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The San Ramon City Council is poised to adopt an ordinance amending the city’s North Camino Ramon Specific Plan on Tuesday, clearing one of the key hurdles for a proposed development that could bring hundreds of additional housing units to the area.
Councilmembers are set to continue hearing public comments on the proposed 404-unit City Village development prior to considering the approval of specific plan changes proposed by the project.
The discussion first came to the council last week, in a special meeting on Oct. 20, where the council heard from Denise Cunningham, on behalf of SummerHill Homes, about the rationale behind amendments proposed to the North Camino Ramon Specific Plan, and what the payoff would be in terms of advantages brought by developments to the area.
The presentation to the council was the result of months of long discussions between the Planning Commission, city staff and the applicant. The council commended staff and the applicant for their thorough work on the proposal, and gave positive feedback to the vision of the project thus far.
“We are obviously changing as a community. We’ve in the past been very much I would say a bedroom suburban community,” Councilmember Sabina Zafar said at the Oct. 20 meeting. “But we are changing, our demographics are changing, and people are looking for somewhat of a downtown housing. And for you to be able to incorporate 44% of green space, even within a downtown-type housing, is really commendable.”
Mayor Dave Hudson was also excited about the project, and its potential to help with the city’s vision of a centralized downtown area.
“This area, if it’s built … these people are going to have a lot to do,” Hudson said.
If approved, the proposed 404-unit housing project would be situated near City Center Bishop Ranch, Central Park and the San Ramon Transit Center. The area proposed for development currently houses an office park, which would be demolished if the project moves forward.
“I think the ‘location, location, location’ phrase comes in here, and if we pull this off, this to me is going to be a big plus,” Hudson said.
Despite being eager to move forward with talks on the proposal, Hudson emphasized the importance of community input, which had been limited to one commenter at the Oct. 20 meeting. He thus motioned to continue public comments on the resolution before the council at this Tuesday’s meeting, prior to formally adopting the ordinance that would allow for the requested amendments to the NCRSP.
The San Ramon City Council is set to meet on Tuesday (Oct. 26) at 7 p.m. via Zoom. The agenda is available here.
In other business
* The council will hear a presentation introducing Mae Mlyniec, the city’s new Parks and Community Services Department administrative analyst.
* Council members will recognize graduates from the city’s 2020-21 Planning Academy.
* They will continue discussions on, and consider approving, a resolution related to pension obligation bonds, aimed at providing updated guidance and policies on how to manage and use these funds.
* The council will hear a presentation from Aspen Wood Venture L.P on an affordable housing trust fund proposal, and consider adopting a resolution supporting the proposal.
“Sorry we’re full“. Have you ever seen this in a restaurant or other public place? The maximum capacity indicates that services and facilities to keep people happy, safe and otherwise protected will exceed limitations. The idea of wanting to install hundreds of more housing units which would add another huge influx of residents to our city is patently ridiculous. We have a shortage of Park and sports facilities for our children to play. Our schools are overcrowded, there being over 3500 students just at California high school. It takes 20 minutes to drive across San Ramon, a span of 3 to 5 miles. And on top of all of this, everybody’s jumping up and down about preservation of our outdoor spaces, climate change, etc but what do you think adding more people, more cars, more industry does to this valley? If our city needs more money so desperately that they have to continue piling us up on top of each other, the budget needs to be cut. Our mayor is the highest paid mayor in the entire state of California. Let’s start there.