Windstar Condos, Hotel, and Retail on Hold
Development at the West Dublin BART Station Transit Village has been placed on hold. Due to tightening credit conditions in the financial markets, Windstar Communities recently announced that they would need to postpone construction of their ambitious transit village project:
- 309 condominiums
- 240 hotel rooms
- 24,000 sq. ft. of office space
- 7,500 sq. ft. of retail space
You may recall that there was some controversy surrounding the project last year when Windstar threatened to pull the plug on their project unless the Dublin City Council approved the construction of an additional level to their condominium project. This was an increase of 99 units. The Council approved this increase despite concerns about increased traffic, water usage, and not providing enough guest parking. While Windstar has now decided to put their plans on hold, the City of Dublin will still uphold its agreement to allow for an additional 99 units.
Windstar’s $20M+ contribution will allow for the completion of the $80M West Dublin BART station by the end of 2009.
12:51 PM on February 4th, 2009
Maybe it is a good thing. With Crown Chevrolet closed, stepping back and looking at a larger more comprehensive project to include the Crown Parcel and the cluster of light industrial buildings adjacent to it would go a long ways in redeveloping downtown into a visible/vibrant clean urban environment like downtown Walnut Creek. Incorporating retail, campus office and residential uses. Downtown currently is a waste land of aging or dilapitated strip malls and asphalt parking lots, not to mention deserted old retail buildings. It is also too much car oriented, not typical of a downtown.
1:10 PM on February 4th, 2009
we need to bulldoze everything in Dublin and replace with 4-5 story apartments and condos with the majority of units being Section 8. Give extra incentives to developer who make single-family, 2-3 bedroom condos which have at least 4 flights of stairs — This is the new Dublin, the future.. These are the only types of units/development that will really attract the right residents to come to our town.. Also, add incentives to cut down on waste such as parking spaces. That is not being green, that is being wasteful, wasting precious land on stupid parking.. Most families nowadays have only one car, even when they have 2-3 families living in a condo. Also, we all know that BART and the bus system cover all areas of town, so please incentivize high density housing in our most rural or areas of town–
Gooooooooo Dublin!
1:47 PM on February 4th, 2009
Sounds like sarcasim but really you hit a point. It has become reality in Dublin in regards to poor planning. What you mention above has already happened throughout the Eastern side and undoubtly eventually hit old Dublin. Look at the new Camp Parks concept, basically the same Apartment Buildings, Condos stacked 3-4 stories high. Another High Density Residential neighborhood that leaders say will be a unique regional draw, for Section 8 that is. I’m sure there won’t be much parking required as Residents are expected to mainly be Green and Use BART across the Street and walk to Hacienda Crossings, Grafton Station, Safeway and beyond. We’ll all own and drive Smart Cars.
5:39 PM on February 4th, 2009
Oh, i forgot.. We should also add 4-6 more stoplights between East Dublin and Dublin High, so we can make it even tougher for parents to drive their kids to highschool. City Planning success is measured by traffic, the more the better!
Goooooooo Dublin!
6:08 PM on February 4th, 2009
I love the above post. It hits it on the head. City planning in Dublin is a complete joke. There is no meaningful planning. The city planning commission just seems to rubber stamp any high density development without thoughts as to how so much high density housing will impact the future make-up of Dublin.
In 20 years instead of beautiful new, contemporary housing high rises Dublin will become known for its “projects” aka high density housing.
That is going to do wonders for property values.
Dublin should work with the government to shut down camp parks and replace it with hundreds of single family homes on at least a 1/4 acre of land.
1:12 AM on February 6th, 2009
I agree some of the points above. The Development in Dublin is very similiar to an failed example of city planning I have experienced in some Asian Cities. It started as a affluent City, then the city started dumping excessive amount of affordable housing and condo. Eventually, the affluent people moved out of the city since the property value dropped in half, due to the oversupply housing stock and insufficient high pay job. I certainly do not want it to happen, I myself invest in Dublin. However, the more I see about the planning commission does, the more I believe that we are heading to the path of failure. I do not know the background of those planning commissioners and I do respect their contribution to Dublin. However, looking at what Dublin is experiencing, the planning commission should change their way to approve project. We should not look at the short term benefit like entitlement fee to sacrify the long term success. We really should slow down all the new development application to let the market to absorb the excessive housing supply before pursuing new opportunities.
