2023 Housing Symposium Recap

By Delaney Puthuff, Communications Specialist

Orange County REALTORS® hosted a public event on October 16 at the Lido House on all things housing which was sponsored by a grant from the National Association of REALTORS®

“I think this was such a great presentation, of course housing is so important to us but also to our future generations and how we develop as we and the county ages,” said Suzanne Gignoux, Branch Manager for HomeSmart Evergreen. With an array of highly regarded speakers, dedicated members, and a wonderful message put forth, the 2023 Housing Symposium was a wonderful event full of passion for all in attendance. One truly could not have asked for better weather, better attendees, or better speakers. Although we were incredibly sad to announce the absence of our originally scheduled Emcee, Lucy Dunn, as we wish her all the best in her recovery after a minor health scare, Jeff Ball, President and CEO of the Orange County Business Council, stepped up to the plate and did an absolutely incredible job. Beginning with an address from our 2023 President, Scott White, was a sentiment that reminded a buzzing room of passionate people, “it is important that we focus on the future of homeownership, and our expert speakers are here to show us how.”

Jeff Ball took the stage again to introduce Jeff Montejano, CEO of the Building Industry Association of Southern California, who had a presentation along with Eric Nelson, Vice President of Community Development for Trumark Homes, about the current impact of environmental bills on California housing projects, slowing to a crawl. “Our industry is changing by the day, changing by the hour. We saw legislature that ended the recession with a lot of housing bills, and that is what we are going to get into today,” said Montejano. This expert duo came armed with excellent visuals that truly got down to what it was that they were here to convey. Jeff and Eric discussed that our state has been through a lot during and since the 2008 recession, and this has greatly impacted how the industry functions. Many government initiatives promised California new builds, with no follow through. Builders have been fighting for projects to get homebuyers into new homes, with little avail, due to many regulations on where and what to build that kept changing. “We have these State blanket policies, that are making it more and more cumbersome… to solve the crisis,” explained Nelson. The presentation outlined how builders try to find areas for development but continue crashing into problems. Jeff Montejano elaborated, “I have talked to elected officials from all over. I would sit down to discuss and they would say, ‘I can’t have you building on open land, I am an environmentalist.’ Well that’s okay, how about we build downtown? ‘Oh no, no. I don’t like density.’ Then we will put it in existing neighborhoods. ‘No, my neighbors won’t like that.’ Well, where do you want me to put the house?” All of the concerns Jeff Montejano outlined are real and valid, but the argument still stands, the building difficulties still stand and something’s got to give.

With much applause for the last pair of speakers, Jeff Ball welcomed in Josh Stephens, a Contributing Editor for the California Planning and Development Report, for a housing update, elaborating on the legislation that creates barriers that limit our critical supply of housing in such a populated state. The arm-chairlike talk was very refreshing as both Jeff Ball and Josh Stephens made that audience feel included in the sharing of ideas. “It was fun to speak to, largely a room of REALTORS®, because they are an important part of the state's land use apparatus, but they are not typically represented at planning conferences, so it was great to present the planning perspective. Hopefully this gave everyone food for thought, especially for what municipal planners are considering when they think about housing,” stated Stephens.

Dave Owen, a Professor of Law at the UC College of Law, San Francisco, pulled focus after a quick break, to discuss something all Californian’s think about: Water. California water, as we all know, is a precious commodity, but Owen wasted no time grabbing the attention of everyone in the room with a brief depiction of where we all are getting our water from. With visuals and a clear tone, Dave Owen took his material into an in depth and well connected talk on all facts of our water resources. “The big, big looming challenge under all of this is climate change. The most certain impact/impacts will be increasing fluctuation of water availability, and also more of our water falling as rain rather than snow, which means that one of the most important water reservoirs in the state, that’s our snowpack, is going to get noticeably smaller. This makes everything else we do with water harder.” Climate change making our water availability lessen, not only affects our personal lives, but our professional lives, and Dave was there to offer solutions. Outlining where water is used in the lives of those in real estate, Owen illuminated that landscaping is the biggest water gulper, more than toilets and showers, and could be a great place to start. Getting on board with water friendly landscape architecture, those who support water friendly landscape architecture, is a wonderful place to start. Swap out your lawn for astroturf or eco friendly ground cover, plant flowers and trees native to the area and our weather. There is no reason to be using up so much water in a state where drought looms large.

Last but not least, (a cliche that has never been truer for this speaker) was Jason Roberts, Founder of the Better Block Project,with a message of great inspiration and a call to action. Jason Roberts is a man who had an idea for the betterment of communities all around, and made that idea a reality. A well spoken and charming individual, Roberts recounted his experiences going through communities that were “dying“ and reviving them to be like the wellpopulated, walkable, bikeable, habitable cities like he had seen throughout his time in Europe. Roberts began to reconstruct entire streets and sidewalks making room for gathering areas, bike lanes, trees, and other hallmarks of lively, eventful cities. Through pictures and stories, the audience began to see the true power behind changing our infrastructure to create a more welcoming and social area. “We brought a bunch of artists together (to refurbish and repurpose an old building), because I don’t have millions of dollars to fix this, we will bring a bunch of friends out, give them all canvas, and we will turn this into an instant art gallery in the neighborhood. We are about to open the doors, thinking no one was going to show up, it's the bad side of town in the middle of winter, and when we opened the doors we had 750 people show up. We all collectively recognize that we have these broken spaces and we know we need to fix them.” This astounding recount shook up audience members to think about how they themselves could fix up and redo things in their town to beautify the community.