Webinar: States as Laboratories: Early Lessons from Pro-Housing Designation Programs

In recent years, state governments have taken a more active role in encouraging local policy change to increase housing production and affordability. Pro-housing designation programs—which incentivize or require localities to take proactive steps to facilitate housing production—are a new addition to the policy toolbox.

Our recent report profiles six pro-housing designation programs—in California, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, and Utah.

Join us for a webinar on Wed., January 22, 10:00am – 11:00am PT.

We will hear from states implementing these programs and participating local governments. What’s working well, and what isn’t? What steps need to be taken to evaluate program effectiveness, and to strengthen program participation and compliance?

Webinar speakers will include:

• Shazia Manji, Research Associate, Terner Center for Housing Innovation (Presenter)
• John J. Bauters, former Mayor and Councilmember, City of Emeryville, California
• Kristen Guichard, Planning Director and Zoning Enforcement Officer, Town of Acton, Massachusetts 
• Chris Kluchman, Director of Livable Communities Division, Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, Massachusetts  
• Steve Waldrip, Senior Advisor on Housing Strategy and Innovation for Utah Governor Spencer Cox

This conversation will be moderated by Ben Metcalf, Managing Director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation.

Register for the webinar

Panelists’ Bios

Shazia Manji (Presenter)
Research Associate, Terner Center for Housing Innovation
Shazia Manji is a Research Associate for the Terner Center for Housing Innovation. Her interests are in reducing health disparities and promoting equitable community development. Prior to joining the Terner Center, Shazia contributed to research on climate change and displacement at the Urban Displacement Project while pursuing a dual Masters in Public Health and Masters in City Planning from UC Berkeley. Before attending Cal, she worked in non-profit communications and policy advocacy, supporting health equity and environmental justice campaigns at Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles. Shazia also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from UC San Diego.

John J. Bauters
Former Mayor and City Councilmember, City of Emeryville, California
John J. Bauters is a housing policy expert and the former Mayor of Emeryville, California. Professionally, John has close to 20 years of work on housing justice, having worked as an outreach worker for the homeless, many years as a public housing eviction defense attorney, and as an affordable housing policy expert at Housing California. On the city council, John championed tenant protections, Emeryville’s Just Cause Eviction ordinance, and Emeryville Measure C, a $50 million affordable housing bond, the highest per capita bond of its kind in state history.

Kristen Guichard
Planning Director and Zoning Enforcement Officer, Town of Acton, Massachusetts
Kristen Guichard, AICP, is the Planning Director and Zoning Enforcement Officer for the Town of Acton, MA. Kristen has been working in municipal planning for the past 15 years in the Boston 495/Metrowest area. She holds both a Master in Public Administration and a BA in Sociology from Clark University and a certificate in Project Management from UMass Lowell. In her current role, she manages the Planning and Conservation Divisions, providing staff support to a wide range of land use boards, committees, and commissions. Kristen is passionate about working collaboratively to advance equity in public participation. In 2022 she brought forward a formal policy to review proposed zoning bylaws for disparate impact by a fair housing attorney prior to Town Meeting adoption. She sits as the designee on the Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization for the Minuteman Advisory Group on Interlocal Coordination region and served as local project manager for the Assabet River Rail Trail and the Kelley’s Corner Complete Streets project in Acton.

Chris Kluchman
Director, Livable Communities Division, Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, Massachusetts
Chris Kluchman, FAICP, oversees and coordinates a wide range of programs in the Livable Communities Division, including land use, federal, and state grant programs with annual funding of approximately $100 million. For the past three years, she’s led the implementation of the award-winning MBTA Communities law, which requires 177 communities in eastern Massachusetts to establish as of right multi-family zoning. Prior to her work for the Commonwealth, she worked for the Town of Westford, MA as the Director of Land Use Management. She worked in Oregon for the first half of her 35+-year career, including co-founding a planning firm. In 2016, Chris was recognized for outstanding contributions to the field of planning as a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners. She has a BA in the Growth and Structure of Cities from Haverford College.

Steve Waldrip
Senior Advisor on Housing Strategy and Innovation for Utah Governor Spencer Cox
Steve Waldrip completed his undergraduate studies in English at Brigham Young University, received a law degree from the University of Utah and a master’s in Taxation from the University of Washington. After practicing law for a short time, he took a job with the Boyer Company in Utah at the beginning of the Business Depot Ogden project. As project manager he helped bring in $500 million in private investment into BDO and Ogden, negotiated $250 million in lease transactions and helped create over 4,000 new jobs. He served two terms in the Utah House of Representatives, and co-founded a social benefit real estate fund, Rocky Mountain Homes Fund, where he worked for several years. He is currently serving as the Governor’s Senior Advisor for Housing Strategy and Innovation, a role he assumed in December of 2023. In addition, he serves on the Board of United Way Northern Utah, the Utah Commission on Housing Affordability, and the Board of the Utah Housing Corporation.

Ben Metcalf (Moderator)
Managing Director, Terner Center for Housing Innovation
Ben Metcalf is the Managing Director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley, where he leads the expansion and deepening of Terner Center’s work addressing housing affordability challenges through rigorous research and policy analysis. In addition, he holds an appointment as Associate Research Professor with UC Berkeley’s Department of City and Regional Planning and serves as Practice Director for UC Berkeley’s Abbey Master of Real Estate Development + Design. He is also the Chief Executive Officer of Terner Labs, a nonprofit organization formed in 2021 to advance the applied innovation work of the Terner Center.

Register for the webinar