Council approves 573-home project on 165 acres
Trumark Homes plans worried some residents
DUBLIN » Another 573 homes will be built near Dublin’s eastern edge, adding to a broader sprawling residential area that has seen thousands of homes go up over the past two decades.
The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved developer Trumark Home’s plan to construct the homes across 165 acres of currently vacant land, despite the objections of about 20 residents who spoke at the meeting, which went on for more than four hours, and at times included tense exchanges between some of the council and some residents.
Some residents said they are concerned because the last full environmental impact report for the land was done nearly 30 years ago, and others said adding so many homes in the area would contribute to more traffic congestion and crowd schools, and possibly put a strain on water use.
Trumark Homes, a San Ramon developer, plans to build the houses on a site called East Ranch, an area formerly known as the Croak Property, which straddles Croak Road.
The land sits north of Interstate 580, east of Fallon Road and the Jordan Ranch housing development and south of the Positano housing development, and runs east to the city’s boundary.
The homes will be divided into six neighborhoods across the property, five of which will include 473 large homes. Those homes will range in size from 2,300 to 3,800 square feet, according to the developer.
The sixth neighborhood will feature 100 town houses that will be 1,600 to 1,800 square feet. Trumark will build two parks on the site that total 11.5 acres, city reports said.
Under the city’s affordable housing rules, developers of projects with more than 20 homes need to reserve 12.5% of them at below-market-rate prices, meaning Trumark would need to build 72 homes and reserve them as affordable in the development. The council, however, can allow changes or alterations to the requirements, and on Tuesday approved Trumark’s own proposal for how to satisfy the affordable housing requirements.
Trumark will reserve 18 smaller homes that will be priced as affordable for people earning “moderate” incomes, to account for 25% of the requirement. A family of four in Dublin could earn up to $150,000 annually to be considered a moderate-income household.
To account for 25 other affordable homes the developer will not build, or 35% of the requirement, Trumark will pay the city what are often dubbed inlieu fees, estimated to be about $5.4 million, city reports said,
Trumark also will turn over a 2-acre plot at the southern edge of the site to nonprofit housing developer Eden Housing, where Eden could develop up to 77 apartments affordable to people with low and very low incomes, which city reports said makes up the remaining 40% of the requirement.
Eden also could partner with Livermore nonprofit Sunflower Hill to develop housing for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, city officials said.
Lastly, Trumark will build 50 accessory dwelling units, also known as in-law or granny units, at homes within the development area, and those units will be deed restricted to remain affordable to people earning low incomes, city reports said. A family of four earning up to $109,000 annually is considered lowincome in Dublin currently.
City Council members said they supported the project because they feel it is nicely designed, and because of the affordable housing it will create. The council also noted it likely couldn’t turn the project down since it complies with the city’s general plan and guidelines for the area.
“We have spent a lot of time beating up on Trumark tonight, for a lot of things, and what we haven’t done is acknowledge the fact that his project has some really lovely features in it, that Trumark has spent a lot of time designing,” Council member Jean Josey said, referring to parks, creeks and bike trails in the plans.
“It is undeniable we are in the midst of a housing crisis right now. We need more housing of all types, and I think this project does in a thoughtful way provide a variety of housing,” Vice Mayor Shawn Kumagai said during the meeting.
He also said he’s looking forward to seeing Eden and Sunflower develop supportive housing at the 2-acre site, which he said will be a “huge” benefit for the area.
Council member Michael McCorriston said he wanted to see more homes built as affordable into the project, and less in-lieu fees paid to the city instead, though he voted in favor of the project as it was proposed.
Resident Patricia Burrows told the council she’s opposed to the project because it will lead to the loss of more biodiversity, including potentially disrupting the habitat of burrowing owls and other animals.
“We can only continue to shove our wildlife aside so many times before there’s no next time and it’s gone for good,” Burrows said.
Some speakers said they were concerned the original impact report didn’t assess wildfire risk, especially since the area has seen several evacuations in recent years. The original report was completed in 1993 for the broader eastern Dublin area and specific plan, and was followed by supplemental reports for smaller subareas in 2002 and 2005.
Staffers told the council they didn’t believe there were significant enough changes to conditions of the area between the previous reviews and present date to warrant new reports.
Several people opposed to the project said they feel the project will only further crowd schools in the area, some of which are already over capacity.
Dublin Unified School District’s Superintendent Chris Funk said the project appears to be a “solid development,” but took issue with the age of the reports and how they account for the impact on the schools.
“Any sane person cannot believe that mitigations based on information from 30 years ago could apply today, so I just ask that you delay your vote and ask that we have a full environmental study completed,” Funk said.
City Manager Linda Smith said she expects it would be a “few years” before the first homes in the East Ranch project would be completed.