More homes coming to Seeno’s San Marco development

More homes coming to Seeno’s San Marco development

A Concord developer’s plan to build 206 single-family homes instead of apartments or townhomes in Pittsburg’s Southwest Hills sailed through approvals with no objections on Monday.

The Pittsburg City Council’s 4-0 vote amended the city’s general plan map to allow West Coast Home Builders, a Seeno family company, to construct the homes instead of higher-density residences in the new Siena subdivision. Councilwoman Dionne Adams recused herself from the vote because of her property interests near the project.

City Manager Garrett Evans urged the council to approve the changes to the latest phase of the long-planned San Marco development, calling the housing marketplace in the area “pretty sparse.”

“The goal is to get rooftops,” he said. “We’re in the midst of a housing crisis in the Bay Area and California and really look forward to developers that find it a way to bring rooftops easier and faster to the market.”

Evans added that the repurposing to single-family homes “is an endeavor we want to see,” emphasizing it’s a “solution to solving the California housing crisis.”

“Sprouts is coming to that area because of (the number of) rooftops,” Evans added, referring to the specialty grocery store’s desire to build where there will be customers. Retailers look at the number of homes when making that consideration, he said.

First launched in 1990, the San Marco multi-phase development project was approved three years later for 2,938 units, including 1,526 townhomes and apartments and 1,412 single-family homes. To date, 1,540 single-family and 462 multi-family homes have been built, along with an elementary school, neighborhood and community parks.

When West Coast Home Builders’ request to amend the project came before the city’s’ planning commission last July, Chairperson Ivelina Popova was the lone dissenter in a 4-1 approval vote. Popova said multifamily housing provides more needed affordable housing for residents.

The massive project, however, is exempt from the city’s inclusionary housing requirements for affordable homes adopted in 2004, because its development agreement came in July of 1993.

Associate city planner Allison Hodgkin said the new plan would reassign multi-family units from two other planned villages to build 206 single-family homes on 58 acres at Pittsburg’s westernmost edge, just south of State Route 4 and about 1.5 miles from BART. The total number of units built in the overall project, though, would remain the same at 2,938, she said.

In analyzing the plans, Hodgkin said planners determined new environmental documents would not be required as no substantial changes were proposed.

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Developer spokesman Doug Chin urged the council to approve the changes, noting that Albert D. Seeno Jr. and Thomas Seeno have been building both commercial and residential developments in Pittsburg for decades.

“We would appreciate your approval of this project after consideration and we look forward to many more developments,” he said.

During public comments, cyclist Bruce Ohlson said the city’s bicycle community wants the project to include a bike trail from new Thurgood Marshall Regional Park at the Concord border, to the San Marco development and through to Stoneman and John Henry Johnon parks and the new planned soccer fields.

“The developer should work with the East Bay Regional Park District to connect this path with Thurgood Marshall Regional Park in Concord,” he added. “I have made this request on two other occasions and the developer has indicated that he will cooperate.”

John Funderburg, assistant director of community and economic director, confirmed that there were such “plans in place.”