Earlier this week, the San Ramon City Council voted unanimously to reject an appeal that would have halted redevelopment of the former Chevron office park site along Bollinger Canyon Road in San Ramon. The proposed 144-acre redevelopment would bring more than 2,500 new units of housing to the site, a significant increase for a city of less than 100,000 residents.
The Orchards neighborhood park pedestrian view, illustration by WHA
Orchards Affordable Apartments, rendering by Steinberg Hart
At the meeting, opponents of the project cited concerns around proper environmental considerations of the project and about the impacts on nearby traffic. However, the project’s sponsor, Sunset Development, was able to successfully advocate for the benefits of new housing in the area, while San Ramon’s Mayor Mark Armstrong also spoke in favor of the development.
Following the council decision, the project will be allowed to continue in all three areas of its plan. The mixed-use district in the northern corner of the site will include 619 housing units and approximately 125,000 square feet of commercial space. The western area of the site will be built up as multi-family rental apartments and condominiums, adding together a total of 1,465 units. Lastly, a neighborhood district will include up to 426 single-family townhomes and unattached houses. More detailed information about the specific project areas can be found through SF YIMBY’s previous reporting, found here.
The Orchards masterplan map, illustration by WHA
The development plans to include a substantial amount of community commercial, minimizing the need for residents to travel long distances for retail. For areas not covered by the local retail, the project is only a short drive from the Bishop Ranch commercial area. The project will also benefit from the nearby access to Interstate 680 and local transit lines already serving the San Ramon City Center, giving residents easy access to move around the broader region.
The Orchards Current Property Map, image via City of San Ramon
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Why are the townspeople objecting to replacing an already developed office park with housing? Seems like a good deal for the city.
NIMBYs oppose all development. Any change could be bad, so there should be no change ever
Seems like the time to object would have been when they replaced all those orchards and cattle pastures with office parks in the 1970s and 1980s. It’s no longer rural, so I say “Build it” and spare what remains of rural eastern Alameda County.
Mindboogling.
I’m more sympathetic to NIMBYs in old suburbs. the roads, and city infrastructure really have an upper limit on the # of people it can support. building high density housing in a city like Saratoga or parts of san jose would have REAL quality of life impacts to residents.
these new MADE UP cities like san ramon have no excuses. it’s well connect transit to the city & all they have in space. BUILD.
these neighbors are strictly against housing to protect their property values.
You’re right but San Ramon doesn’t have great transit access. You might be thinking of Dublin and Pleasanton. Those cities have transit access yes but Dublin is the only one that really builds. Pleasanton has been dragging their feet for decades and builders remedy is coming to get them.
I’d argue that Dublin and Pleasanton barely have transit access. Yes, there’s BART into Oakland and downtown SF, but unless you live directly near the station, you’re driving to the station anyways, so most people just end up driving the entire way. It also runs about every 20 minutes if you’re lucky. Dublin/Pleasanton is really only a commuter train into SF, which is unfortunately not nearly as popular as it was before the pandemic. I imagine those stations are huge revenue losers in general at this point.
Dublin/Pleasanton actually has relatively high ridership. According to BART’s report from March, it had just under 3500 daily boardings. A lot of them are commuters that take the bus to Las Po which are generally pretty full
Totally happy this site is being redeveloped but what’s with segregating the multi family buildings from the “neighborhood district?” Aren’t people living in apartments part of a neighborhood? I’d much rather have the building types interspersed together like in the great Oakland and Berkeley neighborhoods. And can we ever get back to building four plexes? Let’s get some real walkable developments.
This is solid redevelopment, and a great location. There is a Whole Foods, Target, lots of restaurants, etc. just across Bollinger Canyon. Not that Bollinger is an easy street to cross – it’s a huge stroad with people racing to the freeway, but maybe the city will add ped-first crossing signals (we can dream!)