Bay City News
Citing multiple concerns with the Bridle Gate residential development proposal, the Brentwood City Council on Tuesday upheld the Planning Commission's recommendation to deny the controversial project that's been in the works for about two decades.
However, a last-minute change from the Seeno family-owned developer West Coast Home Builders Development LLC might foreshadow plans to return to the council with a project that could force the city's hand.
The version of the project in front of the council proposed to build 272 homes, including 27 affordable units, on a 135-acre site west of Sand Creek Road and the state Highway 4 interchange. Of the affordable homes, 3% (or 8 units) would be for those considered very low income, 4% (11 units) for low income and 3% (8 units) for moderate income.
But City Attorney Katherine Wisinski reported during the Tuesday meeting that the applicant announced earlier that day intentions to make 5% of its units affordable for those considered very low income, instead of the 3% originally proposed.
California's Senate Bill 330, the Housing Crisis Act of 2019, waives local development standards if 5% of the project includes affordable homes for those who are very low income. In other words, the city would be forced to approve it, regardless of public safety or density concerns.
Councilmember Pa'tanisha Pierson said it makes it difficult to work with developers who say they want to operate in good faith but then throw curveballs.
"It makes it really hard for us to make decisions," Pierson said.
The applicant's legal counsel, Ryan Patterson of the firm Patterson & O'Neill, said the state has worked to make the development of housing easier and highlighted laws like the Housing Accountability Act, which forces cities to approve projects if they meet objective code standards.
"Even though we believe that all of the development standards are in fact met for the project, the city would be precluded from applying any development standard that makes it impossible to build a project at the density proposed," said Patterson. "So, for example, some have questioned whether a larger lot area should be required; that would be a development standard that cannot be applied to this project because of that 5% very low-income housing."
But since the 5% for very low income was not included in the proposal, the council was not forced to approve it on Tuesday, confirmed Wisinski.
"If this applicant is actually interested in pursuing a density bonus project, they need to go through the application process to do that," Wisinski explained. "So what is before you tonight is exactly what's laid out in the staff report, nothing more."
While the project has transformed over the years to include affordable housing, the general consensus from the community has been concern about the traffic impacts in an area already overburdened with cars going to and from four nearby schools -- Heritage High School, Adams Middle School, Loma Vista Elementary School and Krey Elementary School -- along with the impact to the schools themselves given the influx of new students that 272 homes will bring.
The project at one iteration had included a new school that is no longer proposed in the current version.
Careful to spell out the reasons for denial so it might hold up in court should the developer sue, the council denied the Bridle Gate project on the grounds that its design is inconsistent with the general plan and the city's zoning ordinance for density.
In her motion to deny the project, Councilmember Jovita Mendoza cited public safety, insufficient reduction of vehicle miles traveled, poor traffic circulation, park design, deterioration of the ridgelines, noise and high housing density, noting the municipal zoning code calls for only 166 homes in the area.
The decision followed public speakers and council discussion that noted new homes would add more cars to an area that's already so impacted by local school traffic it looks more like a parking lot.
Pierson said an increase in traffic in that problematic area near four schools could put children at risk while also impeding access for emergency vehicles.
Doug Chin, corporate engineer with West Coast Home Builders, said the applicant has owned the parcel for more than 30 years and wants to build a project that's consistent with the general plan, even though the applicant could apply state laws to increase the housing to 408 units.
"The project's specific (environmental impact review) was done and determined there are no significant and unavoidable impacts," Chin said.
Regarding public safety concerns, Chin said the project had been reviewed by the city's fire department, which did not raise concerns with emergency response capabilities. He further noted that the project wasn't going to solve the existing traffic issues -- to which Mendoza said, "But it will make it worse than its current condition."
This iteration of the project comes nearly 20 years after Bridle Gate was first approved by the council in 2006. However, a tentative subdivision map was never finalized and expired, along with the associated development agreement. Then in 2020, the applicant submitted another application, which was denied. Bridle Gate returned in 2021 with the newest -- and current -- application. The Planning Commission recommended denying the project at its July 16 meeting.
Planning commissioners, council members and the public have called for similar changes, such as creating one large park instead of two small ones or traffic mitigation measures, but the changes haven't appeared in revised versions -- raising suspicions that it's intentional.
"I'm pretty sure that in the Planning Commission meeting that I've watched way too many times, they have mentioned once or twice that we would like one bigger park," Councilmember Tony Oerlemans said to Chin. "But you keep coming back with two parks. It makes me very suspicious ... Are you going to continue to bring items before us that you know we don't want so we can get to meeting five and then we have to approve your project?"
Under the Housing Accountability Act, amended by SB 330, local governments can't hold more than five hearings to review a project if it meets zoning and general plan standards.
Between two Planning Commission meetings and Tuesday's City Council review, Wisinski confirmed that the project has been through three meetings.
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