Grafton Plaza April 2008 Update
The City of Dublin hosted an environmental impact scoping meeting this past Wednesday night. Participants were provided with copies of the initial environmental impact study and an opportunity to comment on what environmental impacts should be considered in the forthcoming full Environmental Impact Report. Diagrams (including the picture above) were also posted to illustrate the current Grafton Plaza proposal that’s on the table.
Please click on the picture above to get a larger illustration of the high-level overview. As you can see, the developer currently envisions that Grafton Plaza will have four buildings. All 4 buildings will be up to 150 feet tall (10 stories):
- Buildings A and C will have about 450 residential units.
- 160,000 sq. ft. of retail space and 21 shopkeeper units will be spread across all four buildings.
- Building B will provide about 300,000 sq. ft. of campus office space.
- Building D will be home to a 100,000 sq. ft. hotel and an 11,000 sq. ft. spa.
It’s important to note that while this is the current proposal, there will also be other options for the Dublin City Council to consider for Grafton Plaza. Here are a few possible alternative proposals:
- Postpone development and leave land undeveloped.
- Leave existing campus office land use designation as-is.
- Re-balance mix of office, retail, and residential.
This was the first of many future opportunities for Dublin residents to provide their feedback on Grafton Plaza. Here are the upcoming milestones in the Grafton Plaza planning and approval process. Please note that most of these dates are approximations and could be pushed back:
- May 12, 2008: Additional comments due from stakeholders on scope of environmental impact report.
- Summer 2008 – The Environmental Impact Report will be published.
- Late Summer / Early Fall 2008 – Additional comments accepted on Environmental Impact Report.
- Fall / Winter 2008-2009: Planning Commission Vote
- Early 2009: City Council Vote – the City Council could opt to not approve the Grafton Plaza plans as currently proposed and instruct City Staff and Charter Properties (the land owner) to go with an another development option.
It’s important to note two main take-aways from Wednesday night’s meeting. First, the City of Dublin believes in engaging residents and providing a transparent and accessible planning process. Every stakeholder has a voice in the planning process. This is one reason that so many residents choose Dublin as their home.
The second take-away is that residents must take advantage of this open planning process and communicate their opinions to the members of the Planning Commission and City Council. Here are the corresponding email addresses:
Planning Department and Commission:
planning.mgr@ci.dublin.ca.us
City Council:
Mayor: Janet Lockhart janet.lockhart@ci.dublin.ca.us
Vice-Mayor: Tim Sbranti tim.sbranti@ci.dublin.ca.us
Councilman: Tony Oravetz tony.oravetz@ci.dublin.ca.us
Councilwoman: Kasie Hildenbrand kasie.hildenbrand@ci.dublin.ca.us
Councilwoman: Kate Ann Scholz kateann.scholz@ci.dublin.ca.us
Please keep checking back here at Around Dublin for more details related to Grafton Plaza. Please click here for more information on Grafton Plaza.
10:53 PM on April 26th, 2008
I was at Wednesday’s meeting and have many doubts of this proposed plan for east Dublin. I hope it gets postponed and undeveloped. Let’s start with Dublin’s needs first–Kaiser hospital and a second high school.
11:16 AM on April 28th, 2008
a boutique hotel, lux spa and condominiums sounds better to me than another big box retail. a 10-story structure is a good compromise over a 21-story structure. as a proud resident of East Dublin, I’m very excited for this development to become a reality.
10:53 AM on April 29th, 2008
The residents at the scoping meeting and the earlier public hearing raised many great points for the city as a whole to consider before we proceed with this undertaking. I highly recommend anyone who’s interested in this project to checkout out http://www.stopgraftontowers.org by Mr. Jeff Keihl for a complete and up-to-date summary. As alluring as the boutique hotel, luxurious spa, and more high-density housing may sound, the Lin family’s compromise proposal remains a significant deviation from the current designated land use. The city now has to decide whether Dublin needs to boost its high-density residential inventory or increase its office and retail space to bring in jobs. In its deliberation, Dublin should assess this project in the context of current and future development instead of in isolation as Bill Schaub and his planning commission have systematically done in the past. We should also evaluate whether or not the city’s infrastructure has the capacity to take on additional demands from thousands of new residents. Based on what I hear from real East Dublin residents, the overwhelming response is that our priority as a city should be a new high school in East Dublin before we build more condominiums.
1:51 PM on June 6th, 2008
What’s the traffic impact of building high rises like this? It’s entirely too dense for the area.
2:33 PM on June 6th, 2008
Hi BIGMallrat -
The City of Dublin will be evaluating the traffic impact as part of the Environmental Impact Report. The initial study can be found here: http://www.ci.dublin.ca.us/pdf/planning/grafton/InitialStudy.pdf. Please refer to pages 49-50 for the intial items that will be reviewed. I believe that they will be adding other items from the scoping meeting held in April.
The good news is that Dublin is focused on mitigating any adverse traffic impact.
3:40 PM on April 28th, 2009
I am a resident of Dublin Ranch and all I can say is DUBLIN RANCH NEEDS MORE GUEST PARKING, I repeat, DUBLIN RANCH NEEDS MORE PARKING!! Right now, the high density housing and parking situation is an eyesore, devaluing our property values, and a headache for the residents who live here. So, PLEASE, someone have the developer address the parking concerns here.