For decades, California has been the nation's premier thought-leader and legislative pioneer with respect to land use planning and environmental issues. While the state's goals have been lofty and its regulatory regime has attracted considerable positive attention, was its regulatory environment prepared for a global credit crisis? Can California's land use model adapt to the changed economic environment?

Historically, while real estate development has been cyclical, a reliable countervailing factor in California was that as the regulatory complexity grew, so did the value of obtaining entitlements.