Density karma
A client came into our office with a small infill project he had been trying to get approved in Concord for the past year and a half. Three design review board hearings, two planning commission hearings, and three city council meetings later, he's back to square one. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on consultant fees and he got nothing out of it.
Certain elected and unelected officials led the charge in opposing the project. His site was surrounded by NIMBYs, as he was attacked by four residents to the west, one to the north, and one to the east. The one to the east actually said in a public hearing that he likes to walk around his house in the nude, therefore he opposes building houses near his house. He must never have heard of window treatments. They also levied a bogus CEQA charge against him. One of the officials said he would never vote for the project as long as he was in power, a clear admission he had little regard for the rule of law or property rights.
To add insult to injury, the city also required him to underground the utility poles in front of his property, an exercise that would cost $320,000, plus patching and repairing the roofs of three houses across the street that currently tap into the overhead utilities. New utility lines would then have to be trenched and connected to those houses, all on his dime. It was a strange demand, as the entire street and neighborhood had overhead lines, and it would only go underground for the half block that is his property.
After several rounds of battling the city, he fired the previous architect he had working for him and came to us looking for help.
His previous site plan contained six houses with large gaps between them for open space, something that the nearby residents probably would have liked, compared to what could go there.
We asked if he would like something similar with different architecture. He said he was holding back the density to try to keep everyone happy. He said with how everyone was screwing him, he was done being a nice guy.
So we told him about SB330, which he was unaware of at the time. Understandable, as he was retired for some time and was just doing this entitlement for a buddy. This law limits public hearings to five and as long as regulations are met, the project sails through.
The plans are now to build fourteen homes on the site because he needs to try to recoup some of the money he lost chasing his own tail for the past year and a half. Aside from the city putting in one last middle finger by making him go to a hearing without telling him his application was incomplete (therefore, the hearing didn't count against his maximum cap of five hearings, a dirty tactic we've seen before), the city had no choice but to approve the project. Good job residents, you are now getting something you will hate much more because you were all too stupid to recognize what a gift you were getting with an ultra-low-density project. I guess we should thank them for getting more houses built on the site, even if it was delayed.
Update/correction:
Previously, it was stated the new plan would have 12 homes. The new plan would actually have 14 homes. The text has been amended to reflect the correct number.
The aforementioned approval was for Design Review, not City Council. City Council approval was granted a few weeks ago. Fifteen residents showed up, practically begging to go back to the plan with six homes. Nope, sorry. It's fourteen homes now. And there's nothing they or the city council could to about it, thanks to SB330. Hopefully it'll be a lesson to those people to not be an asshole to other peoples' private property, but they probably won't. Either way, they got what they deserved.
