October 30, 2026
By Jeri Hansen
Napa Valley businesses are paying a steep price for California’s high cost of living. From wineries, restaurants and hotels to healthcare providers, construction companies and small businesses, all tell us the same thing: the people who keep our economy running increasingly cannot afford to live here.
Since 2005, Napa County has seen the steepest decline in in-county workers of any Bay Area county, and more than 8,000 households earning under $100,000 have left the region. More than 30,000 workers now commute into the county for their jobs.
That is why the Napa Chamber of Commerce supports Proposition 45, the Building an Affordable California Act. Our members represent businesses of every size across nearly every industry and every one of them depends on workers who can afford to live near their jobs. But this is about more than workforce availability. It’s about whether working families can remain in Napa Valley, and whether our children can envision a future here.
Before joining the Chamber, I spent 12 years leading Sustainable Napa County, working on energy, climate and natural resource policy. That experience reinforced something I’ve long believed: environmental stewardship and responsible economic development should go hand in hand. We should not have to choose between protecting the natural resources that make Napa Valley special and building the essential infrastructure our communities need. Prop. 45 offers a way to move both priorities forward.
The problem is that California takes too long and spends too much to build the basics. Permitting delays alone are estimated to add more than $75,000 to the cost of a new home in California. Those costs do not simply disappear. They land on renters, homebuyers, taxpayers and utility customers, and in a valley as expensive as ours, they put even more pressure on working families.
Prop. 45 establishes clear, enforceable timelines for the environmental review and approval of essential projects, including housing, water infrastructure, clean energy, transportation, hospitals and health care facilities, schools, broadband, and wildfire prevention. It also requires courts to resolve legal challenges to those projects within 270 days, rather than letting litigation drag on for years. Experts estimate Prop. 45 can cut 2 to 10 or more years off the time it takes to deliver these projects, and economic analysis finds it will help accelerate building nearly 200,000 homes over the next decade.
For Napa Valley, wildfire prevention is particularly important. After the 2017 and 2020 fires, we know firsthand what is at stake when fuel breaks, vegetation management and utility undergrounding wait years for approval. The same is true for the water storage and recycling projects that support our agricultural lands, the transportation improvements that would ease the drive for thousands of workers who commute into the valley every day, and the housing and essential infrastructure our community needs.
Prop. 45 maintains California’s benchmark environmental laws. Qualifying projects must fully satisfy CEQA, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act and the state’s climate laws, and the public keeps a full 45-day comment period. Importantly, cities and counties retain their land use and zoning authority, including the local protections that have long helped preserve our agricultural lands and open spaces. The measure does not dictate the outcome or guaranteed project approval, but it offers a more predictable timeline and path for reaching a decision.
Our businesses cannot continue competing for workers who cannot afford to live here, and our families and taxpayers cannot continue absorbing the rising costs of projects delayed for years.
Housing affordability, infrastructure, transportation and climate resilience are not separate issues. Together, they shape our ability to retain businesses, attract investment, support our workforce and sustain the quality of life in Napa Valley.
A Napa Valley that is more affordable and attainable is within reach. It starts with building the homes and infrastructure we need, and Prop. 45 will help us get it done.
Jeri Hansen is the executive director for the Napa Chamber of Commerce and a past state president for California Women for Agriculture.