Ontario's Housing Progress Deserves a Place in the Development Conversation

A recent report published by Inland Empire Community News — originally reported by Ben Christopher of CalMatters — highlighted something about Ontario that deserves greater attention: our city is among the California communities making meaningful progress toward its market-rate housing goals.

That matters.

Conversations about development in Ontario — particularly in the Inland Empire — can quickly become conversations about warehouses. Those discussions are important. Residents have legitimate interests in how industrial development affects traffic, air quality, infrastructure, employment, and surrounding neighborhoods.

But warehouses are not the entirety of Ontario's development story.

According to the recent reporting, fewer than one-third of California cities and counties are currently on pace to permit enough above-moderate-income housing, the category generally associated with market-rate homes. Ontario is being recognized for its progress at a time when much of California continues to struggle with housing production.

As a City of Ontario Planning Commissioner, I have had the opportunity to see firsthand what happens long before a new neighborhood or housing development takes shape.

Planning requires us to examine land use, infrastructure, compatibility with surrounding communities, transportation, public services, environmental considerations, and the long-term vision for our city. No commissioner, elected official, developer, or city employee can individually take credit for Ontario's housing progress. It is the result of years of planning, private investment, public policy, professional city staff, and countless decisions made over time.

But serving on the Planning Commission has reinforced something I strongly believe: a growing city must make room for people, not simply buildings.

Ontario is expected to continue growing. That means we need a healthy mixture of housing, employment centers, parks, schools, infrastructure, retail, and community spaces that together create complete neighborhoods.

We should also be clear about the work still ahead. California continues to face a serious shortage of housing affordable to lower-income families, and the same report demonstrates how difficult those housing goals have been for communities throughout the state. Market-rate progress should therefore be recognized without suggesting that the broader housing challenge has been solved.

For me, that is what responsible planning looks like: recognizing progress, acknowledging challenges, and continuing to ask how today's decisions will affect residents decades from now.

There will be plenty of opportunities to debate development in Ontario — and we should.

But when our city is making measurable progress in an area where much of California is struggling, we should also be willing to recognize it.

Ontario is building homes. Ontario is growing. And our responsibility is to make sure that growth continues to create a city where people can build a life.