Charter Properties Has All the Time in the World to Rezone the Promenade in Dublin, CA
KB Home and Charter Properties are inviting residents in Dublin Ranch Villages and their neighbors at Sorrento to a community meeting on Saturday, February 18th. This outreach event will be held at Cellar 9 Restaurant & Bar from noon until 2:00PM. Cellar 9 Restaurant & Bar is located at 4112 Grafton Street in Dublin, CA.
The stated purpose of this meeting is to discuss the future residential development at a part of the Promenade currently zoned as retail and public/semi-public space. Last September, Dublin City Council opened the door for KB Home and Charter Properties to cram more higher density homes where none had been planned by approving a study to see what more higher-density homes in a neighborhood plagued by chronic parking shortage would look like. Developer representatives and Dublin Councilmembers Eric Swalwell, Kevin Hart, and Don Biddle gave their blessings for the study despite not having a single resident speak in favor of an approval. To date, more than 350 residents have taken action against more unplanned higher density homes by asking Dublin City Hall to “Keep the Promenade’s Promise.”
To get the Dublin Ranch Villages project approved, Charter Properties originally agreed to set aside the 3.1 acres of land in question for Public/Semi-Public use. The only Public use that parcel has seen to date is absorbing the parking overflow from the surrounding residential neighborhoods, which is a far cry from the concerts and special events promised by Charter Properties when it tried to garner public support for the mega towers at the now-dead Grafton Plaza. Now that ten years have passed since the original development agreement, Charter Properties is attempting to cash in on the time-bomb clause that it built into the agreement, which allowed it to request city permission to build more homes in an area already oversaturated with high-density housing. The city was under no obligation to approve the rezoning request. To add insult to injury, Charter Properties is also asking the City Council to allow more higher-density housing on an additional 2.6 acres of the Promenade that has always been intended for commercial and retail purposes. To justify his request, a visibly annoyed Tong testified at the hearing that he never promised that the Promenade would be built. Rather, that promise was made by Toll Brothers, the home builder to whom he sold the surrounding residential tracts, implying that the City Council should therefore have no qualms about catering to his request to carve up the Promenade for additional higher-density housing.
The City of Dublin did not impose a time limit for this study, so KB Home and Charter Properties can, in theory, take as much time as they need to get the rezoning they want. “Normally once the Council gives authorization for a study, the next step is for the applicant to request a meeting and begin the process, or if the City is really eager to see something happen…a meeting (might be initiated),” said one person close to the situation. “At this time that has not happened.”
Charter Properties created a similar conundrum for residents when it paid the City of Dublin a measly $1M to secure a previously unfathomable 10-year Development Agreement to build nearly 700 condos and townhomes by Silvera Ranch and Fallon Crossing along East Dublin’s border with Contra Costa County. Part of Wallis Ranch now falls within the radius of the MythBusters cannonball trajectory. The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office is poised to continue its relationship with the MythBusters. Given the City of Dublin has no jurisdiction over the kinds of zany experiments conducted at the Alameda County Bomb Disposal Range, the City of Dublin should seriously reconsider putting more homes in harm’s way.
2:09 PM on February 14th, 2012
“Given the City of Dublin has no jurisdiction over the kinds of zany experiments conducted at the Alameda County Bomb Disposal Range, the City of Dublin should seriously reconsider putting more homes in harm’s way.” OK, Chicken Little, I think one can express their criticism over more high density housing in Dublin without falling prey to scare tactics and overreaction.
As to the subject of the article, fundamentally, I don’t have a problem with higher density and like that Dublin has a diversity of options from condos to townhomes to single family residents, but, to not couple that development with integrated commercial and/or retail space, ideally within walking distance, is reprehensible. When I first moved to Dublin in 2004, I received some marketing article from the City hat talked about how Dublin was moving forward to ensure it would not just be a typical auto-centric bedroom community. And despite all the progressive development projects that were approved, it disappoints me that few have come to fruition.
No doubt Dublin’s location will ensure a continued demand for housing, but, I am now less confident our community will be a remarkable one.
