The Brentwood City Council will soon consider approving a housing development project that earned critical comments from local ranchers, farmers and other residents at last month’s Planning Commission meeting.
Set for a public hearing on Tuesday, the City Council will review the Planning Commission’s decision and decide whether to adopt the resolutions needed to develop 94 homes on 19.73 acres of open land across from a wastewater treatment plant. The project site is bound by Lone Tree Way to the north and Hanson Lane to the south.
The plan by applicant MLC Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of Meritage Homes Corporation, would include 12 affordable units dispersed throughout the complex, which would feature four-bedroom homes ranging in size from 2,541 to 2,771 square feet.
As the project application was deemed complete in January 2022, it is subject to a city ordinance that requires the project to provide 10 percent of total units as affordable units. The proposed project would provide 13 percent affordable units with five reserved for very low-income households, four reserved for low-income, and three for moderate-income. Four design plans include Santa Barbara, coastal, contemporary and farmhouse styles.
The Planning Commission unanimously approved resolutions for the project’s tentative tract map and design review during a Sept. 19 meeting after discussing concerns about limited space for a park, water runoff contamination, traffic and the impact to homeowners in the area.
During that meeting, Kevin Valente, a senior planner from Raney Planning and Management, contracted by the city to assist with the project’s processing and management, presented the project and noted that the 12 affordable and 82 above-moderate homes are all anticipated to count toward the city’s Housing Element requirements.
“Consistent with the city’s general plan and housing element, this development will help to provide a broad spectrum of housing types and community facilities with development occurring in a logical and orderly manner and contiguous with existing development,” Valente said.
Valente said the land-use designation for the property allows for a density range of 1.1 to 5 dwelling units per gross acre, and the proposed project would result in a density of 4.67 dwelling units per acre.
Ranchers raise concerns
While Lone Tree Way is a massive arterial road that runs through residential and commercial developments from Antioch to Brentwood, the farthest eastern portion of the road before it ends near Marsh Creek still contains remnants of East Contra Costa County’s agricultural past. Ranchers, farmers and landowners along the small unpaved road east of Brentwood Boulevard shared concerns during the public speaker period of the Planning Commission meeting about the impact on the creek and their way of life.
Melinda Ray, a fourth-generation rancher on Lone Tree Way, noted her reservations about the project, including potential complaints from future homeowners about the smell, noise and flies associated with a working ranch.
“Other concerns I have — there’s already no maintenance on the creek,” Ray said. “It hardly ever gets mowed. It hardly ever gets taken care of. There’s trash in the creek. You’re adding this housing tract. What is that going to do to the creek and all the animals and populations living in that creek? Who’s going to maintain it and make sure that it’s cleaned up?”
The site sits within the East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservation Plan/Natural Community Conservation Plan, which will require MLC Holdings to pay mitigation fees for actual or assumed impacts on species and water. As part of the application, a planning survey report or PSR was submitted, identifying potentially impacted species in the area along with requirements for pre-construction surveys and avoidance measures as necessary.
“… You’re adding this housing tract. What is that going to do to the creek and all the animals and populations living in that creek? Who’s going to maintain it and make sure that it’s cleaned up?” Melinda Ray, Lone Tree Way rancher
The PSR did not appear to be included in agenda materials; planning staff did not immediately return requests for information.
Resident Carol Gwynne, who owns a hobby farm near the road and said she provided some of her land to the city for water wells, noted that paving a small dirt road could lead to water runoff contamination from both the asphalt and chemicals from vehicular traffic.
“You’ve talked to the neighbors, you said, but you haven’t talked to us,” she added, before providing her address and welcoming a conversation.
Maria Sanchez, another resident in the area, shared that she bought her land to teach her young children how to love and care for animals and be a good steward of the community. She said she received notice of the project only a week before the September meeting, and the notice was only in English.
“Lots of those homeowners on the other side are (English as a) second language — that’s why you don’t see them here,” she said, pointing to the mostly empty chamber seats. “I’m pretty sure they would have lots of concerns, because those homes are going to be looking at their backyards.”
Kevin Fryer of Meritage Homes spoke during the Planning Commission meeting as well, noting the project will be responsible for water collection and treatment before it’s released. He offered suggestions to add visual barrier walls to the project design, along with signage designating private from public lands. Resolutions pertaining to barrier walls, increasing park space on the map, and air quality analysis were added to the application prior to the Planning Commission’s approval.
“It’s on us to do our job well and to be reasonable and listen and try to look for ways to improve and tweak our project to limit the impacts of it on existing and surrounding citizens,” he said.
The City Council meeting will take place on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the City Council chambers at 150 City Park Way in Brentwood, and online via Zoom. More information is available at https://www.brentwoodca.gov/government/meeting-information.