Steve Hilton calls for 10-year regulatory pause in California to spur construction, in Commonwealth Club speech

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton unveiled a sweeping economic plan on Monday that he said would restart construction in California by suspending some of the state’s most stringent regulations for 10 years. Hilton delivered the remarks in a speech prepared for the Commonwealth Club, where he presented what he described as a single statewide priority: building again.

According to the report, Hilton’s proposal would put construction on top of California’s regulatory agenda for a decade. He framed the initiative as a response to what he described as excessive or restrictive regulation, and he argued that the approach would help unlock projects that, in his view, have been slowed by existing rules.

The report said Hilton characterized the plan as a way to curb the spread of “socialism” in California, using the term as part of his political argument rather than as a description of a formal policy category. The central policy element described in the reporting is the proposed suspension of “some of California’s most stringent regulations” for ten years, intended to drive a broader building boom across the state.

Hilton’s remarks were presented as a candidate initiative rather than an enacted law or formal agency action. The reporting did not indicate that any state agency or legislature has taken steps to implement the plan, nor did it provide a list of which specific regulations would be suspended or what legal mechanism would be used to carry out a decade-long pause.

The proposal, as described, would also raise practical questions that are not addressed in the report: which sectors would be affected, whether environmental, labor, safety, or consumer-protection requirements would be among the regulations paused, and how compliance and enforcement would operate during the ten-year period. It would additionally likely require clarification on how the state would handle regulatory gap risks, permit processing, and litigation or administrative appeals for projects approved under any temporary framework.

For California, the proposal would represent a major shift in governance over permitting and oversight, given the state’s reliance on regulation to manage impacts such as land use, building safety, environmental controls, and worker and consumer protections. The report’s account of the plan indicates that Hilton’s approach is designed to change the balance between oversight and construction throughput, but it does not describe guardrails or transition steps.

Hilton’s announcement came as California continues to debate housing supply, infrastructure investment, and the role of state regulations in project timelines and costs. If the plan progresses through any political process, additional details would be expected around scope, timelines, statutory authority, and how any suspension would interact with existing state and federal requirements.