5:26 PM on February 6th, 2009
Dear Morgan
I have forwarded your comment onto the sheriffs department so that they can question you and your desire to bad-mouth the Dublin City Council. My God, what kind of citizen do you think you are, actually trying to say the city council might be better off thinking about the residents. What is the value in those kinds of comments, huh???
Gooooooooooo Dublin!
PS: For anyone that really loves guns, we’ll be doing a special “unload the merchandise” shooting range tonight. That’s where we give each deputy about 500 rounds each (for training, it’s required, so shut yer mouth about that being excessive). No, your kids can’t have more funding for their schools, we need to upgrade all the roof-mount light bars on our squad cars (15-bulb bars are soooo yesterday, we want to upgrade to 25-bulb bars with multi-strobe action)–
2:09 AM on February 7th, 2009
Dear Anonymous on Feb 6,
Please refrain. I am not bad-mouthing Dublin. We need to look at things in different perspectives. I believe that by knowing the failed city planning in the past will lead us to a success. I have nothing against the Dublin City Council, I think most of them seems brilliant people, since I saw them on TV. Please forgive me if you find the comment offensive. I also do not believe that this blog is formed to only allow for praise but not constructive opinions. I want you to know we all are here for the same purpose. We both care about the future of Dublin. You really need to loose it up a bit.
Regards,
7:53 AM on February 7th, 2009
Hi MorganK – I think that Anonymous Feb 6th 4:26pm was joking around and doesn’t find your comments offensive at all.
Thx, John Z.
11:04 AM on February 7th, 2009
Hi MorganK-
I’m sorry that my last post was not understood- I totally agree with your points but was making a post which highlights the aggressive behavior of our current city council members who see this blog as worthless and just a bunch of citizens complaining- We all need to pressure our city government to stop with all the high density housing or Dublin will indeed become more and more like Antioch. Are there ANY single-family or estate type homes planned for Dublin anymore? (no, not talking about Schaeffer Ranch, i mean on the horizon of upcoming projects..)–
GOoooooo Dublin
11:53 AM on February 9th, 2009
Hi all,
I’m a new resident here at Dublin. I’ve been here for almost a year now. So my first question is what was the original thinking or concept of building another BART station so close to each other? I’m using BART to commute everyday from Dublin/Pleasanton station.
So there’s a 10-mile gap between Dublin/Pleasanton station and Castro Valley, I thought it’s great!! Less stop, less chance of delays which means I can get home sooner. Am I missing something here?
12:45 PM on February 9th, 2009
The West BART station will provide as our leaders hope a boost to the redevelopment of downtown Dublin into a thriving Office/Retail/Residential pedestrian friendly District. Current it is just a sea of parking lots and aging strip malls, automobile oriented. For Pleansanton it provides a mode of mass transporation to feed the many corporate offices (ei: Safeway)circling Stoneridge Mall and also mall employees. A second station will help ease crowding at the East Station as it is the only one serving the entire Tri Valley and beyond over the Altamont Pass. Until if and when Livermore gets an extension and a couple of stations to go with it, this is it. Without the West BART station in the pipeline, the ugly East BART Station Garage would have needed to be 15 stories high to accommodate for the parking needs.
Geographically it makes no sense to place a station anywhere else between Castro Valley and Dublin as a station on the Dublin Grade would only attract cows. Just like there is a large gap between SF and West Oakland BART station, it seems a like a large gap but a station in the middle of the bay makes no sense.
Welcome to Dublin!!
2:32 PM on February 10th, 2009
Thank you for the welcome:) As I have seen it, downtown Dublin needs a whole lot more than BART. Why can’t they do free shuttle like Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek? I’m just saying there’s a cheaper way to get people to downtown if need be or demand to it rather than building a whole brand new train station. The Pleasanton arguement make more sense to me because the offices and the mall that’s already there.
I don’t know if the gap between SF-West Oakland comparison is valid here since the gap is under water (although it would be 11 out 10 in coolness factor if they put a stop in between and have a subterranian shuttle that goes to Treasure Island:)).
Still though, personally, I would prefer less stop between SF to Dublin since BART doesn’t offer ‘express’ schedule.
