LAFAYETTE — The fate of a controversial, 315-unit housing plan known as the Terraces of Lafayette has been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The project was scheduled to be heard April 6 by the Lafayette Planning Commission, but that meeting was cancelled — as were all meetings, events and activities by the city because of the Bay Area’s shelter-in-place order to help contain coronavirus.

All of Lafayette’s city facilities will remain closed at this time except for the police department, according to City Manager Niroop Kasthuri Srivatsa.

It was not known when the Terraces project will be rescheduled.

The Terraces has been the subject of 20 public hearings since it was first proposed in March 2011. But a new housing law, Senate Bill 330 by state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Oakland, limits the number of public hearings to five for new applications.

The Terraces apartment plan was revived soon after Lafayette voters in June 2018 rejected Measure L, which would have allowed the developer to build 44 houses instead of apartments on 22 acres off Deer Hill and Pleasant Hill roads.

Because a hearing on the revived housing plan was held in January, only four more can be scheduled before the planning commission makes a decision, according to Robert Hodil, an attorney hired by the city to advise it on the Terraces project.

At a Feb. 24 City Council meeting, Hodil cited Senate Bill 330 as a guide. Dubbed the “Housing Crisis Act of 2019,” the bill bans housing construction moratoriums and density reductions. It allows affordable and rent-controlled housing to be razed only if they are replaced.

The new law also blocks local governments from changing the rules on pending developments by hiking fees or revising permit requirements.