn’t get appointed to any committees. That let me run loose, and I ended up on the SANDAG [San Diego Association of Governments] Housing Committee, where I learned about housing and became passionate, because when you have a home that you can call your own, you can thrive and take care of yourself. As an Escondido City Council member I was always trying to figure out how to streamline the process, and was always amazed that people whose homes we had approved three years ago would come as the next phase was before us and complain that it was going to devalue their property, ruin the traffic, and so on. We let them in, and now they don’t want anyone else let in.

Housing was such a passion that when I left office I worked for Habitat for Humanity. What a great organization! Fundamentally we need all kinds of housing, and the opportunity to own your own home and create wealth is the bedrock of this country’s values. At Habitat, we could sell a home to a family that generally earned between 65% and 80% of the area median income, and that is very rewarding. So many of us take our housing for granted, then you find out that you can have a decent job here in San Diego County and never have access to buying a home. We need to change that. I was with a family – a mom and a dad and four kids – the first time they walked into their new home, and he was crying because he knew this home would change their lives. And that is how I feel about housing – it changes people’s lives.

SCB: At the start of your career, being a woman in a man’s world was even more challenging than it is today. What was it like for you?

LP: I was the only woman on the Council. A staff member at his retirement party told me, “I used to sit in the audience and laugh at you because you would say something and no one would answer you or even respond.” I noticed that, too. Not only would no one would respond to what I or any woman said, but five minutes later a guy would say the same thing and suddenly that’s the best idea we’ve heard all day. I learned that if you’re not being seen or heard, you need to speak up more, not less. I also had a couple of people tell me my voice was awful and I would never be a politician. But my aspirations were to serve, and I wasn’t going to let anybody tell me what my life’s dream was going to be.

SCB: How did your background help you with the challenges the industry is facing in San Diego?

LP: Back when Habitat hired me, my experience was a mile wide and an inch deep. I was there for nine years, living the entitlement experience on a day-to-day basis, so I know exactly what it’s like to go to the counter at a city and tell them you need your encroachment permit today, only to hear them say, “You never submitted an application for that.” And then you hold up your phone and show them the picture of your application that’s already signed, and you tell them that it’s unacceptable for them to tell you that you have to wait another month. We lived that every day. I started a project for Habitat in Escondido – my city – in March 2018 and today, five years later, it is finally going vertical – for 10 units in the urban core, we are supposed to be building! The challenges of getting through entitlement, and having inspectors not caring what the drawings show, and having delays getting utilities turned on – I have the experience to know how challenging it is.

SCB: What was the transition from subsidized housing to market-rate housing like?

LP: Habitat does have some subsidies, but it’s not like lowincome housing at all. We had to raise money to help with the subsidies, which is very entrepreneurial, similar to what market-rate builders experience. I’ve always been a marketrate person so coming to this side, working to get more market-rate housing, is the same language I’ve been using forever.

SCB: Is anything happening in San Diego indicating that there may be better entitlement paths ahead?

LP: The City of San Diego is aggressive about streamlining and doing more ministerial approvals for Complete Communities, and strategizing on Sustainable Development areas, which is just a take on transit. For transit walkability, the City has gone from half a mile as the crow flies to a mile – a walkable mile. Before, a half-mile was a half-mile, even if you had to cross a freeway, and that’s not going to be the case anymore, but the increase to a mile has added 7,000 acres to the Complete Communities that are available to be developed. But of course we still have to change the attitude of the people at the counter!

SCB: How about in the suburban, exurban master-planned community world?

LP: That’s totally different. In the unincorporated areas, the Board of Supervisors has taken the most stringent view of Vehicle Miles Traveled [VMT] so basically our unincorporated area has a moratorium on it. They don’t call it that, but they say that in order to mitigate VMT, it will cost $50,000 to $2 million per unit, so nobody is going to build out there. The County is also looking at an inclusionary housing ordinance, and in those documents, they say the average price of a home in the unincorporated area is $620,000 a unit – but with VMT they are denying any opportunity to build houses there at that price, where it could be much more affordable than the $850,000 region-wide average.

SCB: Are you excited about San Diego and BIASC coming together for this year’s BIS show?

LP: I’m very, very excited because we will be bringing all of Southern California together as one great market. So many of your folks know our folks and our folks know your folks, and some of our members have participated in BIS over the years, but making it available to all our members is phenomenal. You guys are celebrating 100 years and we’re celebrating 85 so we’ve both been here a very long time and are part of the fabric of our communities, so we need to celebrate that. And dancing on the deck of the Midway is going to be sensational – as long as I don’t fall off the edge!