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The Walnut Creek City Council has removed the last hurdle for a developer to build a large senior care facility in the Seven Hills Ranch area, just west of Heather Farm Park.
Located on county land and mostly surrounded by the city of Walnut Creek, the Spieker Senior Development residential care facility was approved by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors in November 2022.
However, the developers still needed the city to get on board to provide access to the property, which includes a small slice of land off Kinross Drive that belongs to the city of Walnut Creek.
The City Council last Tuesday approved an agreement with Spieker that will bring the city $4.75 million in community benefits. The vote was 4-1, with Councilmember Kevin Wilk voting against the deal.
Wilk said the deal doesn’t provide enough benefit for city residents, especially those affected by traffic in the area of Kinross Drive, which is connected to the city’s very busy Ygnacio Valley Road.
“Does the public good outweigh the residents’ desires? In my opinion it does not in this case,” Wilk said Wednesday.
City staff negotiated a deal with Spieker that includes $2 million in improvements to Heather Farm Park, $1.75 million in transportation improvements the city said “are beyond any required traffic mitigation measures,” and a $500,000 payment towards the Lesher Center for the Arts.
The developer has said Kinross Drive is the best ingress for the 354 housing units within 30 single-story buildings. They also plan an 85,000-square-foot medical center, a multi-story clubhouse, a recreation building, a maintenance building, and a parking garage on the 30-acre site.
Neighbors fought vehemently against the project, which would require removing 353 trees and extensive grading of hills, essentially transforming the area’s landscape. The area is private property and zoned for housing.
The group Save Seven Hills Ranch collected about 4,000 signatures against the project, citing increased traffic, the effect of four years of dust and noisy construction on nearby Seven Hills School, lack of emergency access, and a lack of public benefits.
Opponents also complained the project doesn’t meet local affordable housing needs and would remove too much wildlife habitat.
The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the project, saying it provides desperately needed senior housing to the area.
Spieker also made concessions to the county, among them a financial assistance program whereby the facility operator will establish an annuity of $2 million toward subsidies for lower-income households that would not otherwise have the financial means to live in the facility.
Spieker will also pay $3 million over 10 years to county parks, trails, or open space in the Walnut Creek area. Spieker has said security concerns preclude it from allowing trails and public access to the site, but the company would dedicate 2.4 acres along the site’s west boundary for public purposes.
County staff said traffic projections for single-family housing on the site would be higher than what would be generated by the Spieker development, with the possibility of 166 single-family homes being built at the site.
The developer has also discussed constructing an emergency egress toward Heather Farm Park.