12:56 PM on February 11th, 2009
Sorry to be so sarcastic about the cows etc.. Glad you were not offended. Yes welcome once again!! I do agree with shuttle idea. Emeryville has the Emery go round that circles the city’s stopping at major job and retail centers. Dublin can do the same as our retail landscape as developed and currently in the pipeline is so scattered from East to West. Fallon Gateway on one end and Downtown the other, with a dozen or so strip malls in between, to much reliance on cars.
An underwater station would be cool, although I would not want to be there if the earth starts to rumble and shake.
5:09 PM on February 19th, 2009
Another concern about the high density housing or Low income housing. From other posts in this Blog, they mentioned about the impact of the County Jail. I personally live in the Dublin Station. I do realize there have been more thugs hanging around near bart. Also, there are a couples of condos priced reasonably left unsold. It could be due to the market’s condition, or the area is degressing. Hopefully, this issue will be soon addressed through the future developement. Also, I realized there is a sex offender living in one of the complexes there. I did not wanna bring it up, since I owned a property closeby. However, this is something we really need to address before it gets worse.
Thanks,
10:46 PM on February 19th, 2009
The more units we build, the higher the 10.5% or 12% is for the required inclusionary ordinance. Camp Parks is a great example, instead of 500 single family homes, over 1600 mostly high and medium high density units are planned, thus the number of below market units increases according. Same goes for Wallis Ranch, instead of 300-400 executive homes, we are looking at 900 plus units which will include hundreds of medium density. Thus again the 10.5% or 12% BMR requirement increases.
Our leaders are hell bent though on high density, just can’t get enough of it.
12:32 AM on February 24th, 2009
I agree to the shuttle ideas. I believe that it will make people less reliable on vehicle. However, the shuttle has to be very frequent that people don’t feel like they have to wait for a long time after missing one. Ideally, if the shuttle can run every 5-10 mins during the weekend in peak hours and less frequent on weekday like 15 to 30 mins. In addition, funding for the operation could be an chanllenge.
3:47 AM on May 17th, 2009
In reading over all of these comments, I find it interesting that there is mention of the “poor planning”, or “City Council doesn’t know what they’re doing”, but no one has commented on the new Housing Element Draft required by Alameda County and the State of California that outlines the reasons behind staff decisions.
Have any of you attended the Dublin 101 class? It’s brilliant! The entire City of Dublin at all levels open their doors to candidates of the program giving them an inside, hands on look into how the city thinks, works and breathes?
Do any of you understand that you as citizens have a right to attend meetings and speak in front of the City Council to voice your opinions and that they really do take them into consideration?
No city is perfect. No decision pleases everyone. But, all of us do have a say in how the city is formed. Many of the ideas that candidates to the Dublin 101 have developed in the program are actually under consideration and some elements have even been incorporated into designs being scheduled for implementation over the next few years throughout the city.
Do all of you realize how incredibly lucky we are to live in a city that….
- has a low crime rate
- is protected by the U.S. Military, the FBI, ATF, CHP, and our own Dublin P.D. (which are actually Alameda County Sheriffs and have the toys to prove it)
- that has only approx. 20 homeless people per the city’s Housing Element
- that has one of the best home loan programs in Alameda County
- that still has trees and parks for families and continues to build more
- that has city wide events promoting family life
- that is trying to offer solutions for business/developers to come in and add money to generate more programs and allow current business to make ends meet and stay
- that offers affordable housing from low to high density as per the requirements established in the Housing Element set down by Alameda County and the State of California of which Dublin goes beyond the requirements mandated
- that still has teachers in their schools to educate future leaders, – that has Staff and Council members who go above and beyond in reviewing every detail in a report provided professionals just so that they get it right on behalf of the community
- that our city even assists other cities in the U.S., such as Hilo, Hawaii, by sharing their information with County/City Staff on programs so that those cities may present similar opportunities to their communities
- that has established city ordinances to promote bicycle travel throughout the city, encourage developers to think Green, have smoking restrictions in public areas and now multi-family dwellings with over 16-units and so many more all to increase the health and well-being of its community.
People the list goes on…
It’s great that you read, blog and openly converse, but I ask you all to introduce yourselves to the city staff in the Community Development Department and get to know them, attend City Council meetings and sign up to voice your opinions, and join the Dublin 101 program BEFORE you write that next blog about the Staff and City Council of Dublin and their lack of forward thinking.
And, I’m not city staff. I’ve been a resident of Dublin for 8 years, graduate of the Dublin 101 program and supporter of everything Dublin.