|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Mudd’s property will officially belong to the city of San Ramon, after a resolution approved last week authorized the city to purchase the property for $1.
The 2.2-acre parcel is located at 10 Boardwalk Place, adjacent to the Crow Canyon Community Gardens and situated along San Catanio Creek.
The property was on the market unsuccessfully for about a year, with some recent negotiations with a prospective buyer over the summer. After an engineering analysis revealed that the excessively high cost of creek mitigation made development of the parcel infeasible, the city will buy the parcel from the local successor agency for $1.
The city intends for the parcel to be used as an extension of the adjoining Crow Canyon Community Gardens.
The parcel in question, which used to house the old Mudd’s restaurant, was purchased in 2008 by the San Ramon Redevelopment Agency, a governmental entity that had been established in 1986 to redevelop certain areas of the city. But when redevelopment agencies (RDAs) state-wide were dissolved in 2011, projects like Mudd’s were left in flux.
Successor agencies were formed to wind down these projects; though the members of the city council act as the local successor agency, it is a separate entity from the city of San Ramon.
According to the former city attorney Bob Saxe, because the Mudd’s land parcel didn’t fit into the category of a government purpose property, it needed to be sold, with profits distributed to local taxing entities like the fire and school districts.
Since January 2016, when the oversight board — charged with directing the San Ramon Successor Agency and disposing of all assets and properties from the former redevelopment agency — approved the choice of an appraiser and commercial real estate broker to aid in the sale of Mudd’s, the successor agency has attempted to negotiate deals with various prospective buyers. The appraisers determined the property to be valued at $1.29 million.
But the terrain of the parcel presented difficulties in the sale.
“At some locations on the property the bank is essentially a cliff with a vertical drop in excess of 40 feet,” assistant city manager Eric Figueroa wrote in a staff report. “In some places the bank has been severely undercut by the sheer velocity of the creek during winter months, which was particularly true this year.”
Some community members had contested the sale of the property, citing the concern that the land would be used for further housing developments.
But San Ramon officials said recently that the city had worked hard to find a local buyer who would preserve the parcel’s park-like qualities, not use it for a housing development.
“We were committed to finding the right buyer for this special property that would improve a forgotten asset through a true public-private partnership with people vested in our community,” Mayor Bill Clarkson said in a statement after the city had decided to pursue ownership of the parcel.
Recently, the successor agency had been negotiating a sale agreement with a San Ramon couple who wanted to open a day care facility on the site, using the nearby Crow Canyon Gardens for their programming, in exchange for maintaining and providing financial assistance to the gardens.
But after a comparative engineering analysis revealed the approximately $2 million price-tag that would come with the necessary creek mitigation, the couple withdrew their offer, leading the city to start the process of seeking permanent ownership of the land. The board voted Aug. 10 to ask the State Department of Finance to include the property at 10 Boardwalk Place as a governmental purpose property or to approve its conveyance to the city of San Ramon.
After the Aug. 10 meeting, the board received two additional offers from the couple wishing to use the site for a day care facility. In the first offer, received on Aug. 18, the purchase price had been reduced from $1 million to $100,000 but without any contingencies for creek repair. At the end of the month, on Aug. 30, the couple submitted another offer, increasing the purchase price to $500,000.
“The revised offers did not remove contingencies pertaining to any other issue beyond the creek repair, and it was not clear if the entire creek issue would be adequately resolved,” Figueroa said. “Therefore, the risks inherent with the latest offer rendered it less attractive than the proposal to transfer ownership to the City.”
After receiving the Aug. 10 resolution, the Department of Finance told staff that Mudd’s could not be transferred to the city of San Ramon as a park-designated parcel, as its current designation would need to remain. However, the oversight board could reduce the sale of the land to $1 and sell it to the city through a resolution not subject to the approval of the Department of Finance.
At the Oct. 19 meeting, board members Patricia Boom, Mary Lou Oliver, Scott Perkins and Chairman Marc Fontes all voted in favor of the resolution; board members Gary Black, Gene Huff and Matt Stamey were absent.
Adieu Clementine's, hola Casa Mia: San Ramon restaurant closed for rebrandingOctober 21, 2026 12:21 am
Everyone in San Ramon is so grateful to the oversight board and the successor agency for making this decision on behalf of the citizens. Might as will become what it was intended to become when it was first purchased… Part of a gorgeous nature park for everyone to enjoy.
I meant to say “Mudd’s will become what it was intended to be…”
Thank you !!!!!!! Thankyou !!!!! Thank you !!!!! We have lived here for thirty -nine years and have been very sad and frustrated to see the deveopment all around us 🙁 We have sweet memories of Mudd’s and the gardens….daughter’s wedding ….family celebrations and many dinners:) Looking forward to bringing grand-children there.
The building is a state of disrepair that I expect it will be demolished not renovated.
Hopefully the beautiful slated wood ceiling will be saved …
My family and friends loved dining at Mudd’s. It was always wonderful food from their gardens. Walking around gardens while waiting to dine or after dining. It was special. Field trips visiting the garden and going down to the creek with school kids are great memories. Mudd’s is very missed. We have lived here 32 years this month and I am sure we will enjoy a beautiful park as well. Maybe there could be a plaque or a piece of art in the park that could reflect healthy eating.
I was one of the original owners of Mudds. Recently I walked the grounds. Running water in a lovely creek bed. An ammenity a community as crowed and as wealth as San Ramon should preserve. It will be a gift for future generations…as it was always supposed to be.
Palmer Madden