SAN DIEGO-Multifamily developers warned Tuesday that a lethal combination of over-regulation and community opposition to apartments is hobbling attempts to solve California's worsening housing crisis. “There's a huge shortfall,” says Jim Pantagopoulos, VP of A.G. Spanos Cos., which has developed 8,500 luxury multifamily units throughout the US. “There's a tremendous need, particularly for low- and moderate-income, and we're just not producing it.

It's fashionable to talk about smart-growth strategies, he says. But builders face obstructions at all levels, everything from multiple-species conservation plans to neighbors phobic about higher densities and the mistaken notion that new apartments are crime-attracting eyesores.

Pantagopoulos, speaking on the last day of the National Association of Home Builders' Multifamily Trends Conference at the Hotel del Coronado, says government and business must solve the problem or continue to “face a Grand Canyon-sized gap between demand and supply.”