Dublin City Council reverses approval of 573-home project

Reversing course after just three months, the East Bay city of Dublin repealed its decision to allow Trumark Homes to build a 573-unit housing project, the latest Bay Area community to bow to local opposition and block development.

The City Council voted unanimously to reverse itself after Dubliners Against Overdevelopment collected enough signatures to force a referendum, the East Bay Times reported. The group said the city used 30-year-old environmental reports and overlooked the potential for overcrowded schools and should have wrung more community benefits from Trumark, leader Arunabha Chakma told the newspaper.

“I don’t see a point in a protracted battle over this particular project because that’s going to take a lot of time and resources and a campaign, and I think that’s just a distraction,” said Vice Mayor Shawn Kumagai. Trumark had already conceded, saying in a Feb. 25 letter that the developer didn’t want itself or the city to be burdened by “the substantial costs and distractions of an election.”

The decision underscores the sway held by community groups in determining whether an approved project can move forward. In Berkeley, a coalition of neighborhood groups filed lawsuits to halt University of California, Berkeley’s long-range development plan, which included new housing for 1,100 students. In San Jose, the Sierra Club sued the city in October for approving a 2 million-square-foot office campus that it claims will degrade the surrounding environment, raising the possibility of a protracted legal battle.

Chakma said his group doesn’t oppose development – only projects that haven’t been properly vetted first. Trumark would’ve built on 165 acres of vacant land near the city’s eastern border.

“Do the right thing, do the right assessment and then start building — we don’t have any problem,” said Chakma, a Dublin resident.

Trumark’s Tony Bosowski wrote in last month’s letter to the City Council that the firm will pursue an alternative path to obtain the city’s approval, which can’t come for another year.

One way could be to use the Housing Accountability Act, which would force Dublin to approve whatever Trumark pitches as long as it abides by development guidelines, the East Bay Times said. That route could produce fewer benefits for the community than it proposed, which included the payment of $5.5 million in affordable housing fees, transferring a two-acre planned housing site for the developmentally disabled to the city, and making 50 granny units and 18 houses affordable.

A new proposal under the Housing Accountability Act probably wouldn’t include the land transfer, Dublin City Attorney John Bakker said. That part is “desperately needed,” according to the vice mayor.

Chakma and his group, meantime, are “seriously considering” a recall campaign against the City Council.

“We’re convinced they’re not doing their best to serve the interests of the citizens,” he said.

[East Bay Times] — Matthew Niksa

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San Francisco

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