California Forever: Can Building New Cities Help Solve Our Housing Crisis?

Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

California faces an urgent housing crisis: Median home prices are double the national average and while in 2016 it was projected that the state needed to build 3.5 million new homes by 2025 to meet demand, just one quarter of those have even been permitted. Is building new cities from scratch the solution—or is it just a Silicon Valley pipe dream?

Join us for an eye-opening fireside chat with Gabe Metcalf, head of planning at California Forever, exploring why he sees greenfield development, rather than infill alone, as our best shot at addressing the housing crisis. Drawing upon years in his previous role as CEO of SPUR and now leading urban planning for California Forever’s controversial East Solano Plan—a proposed, VC-backed new city in Solano County—Metcalf will discuss why he believes that cities are humankind’s greatest invention and why building walkable, compact communities must become a normal form of development.

Is it time to rethink our approach to building mass housing or will hurdles mean new cities never break ground? An essential discussion for residents, urban planners, environmental advocates and anyone invested in the Bay Area’s housing future.

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