San Ramon Approves Eden Housing’s Bishop Ranch Project

The first fully affordable housing project at Bishop Ranch is inching closer to construction.

The City of San Ramon approved plans for a 200-unit affordable housing development from Eden Housing at 2453 Camino Ramon, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

The company will build residences for seniors and families on a 2.2-acre site donated by Sunset Development, the owner and operator of the office campus and mixed-use community.

Eden Housing’s plans call for a 120-unit residential building for working families; half of the units in the building will have two- and three-bedroom floorplans. Another 80 residences will be constructed for residents 55 and older.

The housing will be priced for low-income and very-low income individuals earning 30 percent to 80 percent of the area’s median income, or between $33,600 and $87,550 for one person.

The project site houses a 10,000-square-foot office property, Sunset Development’s service center, which will be torn down. The site is across from City Village, a 404-townhome development from SummerHill Homes, which is under construction.

Amenities include a technology center, career and school resource center, barbecue and picnic areas, bicycle parking, children’s play areas and co-working areas for adults. The senior residences will have a fitness center, technology center and outdoor deck. There will also be a central communal courtyard, dog park and community garden with direct access to Iron Horse Trail.

The development is “an investment in San Ramon’s future as an inclusive, sustainable community,” said Alex Mehran Jr., CEO of Sunset Development. The development is “especially critical for families and seniors in a region that is growing rapidly and urgently needs more affordable homes,” said Linda Mandolini, president and CEO of Eden Housing.

This is the latest instance of offices being replaced with housing as part of the grand plan to transform the office complex into a mixed-use neighborhood. The effort has been helped in part by companies like Chevron cutting their office space at Bishop Ranch in recent years.

In June, Sunset Development filed formal development applications to gut 761,000 square feet of office space to make way for two residential communities, adding 485 units of housing as part of the endeavor to build 8,000 units on site.

That proposal calls for demolishing the three-building, 652,000-square-foot Canopy office complex and building a 412-unit residential community of 255 detached townhomes and a 157-unit five-story apartment building.

Of the 412 units, 62 will be deed-restricted affordable housing with at least 22 reserved for very-low-income households. Sunset also submitted plans to build 73 housing units at 2 Annabel Lane to replace a 109,000-square-foot office building with 64 townhome condominiums and nine accessory dwelling units.

Sunset plans to turn the old Chevron headquarters into The Orchards, a development consisting of 2,510 homes, 125,000 square feet of town-center-style retail and a 2.5-acre community park.

Other housing projects at Bishop Ranch in the works include Related California’s 380-unit luxury apartment building at 6201 Bollinger Canyon Road and AvalonBay’s 457-unit project across the street from the City Center retail complex.

— Chris Malone Méndez