July 26, 2023

The Chamber’s Policy Team continues to be part of stakeholder discussions involving development services’ process improvements at the City and County.  

Last week, County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer presented a board letter on expanding the County’s self-certification program, starting with creating a working group comprised of the development community.  

The Chamber weighed in on this discussion at the hearing, citing the need to consider ideas such as self-certification to streamline the permitting processes for commercial and residential development. 

The City of San Diego’s Environment Committee heard an update on their first report of a multi-phased study to evaluate the City’s feasibility of creating its own public power entity. The City retained services from NewGen Strategies & Solutions LLC to conduct the study, with their Phase 1 report finding cost-benefit projections to be between $2-6 billion.  

The Chamber spoke during the Council hearing and cited concerns over the costs, legal and regulatory hurdles, and capacity of the efforts.  

Two years ago, the Chamber partnered with the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council to commission an independent, third-party economic analysis of the costs and benefits associated with municipalization, which found startup costs would likely be $8.9 billion.