The Building Industry Association of San Diego County Announces Retirement of President & CEO Lori Holt Pfeiler

This past July 6th I celebrated four years here at the BIA. I am absolutely passionate about housing. Families thrive when they have a home they can call their own. It is shameful we do not build the housing we need today. A home was made available for so many of us when we were young, now not so much.

Speaking of age, I celebrate a birthday at the end of this month. It occurs to me if I want any flexibility in my life and opportunity to travel, I should retire while I am still healthy. 

As much as I love the work I do, and love this industry, I am planning to retire at the end of the year, six short months away.

I choose the end of the year for a couple reasons. I have worked hard over these last four years to build up our membership. I have instituted an attitude of service for our members, helping them to connect with one another and celebrate those connections. Shannon Gaunt is leading this effort and making a great impact. I would like to work with her through a season of retention and see some success from our efforts.

I also have a few projects on my To Do list I would like to see completed. Getting our Homebuilding 101 up and established, getting our SDGE Section 851 settled, building a strong connection with SDGE so their leadership really responds to the needs of our builders, this amongst the myriad of other advocacy proposals we are working on. 



It has been an honor to serve our San Diego County BIA. We do honorable work and should stand tall. We are the ones that build the homes families need. I will always be an advocate. It’s been a pleasure working with all of you and representing the BIA these past four years.

Related News Release from BIA San Diego

The Building Industry Association of San Diego County (BIA) has announced that Lori Holt Pfeiler, who has served as the organization’s president and CEO since 2021, will retire at the end of this year. Pfeiler’s long and storied career as a housing advocate includes tenures as an Escondido City Councilwoman (6 years) and Mayor (12 years), as well as the President and CEO of San Diego Habitat for Humanity (9 years).

BIA Working For You

BIA staff meets with Escondido Councilmember, Judy Fitzgerald

CEO Lori Holt Pfeiler and Legislative Affairs Manager Caylin Frank met with Escondido Councilmember Judy Fitzgerald to discuss her goals as a new councilmember and her vision for the future of Escondido and its need for housing. Judy is very interested in exploring the concept of self-certification to help projects move through the process.

2025 SANDAG Regional Plan

BIA San Diego submitted a comment letter addressing the 2025 SANDAG Regional Plan.

Carlsbad Processing Policy

Last week, the Carlsbad City Council heard from staff regarding their internal policy to automatically recommend denial of all General Plan Amendment applications without any analysis of the applications. Due to an assumed reliance on staff recommendations by planning commissioners and city councilmembers, this policy creates an undue bias against projects from the start. We submitted comments regarding our concern for this staff overreach and the city council unanimously agreed that staff needs to remove this policy and refer GPA applications to the Planning Commission with objective analysis only.

Help Us Spread the Word

BIA Members: Please help us connect with your employees and others in your network by forwarding this email and asking them to check out these two links. We would sure appreciate that. Thank you!

BIA San Diego Working for You



BIA San Diego Email list Sign-up

Housing Advocates: there is strength in numbers so please forward this email to your network, including your employees. Help us grow our coalition of supporters advocating for more homes and apartments San Diegans can afford!