Dublin City Council’s Approval of Tassajara Home Project a Bittersweet Moment for Nielsen Family
Dublin City Council officially gave its blessing to rezone the Nielsen property from agricultural to single family residential. The Christmas tree lot on Tassajara Road will one day become a pocket of beautiful single-family homes. While the property’s owner Robert Nielsen does not have any immediate development plans for the parcel, he did seem eager at the Council hearing to sell the land to a developer with the vision and the know-how to build homes.
The Nielsen family has had a storied past with the City of Dublin as one of its pioneering families. It was one of the early ranchers in Dublin to purchase large tracts of land before the post-World War II East Bay suburban population boom. Many years later, former Dublin Mayor Janet Lockhart and current Planning Commission Chair Morgan King rendered most of the Nielsen family’s land holdings practically worthless through the passage of Measure M by placing anti-development and anti-farming restrictions on their west Dublin acreage. That very public battle over Measure M was why Commissioner King had to recuse himself, when this project was presented before the Planning Commission.
Measure M was the compromise between the West Dublin political machine and the developers of the land that ultimately became Schaefer Ranch. That compromise provided a huge windfall for the owners of the Schaefer Ranch property at the expense of the Nielsen family. While the recently rezoned Tassajara Road parcel is a financial victory for Robert Nielsen, it represents the last jewel in the Nielsen family crown. Ironically the Nielsen parcel will most likely be developed by one of former Mayor Janet Lockhart’s developer friends.
The Nielsen property is planned to have a total of 36 homes spread over nearly 11 acres, with the unusable acreage left over for open space. Each home is designed to have a decent-sized private yard similar in size to nearby homes in the Dublin Ranch community. The Council’s approval cleared the way for the rezoning of the Nielsen property on Tassajara Road; however, additional approvals will be needed for the actual architectural design details and development agreement.
1:49 PM on May 26th, 2010
Nice to hear that they are planning on “decent sized yards” for this development. I am curious as to what they consider a decent size. I believe that the homes in Dublin Ranch sit on roughly 6,000 square foot lots, which doesn’t leave much of a yard. The lots should be at least 8,500 square feet so families have room to spread out and kids have a place to play. It doesn’t make sense to have homes that literally back up against one another. With all that land, there’s no reason to make lots that small. They should make them bigger.
2:42 PM on May 26th, 2010
Hi Leilah – most of the lots are planned to be at least 7,500 sq. ft.
Thx, John Z.
1:57 PM on May 26th, 2010
11/36=0.3 acre=13000 sq. ft. Should be decent-size lot.
2:14 PM on May 26th, 2010
So where will the 5 (rounded up from 4.5) BMR mansions be?
2:41 PM on May 26th, 2010
Hi Anonymous – I believe that the Nielsen project has a few lots for one or two duets. The developer could also cover some of the 12.5% requirement by paying cash in-lieu of building BMR homes.
Thx, John Z.
3:17 PM on May 26th, 2010
I live in Silvera Ranch so I’m happy to see this moving along– I am guessing that the developer would also be responsible for the improvements to Tassajara Rd in front of that property (sidewalk,etc).. ?
There is a temporary sidewalk which kind of juts out a bit– A few weeks ago someone creamed into the mini fence, jumping the sidewalk (They left the scene, but the minifence was strewn across the sidewalk me and my family uses..).. I’m hoping that the widening of Tassajara on that one spot, plus the official city sidewalk will provide some extra safety for this dangerous spot…