CBIA Participates in SB 375 Signing Ceremony
2006 CBIA Chairman Layne Marceau, left, shakes hands with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at the signing of SB 375.
• Video footage of the news conference
October 2, 2008
WEST SACRAMENTO – California homebuilders participated in the signing ceremony for landmark legislation designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while ensuring that California meets 100 percent of its housing need.
As some 200 people looked on during the ceremony on the top floor of a state parking garage on Wednesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger formally signed SB 375 by state Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, culminating a two-year legislative process that CBIA was able to help shape into a bill homebuilders could support.
Layne Marceau, a former CBIA chairman and the president of Shea Homes’ Northern California Division, said SB 375 was a monumental achievement and that builders would continue working with the Governor and Steinberg – the incoming Senate President Pro Tempore – to further stimulate the economy and provide for the state’s housing needs.
“Clearly, California has its share of challenges to face,” said Marceau, who also serves as chairman of the California Major Builders Council, a CBIA coalition of the state’s 25 major homebuilding companies. “But we firmly believe, as Governor Schwarzenegger has said many times, that we can have a strong economy and strong environmental protection as well. And SB 375 provides a bold plan to address both.”
The bill is a first-in-the-nation attempt to link land-use planning and greenhouse gas reductions by requiring regional governments to develop growth plans that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But, Marceau noted, it will also streamline environmental regulations for housing projects that help meet the state’s homeownership and housing affordability goals.
“The imperative for building the housing we need is as critical to California’s future as preserving and protecting its environment. SB 375 recognizes these otherwise competing goals and produces a plan for meeting and achieving both of these goals,” Marceau said.
“By bringing to the table the critical certainty that builders need in the form of streamlining the environmental review process and the zoning that must actually be in place, SB 375 will help the struggling housing industry while providing the environmental protection that Californians have come to expect.”
The signing comes during a continued deep slump in residential construction that has caused housing permits to fall by nearly two-thirds since 2005. The 70,000 single-family and multifamily permits expected to be pulled this year in California represent the lowest level since accurate statewide records began being kept in 1954 and, analysts say, almost certainly the lowest amount since World War II.
Also participating in the official signing ceremony were dozens of representatives of organizations that helped pass the landmark law, including the League of Conservation Voters, the California League of Cities, and the Bay Area Council.
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The California Building Industry Association is a statewide trade association representing thousands of homebuilders, remodelers, subcontractors, architects, engineers, designers, and other industry professionals. More information is available on the Association's Web site, www.cbia.org.
