New gated community to include 220 homes, private parks

Developer group will add 220 houses to eastern Sand Creek Focus Area

A gated community featuring 220 houses, private parks and trails will be created at the southeastern edge of Antioch, near its border with Brentwood.

The Antioch City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved the Creekside/Vineyards at Sand Creek project, paving the way for GBN Partners to develop the community on 158 acres south of the planned extension of Sand Creek Road.

In addition to the homes, parks and trails, the development will include a 200-foot buffer zone along Sand Creek as well as open space at the eastern and western hills, according to the project proposal.

Matt Beinke of GBN Partners, a group consisting of the landowner Ginochio family and developer Blackhawk Nunn, said the project is consistent with Antioch’s first approved gated community — the future 641-home Vineyards at Sand Creek Promenade project.

Beinke said the new project is an extension of the earlier Vineyards project and would be adjacent to it. It also will include a bridge over Sand Creek.

Under the proposal, the housing could either be senior/active adult or single-family units, depending on the market.

“We gave ourselves the flexibility, but we hope there will be an opportunity for seniors (housing),” Beinke said.

The new development will be in the Brentwood elementary and high school districts, he added.

Several residents spoke in favor of the project, which is in the city’s Sand Creek Focus Area but in a region to the east of land included in the recently approved growth-control measure.

“The project has gone through a rigorous review process and deserves to be supported,” resident Don Freitas said. “It will have a positive impact on our community for so many of our citizens who are struggling.”

Several speakers said the coming construction work should lead to hundreds of good-paying jobs because the developer and local unions have struck a project labor agreement.

“Every resident will gain with the much-needed infrastructure improvements with the Sand Creek Focus Area,” resident Tom Lawson said. “It provides growth where it has long been planned for. The project will provide construction jobs paying a familysupporting wage.”

Councilman Mike Barbanica said that although he supports the project he doesn’t think the lot sizes, which range from 4,500 to 5,473 square feet, are large enough for an area designated for 7,000- to 10,0000-square-foot homes.

“I am excited about the jobs

coming here to the community,” he said. “I’m just not excited about small lots.”

Even so, Mayor Lamar Thorpe said the project has been “four years in the making” and that he favors it.

City Councilwoman Tamisha Tores-Walker said she looks forward to the jobs being created, although it’s unclear how many would go to local workers.