4:06 PM on February 14th, 2012
2:09 Thanks for your pessimistic outlook of our city. We are the laughing stock of the Tri Valley as far as high density housing. Do we continue to let the planning commission and the city council build more high density homes? People that don’t care about property values. This is the primary reason why Charter, KB, Toll, Seeno and others love to come here with their high density development. We the people of Dublin don’t care. But some of us do care and some of us will do something about it. Some of us will wake up other Dublin residents about this issue. I am sure that majority of Dubliners are just waiting for that sign to rise up against this multi unit housing over development. 66% multi unit homes in the last 10 years. While San Ramon is at 25% and Pleasanton is at 15%.
11:00 AM on February 15th, 2012
> While San Ramon is at 25% and Pleasanton is at 15%.
Good for those cities. They look like poop and will look even pooper because of lack of taxes and aging poop cheapo houses. They’re not attractive options for young families… We’re not in 70′s or 80′s anymore. Suburban sprawl is not at its peak. People care more about convenience, walking distance to shops, public transportation and other amenities. Yes, we have a lot of midwest mindset people who wish 1 acre backyards, but they may move to Sac’o'tomato for that. We’re in Bay Area and price tag for decent houses is just too much for new buyers. We’re diverse in Dublin and should be proud of that. What we’re missing is retail, restaurants and parks… well, we’re also missing what I call “the big picture”. Our city planners promise too much and deliver too little.
3:03 PM on February 15th, 2012
11:00;
If you own a home in Dublin, you must be real generous in giving away your home equity or filthy rich. Money you can use for your kids college, home improvement or other financial needs. I can’t. A lot of us can’t. It is foolish to give away your home equity at the benefit of multi unit developers.
5:49 PM on February 15th, 2012
I see little connection between multi-unit properties and value of the homes. For those who was unfortunate enough to buy RE at the peak, it does not really make any difference. Except that they can blame something. Buyers in San Ramon and Pleasanton lost value of their homes as well. Yes, condos in Dublin went down deeper, no arguments about that. Yes, builders overbuilt them. But culprit is not the number of homes, but combination of things. Property value in BA is mostly driven by school ratings, proximity to jobs and overall value of neighborhood. If we had more retail, better incentives for business, if Dublin built Promenade before The Outlets, situation would be much better than it is now. Definitely our city council was short sighted at many decisions and were soft on others, but I’m not pessimistic.
Whining about property values and stopping construction of houses will not improve anything.
By the way, if you’re thinking about financing your kids college or do home upgrades with the reverse mortgage, forget about it. Your train left the station. Better look for investment opportunities, better paid job, work more jobs or send your kid to work. It will reward you in the end. Treat your home as the place to live. It’s not an ATM machine.
I really feel sorry for people who are underwater and can’t move or upgrade their homes because of that. But zoning was done long time ago, it was not a secret for anybody. So we all knew that a lot of construction is going to come and belt between 580 and Gleason is going to be mostly high density areas. Dublin will keep growing and we knew that before. We can’t stop it either. What we can do is to push city bosses and developers to give us more amenities. They’ve made and will make quite some money on residential and office buildings. They should work harder and better on improving retail, build better parks, lure business into the city. If city could update us more on how things going on that front, I would be happy. Also they should be more aggressive on deals. We’ve lost Whole Foods, Club Sport, Promenade, The Green, Caruso deals because of lack of focus and energy.
11:03 AM on February 15th, 2012
Going back to Crapter Properties. Does anybody know what they want to talk about at the meeting?
7:06 AM on February 16th, 2012
5:49;
You bring up a lot of good points and I like constructive dialogues. I have been a realtor since 2001 and my opposition to multi unit housing is not as a realtor/Broker but as a Dublin resident. There are certain conflict of interest in my views playing both hats. I am wearing my Dublin resident hat in this fight. One common view is that I always tell my clients that a home is a roof above your head and an investment. I put more weight in as an investment. When buying a home you spend money in maintenance, obeying CC&R’s and making sure that the neighborhood is secure and peaceful. All these duties has one goal is to make sure that your home looks good and that you don’t lose home value. Not everyone can say that they will live in their home forever. A lot of factors affect people’s movement. There is a good chance you may have to sell your home. When you sell your home, you want to get the same money as what you put in it. So at least you can re invest it to your next home. But when the value of your home is lesser then you cannot make that move. Such as what is happening now because of our economic climate. But that is another story.
