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The San Ramon Planning Commission is set to consider a concept review for a neighborhood within The Preserve development project during a study session Tuesday night.
No action will be taken at this session, but commissioners are being asked to provide input on the project concept, which would include 72 detached, single-family residential units and 28 accessory dwelling units near the Crow Canyon Gardens.
The Preserve is a maximum 618-unit residential development located on a 286.5-acre parcel in northwest San Ramon between Bollinger Canyon Road and San Ramon Valley Boulevard.
The site is divided into five separate neighborhoods, containing residential units that range from single-family units to multi-family condominiums. Model homes in the first four neighborhoods are expected to be open within the next few months.
Neighborhood 5, the site of the concept review, is to be located on a 10.9-acre parcel east of Bollinger Canyon Road and north of Deerwood Drive.
The Preserve development as a whole is situated within the Northwest Specific Plan, a site designated as high density residential.
Initially, the development was to have a higher density in keeping with the specific plan. In 2014, the Planning Commission and City Council approved the project (then called the Faria Preserve) for 740 units, a maximum of 302 of which were approved for Neighborhood 5. The applicant at that time was Lafferty Communities, but the project has since changed hands to CalAtlantic Homes.
But in 2016, the city approved a proposal that reduced the overall density of The Preserve from 740 residential units to a maximum of 618. Neighborhood 5’s number of residential units was reduced from a maximum of 302 to 180, with no required minimum number of units to be developed.
As part of the revised plans, CalAtlantic Homes was required to provide opportunities to create and fund a workforce housing endowment program, and pay the city a $50,000 housing fee per unit in Neighborhood 5 as well as a fee of $2 million, the latter to be used for acquiring and maintaining open space on the city’s perimeter consistent with the high-density vision of the NWSP.
The initiative would change Neighborhood 5’s housing type from higher density rental apartment units to lower density, market-rate, age-targeted, for-sale units.
“The option for that reduction in density is available at the developer’s election so long as the developer contributes into a fund established by the city for the purpose of facilitating affordable housing,” wrote senior planner Cindy Yee in a staff report.
After the initiative was approved, CalAtlantic Homes proposed the construction of 180 residential units in Neighborhood 5, but the concept review on the table Tuesday replaces that initial proposal with one for 72 single-family residences, 28 of which would have an attached accessory dwelling unit.
CalAtlantic Homes has committed to placing deed restrictions on the accessory dwelling units, so that if rented out, they must be rented to moderate or low-income households. Specifically, 14 would be designated for moderate income households, eight for low-income and six for very low-income.
After receiving the staff report, commissioners are set to provide comments on the concept review to the applicant and staff.
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in the council chamber at City Hall, 7000 Bollinger Canyon Road.
In other business
*Commissioners will also be holding a study session on another development plan concept review Tuesday night.
The applicant, a San Ramon resident by the name of Solhail Siddiqui, has submitted the application proposing to develop a residential care facility for the elderly at 19251 San Ramon Valley Boulevard, and to relocate the single-family home currently on that 0.7-acre parcel.
The residential care facility would comprise of up to 60 rooms. The home currently at the location, known as the historical “El Nido” house, would move to a 5.6-acre site at 2610 Pine Valley Road, a relocation that was initially proposed in 2015.
No action will be taken at this meeting, but commissioners are being asked to offer comments on the proposal to the applicant and staff.
618 new houses is a lot. Where is the infrastructure? What elementary school are the kids going to? Will fire department be enlarged? What grocery store they be shopping at? It’s nice to see the city getting $50k per unit and $2M in fees, but what about the local elementary school busting at the seams? Delayed response from emergency personnel? Lines at Safeway? Our current city planners don’t think straight.
How would you like to buy a house next to or close to attached rental units mandated for very low income? What great social engineers we have to guide us into thinking “right”. Have any of these “social engineer” planners ever been a landlord for a low income rental?—-I have, & have had to deal with drug addicts & alcoholics that totally trashed the rental unit leaving used syringes & devastation, not to mention what these renters did to others in the community! No, not every very low income renter is like that, but the percentages are much higher. Ok, now all you politically correct non-critical thinkers will ignore this unfortunate reality.