image: courtesy of google earth
By Tony Hicks –
The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will decide whether a developer can transform 30 acres of mostly open space that’s nearly surrounded by the City of Walnut Creek, near Heather Farm Park.
Spieker Senior Development Partners wants to build a large senior residential care development at the site known as Seven Hill Ranch, including 354 housing units within 30 single-story buildings, an 85,000-square-foot medical center, a multi-story clubhouse, a recreation building, a maintenance building, and a parking garage.
It also wants to remove up to 353 trees from the site.
The medical center would contain 100 care units, including 33 skilled nursing units and 23 memory care units for residents requiring daily assistance of medical attention.
Amenities would include a swimming pool, tennis and bocce courts, dog parks, gardening center, walking trails, gym, auditorium, restaurants, bar, theatre, library, and clubhouse. The site will include 594 parking spaces.
Opponents say they’ve gathered about 4,000 signatures in petitions against the project and promise to make their presence known at Tuesday’s meeting. Their concerns include removing protected trees, hundreds of facility employees driving through the neighborhoods to get to work, and no public access to whatever open space and seasonal wetland is left.
The site is just west of Heather Farm, owned by the same family for the past century or so, with a caretaker in a hilltop house. To the south is Kinross Drive, a residential street connected to Ygnacio Valley Road that would serve as the main access road.
The county planning commission rejected the project on Oct. 26. County staff responded to its concerns by negotiating concessions with the developer and recommends the board approve the project.
Proposed traffic access and circulation improvements include extending Kinross Drive and realigning portions of Seven Hills Ranch Road within the site boundaries to serve as internal access roads to all project components.
The staff report for Tuesday’s meeting says the project “is in the public interest as California is in the midst of a housing crisis.” and that rezoning the land would be “a 216% increase over the base single family medium density land usedesignation.”
It also says the proposal is “generally well-suited for the site and the inclusion of health care services and community amenities in the project design will be convenient for future residents and help this proposed new development be compatible with surrounding neighborhoods.
“In addition, the proposed project and conditions of approval have been refined to include supplemental public benefits and additional protections for neighbors and all required findings can be made.”
The report also says Spieker has agreed to establish and implement a financial assistance program whereby the facility operator would establish an annuity in an initial amount of $2 million toward subsidies for lower- income households that would not otherwise have the financial means to live in the facility.
Spieker would also pay $3 million over 10 years to county parks, trails or open space. Spieker 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 west boundary for public purposes.
The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors meets at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the board chambers in the county administration building, 1025 Escobar Street in Martinez. Meetings can be joined at
www.contracosta.ca.gov.
Bocce Court!!! Approved.
Hope they all agree that it makes traffic and everything else in the area worse…. and the argument of low income housing doesn’t work n this development … and where is the water going to come from?
$2M toward low income assistance? So out of 354 units perhaps four receive minor assistance. Very short term minor assistance. Why can’t they just be honest about it. This will be upscale senior living cost prohibitive to many. WC is the perfect location for such an endeavor. It’s sad to see that last little slice of open space go away, but it will. They’ll rubber stamp this based on not just tax revenue from the development, but from the likely quadruple tax revenue generated from baby boomer homes sold in WC for relocation.
Our fearless leaders decided Ygnacio Valley Road does not have enough traffic on it.
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There is no doubt the BOS will cave to the developer and Contra Costa County staff will do a terrible job implementing the project..
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NO FAITH IN GOVERNMENT… especially county governments where mediocrity is the only level of excellence achieved. It won’t be a half-a$$ project… it will be full-a$$.
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A facility like this is needed, since boomers are closing in on 80. A lot of older people are living alone now, something that becomes increasingly less safe at an advanced age. An option like this would be helpful for many locals. Having it near John Muir hospital makes it a particularly good location. Traffic? Many, if not most, of the residents will no longer be driving.
Be careful, NIMBYs. You may reach an age where you will need a residential option like this.
So you would wreck a quiet neighborhood with a mess. The people moving there are not invalids. Of course they will be driving as will delivery trucks. The other thing is only very rich people could afford to move there. They can afford to live anywhere. It costs about a million dollars to get in. Stop with the nimby stuff this is a real problem.
Is this a good place to add that there are over two million illegal aliens in California taking up housing that could go to actual citizens? We house those from Honduras with much more enthusiasm than the boomers you mention. Good angle though. Usually they try “it’s for the children” or national security or some such thing. Boomers. I like it. Any excuse to pave over the rest of California for fun and profit.
Observer : Clearly you know nothing about helper monkeys.
This is such a bad idea that will wreck a quiet neighborhood which now has no through traffic to one where cars and trucks will run all day. I can’t imagine anyone not on the take approving this project.
“The site will include 594 parking spaces”. Should tell you how this will wreck a quiet neighborhood.
Spieker would also pay $3 million over 10 years to county parks, trails or open space. “The Bribe”
It would be hypocritical of me to be against this project. My area of Walnut Creek was once walnut grooves that produced no traffic. The home I live in was built on that land along with all the homes around me. We all produce traffic that didn’t exist before the development. I’m glad I have this place to live in. How can I say nobody else should get to develop some land.
Is it hypocritical for you to object to the fifteenth person getting on an overcrowded the elevator after you? This isn’t the 1840s and California’s population is overstretching its resources. Even Disneyland stops admitting guests after too many show up. If you are already in Disneyland, do you feel hypocritical?
Seems like future development is a risk when buying a home next to undeveloped parcels. I suspect the density will be somewhat lowered in exchange for approval. Given that there are no homes directly facing Marchbanks or Kinross I don’t think traffic impacts will be considered. Seems like a decent project with ever increasing density in Walnut Creek.
Is this where the school is currently? We don’t have enough water or electricity for the current number of houses, we need less not more.
Can’t we have anything nice left at all? Why does every little bit of space need to be horribly overdeveloped?
It’s right across the street from one of the best and most respected medical centers in the state. Why build another one?
awful to destroy all those trees.