State Housing Official to Lead Builders Group

Christine Diemer Reed, the state’s top housing official, will leave that post to take over next month as the executive director of the Orange County Region of the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California, the organization said Wednesday.

Reed, 36, will replace John Erskine, 37, who is returning to the private practice of law in Orange County. Reed will manage the association and lobby before local and state government bodies for its 1,100 member companies.

Reed has been director of the state Department of Housing and Community Development for the past three years. She presided over 570 employees, $800 million in housing assistance programs and also efforts to write legislation and enforce laws on a variety of housing matters.

She has been a member of Gov. Deukmejian’s administration since 1983, and she served as a deputy state attorney general for two years.

Reed said Wednesday that she decided to leave her government job partly because Deukmejian’s term will expire in 19 months and partly because she has been commuting to Sacramento from Costa Mesa, where she lives with her husband, lawyer Dana W. Reed.

“It seemed like a natural transition to leave the administration and continue with the same issues--housing and growth--I’m familiar with and interested in,” she said.

Dana Reed handles accounting and legal advice for campaigns opposing slow growth. He is a member of the Orange County Transportation Commission and has said he will run for Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley’s seat should Riley decide to retire next year.

Christine Reed said she has opposed the slow-growth proposals that have sprung up in many communities, including some in Orange County. She said her agency has studies showing that “growth control distorts housing production.”

As head of the local BIA, she said, she hopes to “come up with reasonable approaches to growth so we don’t drastically impact housing.”