Dublin home values has suffered tremendously in this overbuilding of multi unit housing in the last 10 years. I have numbers to back this up. I will be publishing my study in the near weeks in time for the start of WELD movement. Our pricing separation compared to our 2 neighboring cities has increased. Which have not increased prior to the rampant approval of the city council on multi unit housing. 66% is the number you will have to consider. Compared to 25% and 15% of San Ramon and Pleasanton. The desirability factor in the world of appraising is our biggest enemy. Because of this overbuilding the wise buyer or investor does not consider our city as good place to get better return on investment. I can also prove that city revenues and expenditures has grown because of this overbuilding. I have valid grounds to start a recall election of which will be WELD’s last resort. WELD will gather public opinion on this issue in the coming months. If we feel that majority of Dubliners are against more multi unit housing, we will let the city council know. If they don’t stop it, WELD has ways to implement a better living for our residents.
6:35 PM on February 16th, 2012
A house is an investment. Don’t expect to live ten years in your home and sell it higher than purchase price.
12:12 PM on February 17th, 2012
I’d love to see your research. Like I said before, I don’t see any connection between multi-unit homes construction and value of single family houses. Overabundance of condos affected price of condos – I don’t argue about that. I don’t see how they could affect “precious” single family houses at all. Condo construction started around 2000, right. Look at price dynamics. Number of available homes did not even closely relate to prices of any type of properties in Dublin or neighbor cities until the peak in 2008. Then it all went over the cliff. End of the story. It’s a common trend. San Ramon and Pleasanton have much less available homes in general. Market is smaller. Also they have better schools and better reputation.
Truth is houses are still overpriced in my opinion and I don’t see how this economy can keep these prices. They’ve not fallen any lower just because of artificial stimulus’s, cheap money and bad job market outside of the Bay Area (that caused massive migration to Bay Area from outside). If you think that your property price will grow any time soon, you’re delusional. If you want to see the trend of RE prices, look at average salaries of young professionals. Depending on who you’re asking, average income of young professional in Silicon Valley is 100K-120K/year. Multiply it by 3 and you get the price of home that such professional may afford. Do you see many single family houses at this price in Dublin? Entry level houses are way more expensive than market may support them. Well, prices may sky rocket again, if inflation hits or economy gets screwed up again. But that’s a different story. We will be all screwed then.
If somebody tells you to look at San Mateo and Santa Clara counties where RE market faired better last few years, then you should look at a) ratio of available houses to number of people, b) job market (again), c) the latest report saying that San Mateo and Santa Clara lost 2% of RE value last year while Alameda actually gained up to 1%.
Bottom line. Prices of condos are affected by multi-unit overbuilding. Prices of single family houses – only indirectly. Main culprit here are fundamentals of the economy.
9:00 PM on February 17th, 2012
Anyone going tomorrow? Are they still having it at Cellar 9 at noon. I haven’t seen any notices in our community at the Terraces.
5:35 AM on February 18th, 2012
Hi Anonymous – I received a voice message from Charter Properties yesterday with a reminder that the meeting was scheduled to start at noon at Cellar 9. I’m planning to visit.
Thx, John Z.
6:35 PM on February 18th, 2012
A multi unit development turning into mostly rentals in 10 years will be a stinkier poop compared to a single family development. We’ll be the stinkiest in the Tri-Valley by far.
1:47 PM on February 20th, 2012
And what makes you think so? Any stats? I know how it works in the South Bay. And bottom line, even 50 year old condos are not rentals. They become rentals on bubble markets when people buy “investment” properties. It’s not the case with Dublin right now.