SAN RAMON — The San Ramon City Council will soon decide the fate of an ambitious plan to create a new downtown area in Bishop Ranch with 4,500 housing units — to be built over the next 27 years.
Sunset Development’s CityWalk project cleared a major hurdle on its way to becoming a reality on Aug. 4, when the San Ramon Planning Commission gave its stamp of approval to CityWalk’s master plan framework. The commissioners also voted unanimously, by a 5-0 vote, to certify the project’s environmental impact report.
The planning commission’s decision was appealed to the City Council this past Friday. The appeal was filed by former San Ramon City Council member Jim Blickenstaff and Joyce Carr, along with Rama Mehra and Aparna Madireddi, who is a mayoral candidate in this year’s election. No date has been set for the appeal before the City Council, according to San Ramon City Clerk Christina Franco on Tuesday.
“This plan has been discussed almost ad nauseam,” Eric Wallis, vice chair of the planning commission, said at the virtual meeting. “It’s been thought about carefully by staff, the applicant and the (planning) commission. It’s a good plan for what we need. It puts people in an area we need people in. This is a reasonable project in the right place at the right time.”
Sunset Development unveiled its transit-oriented, mixed-use plan that promotes walking and bicycles last year. The proposal would include five residential neighborhoods spread over 135 acres, including slightly more than 40 acres of parkland. It would add 166,000 square feet of commercial space, three parking structures, as well as transit hubs. It would add about 9,000 residents to San Ramon, which currently has a population of 82,643.
The mixed-use proposal would include five residential neighborhoods spread over 135 acres and would take 25 years to build out. It would add about 9,000 residents to San Ramon, which currently has a population of 82,643.
Alexander R. Mehran Jr., president and chief operating officer of Sunset Development, said the project envisions a new downtown center where residents will be able to live, work and walk to shops and restaurants.
In an interview last year, Mehran said that Sunset hopes to begin construction in 2021 and see the units ready for occupancy by 2023.
The preliminary plan calls for 5% studios, 45% one-bedroom units, 43% two-bedroom and 7% three-bedroom. The mixed-use project will set aside 15% of units for low- and very-low housing, as required by the city. That will result in 675 units, fulfilling 97% of the city’s affordable housing requirements, according to Sunset Development.
“There are tremendous economic benefits for the city and the region,” said Jerry Engen, Sunset’s senior vice president development at the Aug. 4 virtual meeting. He noted that that meeting marked the 20th time the CityWalk project was part of a public hearing, meeting or workshop.
Most of the handful of public speakers urged the commission to delay action on CityWalk, contending that further public input was needed for a downtown plan and raised concerns, including increased traffic and parking problems.
Luz Garza, a 40-year resident of San Ramon, said the environmental impact report was not adequate because it did not account for the culmulative traffic impact. She also noted that the project’s 40 acres of parks is less than half of the number called for in the city’s general plan.
“I’m disappointed that this vision for the future, the closest thing that San Ramon will ever have to a downtown, is moving forward so quickly that many residents have not had a full opportunity to weigh in about this,” Garza said, urging the commissioners to delay approval.
“It’s going too fast, the whole thing is going too fast — and on top of that, we’ve got the pandemic,” said Carr, a 34-year resident of San Ramon, who said she had “a lot of concerns about this project.”
“I think it’s time to take a pause, put off formal approval and engage the public,” Blickenstaff said at the meeting.
The planning commissioners disagreed with the argument that the process was hasty and that there wasn’t enough public input.
Commissioner Rick Marks said the Aug. 4 meeting was the sixth time that CityWalk was up for public review before the planning commission alone and noted that the commission had read nearly 1,000 pages of documents on the project.
“It’s not like we’ve rushed into this — this is something that we have spent almost eight months reviewing,” Marks said.
Commissioner Jean Kuznik noted the master plan has flexibility, considering that the CityWalk project will be phased in over the next 27 years.
“One of the things I find remarkable in looking at this and assessing it as a resident of San Ramon, is that it does have the built-in capacity to pivot as needed, to be reconsidered,” she said.
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