Governor Glenn Youngkin addresses the audience as the event’s keynote speaker.

Governor joins regional leaders to call for accelerated development, streamlined permitting

Several hundred industry professionals gathered at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly on May 12 for the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association’s (NVBIA) first-ever Governor’s Breakfast, a keystone policy event focused on housing supply, economic development and regulatory reform.

Governor Glenn Youngkin headlined the program, joined by Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay, George Mason University economist Keith Waters, Ph.D., and a panel of housing and development experts that included Andrew Clark, vice president of government affairs for the Home Builders Association of Virginia (HBAV).

The morning featured a wide-ranging discussion on land-use, affordability, permitting and the role of housing in Virginia’s economic trajectory.

Governor Youngkin’s housing message

Governor Youngkin’s keynote centered on a pressing theme for Virginia homebuilders: the urgent need to build more housing. “My encouragement to everyone is that as we sit here and see a future, don’t accept it, change it,” Youngkin said.

Pointing to recent improvements in job growth and business investment – 267,000 new jobs and more than $100 billion in private-sector commitments – Youngkin said Virginia’s future depends on addressing the supply side of the housing equation. “This 2x-3x deficit in housing creation is the challenge,” he said.

Youngkin presented a four-part strategy for accelerating housing development.

1. Streamline Regulations and Permitting

The administration has cut permitting timelines by 67% and introduced a “Permit Transparency Portal” to help applicants track delays. A revised building code has shaved $24,000 off the cost of a typical home, and reforms to stormwater and wetlands processes aim to unlock further savings and predictability.

2. Increase Land Availability

Youngkin highlighted the launch of the Virginia Residential Site and Stewardship Database, which allows localities and landowners to voluntarily list build-ready sites. “Matching supply and demand and doing it in a transparent way,” he said, “so folks can find places to build.”

3. Expand the Construction Workforce

The state has created 4,000 new apprenticeships (a 40% increase), enabled universal licensing for tradespeople from other states and reduced licensing turnaround time from 45 days to 9.

4. Tie Housing to Economic Development

The governor described a new $75 million workforce housing fund that offers grants up to 20% of project costs. Localities are being asked to offer “white glove” service and streamline permitting and zoning to keep pace with economic development.

“Nobody else is doing this in the entire country, and I’m telling you we are winning and winning and winning, but it requires the local government to say, ‘Yes, we have a housing plan,’ and ‘Yes, we will provide white glove service,’ ” Youngkin said.

A data-driven warning

The program opened with a deep dive from Keith Waters, Ph.D., assistant director of George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis and Stephen S. Fuller Institute. He presented a sobering picture of the D.C. metro area’s economic trajectory.

While Northern Virginia has outpaced other subregions since the pandemic – now accounting for 48% of all metro-area jobs – Waters warned that “we are becoming more mediocre” due to an increase in lower-paying jobs and a continued shortage of housing.

Keith Waters, Ph.D., assistant director of George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis and Stephen S. Fuller Institute, speaks at the NVBIA Governor’s Breakfast.

Citing comparisons to Dallas and Orlando, Waters showed that Northern Virginia added only 130,000 housing units from 2012 to 2023, compared to 627,000 in Dallas. “It is a supply problem,” he said plainly. “There were just 15,000 homes on the market this March in a region of 6.3 million people. That’s one home for every 351 people.”

For a deeper dive into Dr. Waters’ data and insights, read the full story here.

Local realities and political headwinds

Fairfax Chairman Jeff McKay offered a local government perspective, which included the mounting pressure facing communities. “This is a very destabilizing time,” he said, referencing federal job cuts and shrinking contractor demand in Fairfax County, where roughly a fifth of the workforce is tied to the federal government.

He also shared a stark anecdote: 120 speakers were signed up to oppose an affordable housing proposal in his former district on county-owned land. “There should never be 120 people signed up to testify against 120 affordable housing units,” he said. “This is the real political world a lot of people sit in.”

McKay emphasized that density and housing variety – especially for seniors and middle-income residents – must be embraced to retain population and talent. “Housing can be an economic generator,” he said, noting the county’s changing economics and growing acceptance of mixed-use, higher-density developments.

Panel discusses cost pressures and policy solutions

The panel that followed brought together perspectives from developers, policymakers and HBAV. Moderated by land use attorney Andrew Painter, the session tackled real-world implications of policy and permitting challenges.

Andrew Clark of HBAV noted a shift in momentum since 2017. “It was once a one-party issue,” he said. “We now have legislators on both sides who are saying, ‘Hey, we want to really put the pedal to the metal and make substantive change.'”

Andrew Clark, vice president of government affairs for the Home Builders Association of Virginia (HBAV), takes the microphone during the in-depth panel discussion.

Clark voiced support for the proposed Virginia Residential Development Infrastructure Fund, which would finance infrastructure for residential projects. “We have nothing like that for residential, but yet, every day we hear about the importance of driving more residential development,” Clark said. “It’s a simple concept, do the same thing, invest in helping build out this infrastructure.”

Painter closed the session with a call for bold thinking and collaboration.

“You have to be bolder than we’ve been on these issues and be unafraid,” he said. “No one should have the exclusive right to pull up the drawbridge at the end of the day.”

Solutions need unity

NVBIA President Saif Rahman, who served as the event’s emcee, closed the program with a call for continued engagement. “If you have issues on a project,” he told attendees, “reach out. If we don’t hear about the problem, we can’t solve the problem.”

Among those in attendance was Hans Klinger, president of HBAV and a builder with HHHunt Communities, who described the event as particularly impactful for builders.

What’s more, he applauded the state’s residential site database as a step toward greater transparency and noted that affordability challenges are no longer isolated to any one part of the state.

“This brings everyone to the table to understand the issues – from lot supply to workforce housing,” he said. “Hopefully these events will happen more.