The following piece was written as part of the interview process for my new role as Associate Planner with the California Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation in response to the following prompt: “It’s 2050 and California has succeeded in achieving our land use and climate policy goals. What does that look like and how did we get there?” This was written for an audience of land use planners with 1000 word limit, and has only been lightly revised for this post.
Looking back at California’s ambitious land use and climate policy goals in 2025 evokes wonder today—not because they weren’t essential, but because Californians—residents, communities, public servants, businesses and nonprofits—united around a shared vision, implementing policies in a manner that reflected local needs, capacities and realities.
Twenty-five years ago, the stakes were dire – entire towns consumed by megafires, countless families displaced by a ballooning housing crisis, extreme poverty that gripped too many of our fellow Californians, and the prolonged megadrought in the 2030s that exacerbated everything. State policymakers recognized the urgency and scale of action needed, setting ambitious targets: carbon neutrality by 2045, 100% carbon-free electricity, conserving 30% of California’s lands and coastal waters by 2030, 100% zero-emission new vehicle sales by 2035, and aggressive housing production goals.
We achieved carbon neutrality by 2043—two years ahead of schedule—and have since progressed to regenerative practices that actively restore our ecosystems and communities, demonstrating the remarkable success of these efforts.
California in 2050
Today, our cities and towns feature dense, vibrant, mixed-use neighborhoods where affordable housing options ensure people of all incomes can live near jobs and amenities. The 15-minute city concept prevails, with most daily needs accessible via active transportation or efficient public transit. VMT has dropped by 25%—far exceeding our original goals—as remote work and walkable communities have reduced the need for long commutes. Our transportation network seamlessly integrates multimodal trips across zero-emission vehicles, protected bike infrastructure, high-speed rail connecting north, south and the Central Valley, expanded ferry service in the Bay Area and much more.
Our rural landscapes balance productive agriculture with ecological restoration, protected by a network of conservation land trusts that helped us exceed the 30×30 goals to reach 50% by 2050. Regenerative farming practices have transformed our agricultural and range lands from carbon sources to carbon sinks. Wildlife corridors reconnect habitats, allowing keystone species like salmon and beaver to flourish again. Indigenous knowledge around cultural burns has transformed our relationship with fire from fear to stewardship across communities in the Urban-Wildland Interface.
Our economy has diversified and localized, creating resilient regional centers rather than over-reliance on a few coastal hubs and an unreliable global supply chain. The “stewardship economy” provides meaningful work restoring and maintaining our natural systems, while strategic infrastructure investments have created pathways to prosperity in historically disinvested communities.
The Journey of Transformation
At the quarter-century mark, California’s land use planning model was struggling with intersecting crises. The model was theoretically sound—state policies filtering through required elements in local general plans to inform zoning and subdivision, enforced by permitting and project approval, subject to controls like CEQA review. However, growing tension between local control and centralized mandates delayed decisive action. Many recognized this model needed review.
Continued climate disasters, federal dysfunction, and the pivotal Harris Administration of 2026 catalyzed change at the state level. Facing existential questions about California’s future, state leadership launched a comprehensive governance review using deliberative stakeholder processes informed by human-centered design to unblock progress on critical issues and develop a comprehensive, compelling, participatory vision for the future.
Participatory Planning
Local champions and state officials recognized the need for strategic storytelling to bring all Californians to the table. Reframing climate disasters as opportunities and developing compelling visions of climate-positive futures encouraged expanded public participation. Citizen assemblies, collaborative design processes, and targeted engagement for disadvantaged and disinvested communities yielded inspiring visions of thriving futures. State officials focussed on listening and understanding local planning challenges, helping overcome resistance from NIMBY groups and others resistant to change. As collaborative regional networks emerged and strengthened, leadership cultivated deep relationships with these implementation partners.
Review, Reform & Innovation
With engaged communities and shared vision established, California undertook comprehensive planning system reforms that unified fragmented requirements and restructured regional agencies to balance development with community and ecosystem wellbeing. Regulatory innovations streamlined permitting for climate-positive projects without sacrificing environmental protections. The state realigned finances by reforming investments, redirecting procurement toward local providers, establishing climate-positive infrastructure requirements, and implementing carbon pricing alongside local economy incentives.
This transformation was anchored locally by Bioregional Roundtables—multi-stakeholder networks organized around natural ecosystems—which supported collective impact and provided direct communication between state officials and implementation partners on the ground. These efforts nurtured localized innovation systems tailored to regional challenges, supported community-driven adaptation experiments, and created pathways to rapidly scale successful planning innovations throughout the state.
Innovation in Technical Assistance & Implementation
The Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation provided enhanced technical assistance through General Plan Guidelines updates, model policies, case studies, and capacity-building workshops. Partnering with the Office of Data and Innovation, they released a planning chatbot that supported local planners and stakeholders, which evolved into a data commons centralizing key information (policy, land use, demographics, climate data) that enabled accessible scenario planning tools and predictive analytics for climate-smart planning.
This platform matured into the California Digital Twin—a virtual environment for planners and stakeholders to visualize and understand long-term tradeoffs between competing priorities for land use decisions. Local planners embraced this tool not just because it halved the time and expense for General Plan revisions, but also for the enhanced public engagement it enabled. Bioregional Roundtables established knowledge networks connecting learning communities with academic-practitioner research partnerships around these support tools.
From Land Use to Land Stewardship
Land use emerged as the nexus connecting our climate, housing, transportation, economic, and equity challenges. By demonstrating the relationship between resilient communities and ecological health, and honoring the wisdom of indigenous communities, the concept of land “use” evolved into the responsibility and honor of land “stewardship.”
This paradigm shift transformed California’s approach to water through watershed-based planning and the adoption of the new required General Plan Water Element, which institutionalized practices such as Green Stormwater Infrastructure and urban water-capture systems, while reimagining working landscapes as vital water and carbon sinks through soil health and hydrological restoration. The state complemented these efforts with significant ecosystem restoration investments that emphasized habitat interconnectivity and reestablished ecological functions that had sustained California’s diverse landscapes for generations.
The California Spirit
What enabled this transformation wasn’t just good policy or planning—it was revitalizing the pioneering spirit that grew California. Communities discovered that addressing critical challenges together could heal historical divisions and create shared purpose and new civic pride. Our greatest achievement isn’t that we met technical targets—it’s that we’ve adopted a holistic, ecological worldview where sustainability, justice, and prosperity reinforce rather than compete with each other.