Commentary Southern California counties, cities and jurisdictions need to provision for 1.5 million new homes throughout the next eight years. California’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) works with local jurisdictions, analyzing population growth, job growth and transportation infrastructure to develop mandates for how many new homes jurisdictions must plan for. The approach includes city planning as well as working with local transportation, safety and utility authorities to ensure home builders and housing developers have what they need to build 1.5 million new homes in the next eight and-a-half years. Cities, of course, cannot force economic expansion, nor force property developers to build. Housing will only get built if the economic opportunity for the property developer exists to build. However, town planning, utility hookups, fire and safety and transportation networks all also have to exist and those are all the work of counties, cities and other local jurisdictions to …