Walnut Creek Breaks Residential Promises

WALNUT CREEK, CA-The City of Walnut Creek plans on adding 1,250 houses by mid-2006. To make it happen, has solicited proposals and is researching new development rules and incentives and has solicited proposals.

The city’s current plan for managing development, which is based on a public backlash against commercial development, will expire in 2003. The city is planning to write a new 10-year plan, which will combine residential and commercial development.

The area bounded by North Main Street, Parkside Drive, Pringle Avenue and Interstate 680 is known as the Golden Triangle, and is the main area for development in Walnut Creek.

Under the current plan, the city’s Golden Triangle housing project plowed several homes to make way for new development, but few homes were replaced. Commercial development in the Golden Triangle area changed the city’s skyline and added more than a million square feet of office space.

Residents and city officials are now calling for more action on replacing the demolished homes, saying that the Golden Triangle housing policy has failed completely.

Developers were required by the city to build houses with commercial development to ensure that Golden Triangle housing would be replaced. Prometheus Development was supposed to build 18 homes with its 130,000 square feet of offices. It has not built any homes yet, although it plans to construct a 27-unit apartment building.

Tishman West Management was supposed to build 45 housing units with its 320,000 square feet of offices. It has not built any yet. Cygna Consulting Engineers built 371,000 square feet of office space, but has only built two of its planned 50 townhouses.

The city will have to enforce the homes or look at another way to compensate, such as allowing developers to pay the city money instead of building homes, say city officials.