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The San Ramon Planning Commission is set to review the city’s development agreement with Sunset Development Company for the City Center project at Bollinger Canyon Road and Camino Ramon during its regular meeting on Tuesday, where city officials will consider extending the agreement for an additional five years.
With the deal set to expire in December, city staff have proposed that the Planning Commission extend the agreement for the unbuilt portions of the 2007 City Center project to Dec. 31 2025, with an option to mutually extend the agreement through 2030.
The city is currently reviewing a City Walk Master Plan that would include building 4,500 housing units in the Bishop Ranch area proposed by Sunset Development, that if approved would replace the current City Center development agreement, according to San Ramon division manager Lauren Barr.
“In addition, Sunset Development has proposed a new Master Plan (CityWalk) that will result in the recharacterization of a portion of the prior City Center approvals,” Barr wrote. “Specifically, there will be an emphasis on residential development within the project area, essentially replacing much of the previously approved office entitlements south of Bollinger Canyon Road.”
If approved by the Planning Commission, the amendments to the development agreement will be submitted to the City Council for further review.
The Planning Commission is set to meet for its regular meeting on Tuesday, 7 p.m. in the San Ramon City Hall Council Chambers, 7000 Bollinger Canyon Road.
Planning Commission members also plan to gather for a special meeting at 3:30 p.m. to consider making Transportation Advisory Committee and Transportation Demand Management appointments. That meeting will be held in the City Hall Large Community Conference Room.
If you build high density housing on that big empty lot on the south side of Bollinger near the library and the Valero station, it could put a lot more pedestrians walking near Bollinger, creating a safety hazard and increase traffic.
Bollinger Canyon Road is a major traffic artery for Windemere, Gale Ranch, and other east San Ramon neighborhoods. Don’t put pedestrians on Bollinger. Cars and pedestrians don’t mix.
To avoid a safety and traffic disaster, if you really want this housing built, then the Town Council should make sure that the walkway from the housing complex to the new bridge they’re building over Bollinger is seamless and the easiest way possible to cross Bollinger. Make the developer plant bushes and create other obstacles to encourage people to use the bridge rather than the crosswalk.
Also, the Town Council should require the developer to make a small trail from the housing complex to the Market Place Shopping Center so people don’t have to walk onto the Bollinger sidewalk to go shopping. Remember when a guy fell off the sidewalk into traffic on Crow Canyon and died? You need to avoid that kind of thing. There’s a little strip of land between the Residence Inn and Sports Basement that could be accessed from the Iron Horse Trail. Make the developer acquire an easement from those two businesses and make that small alleyway into a trail. It would save lives.