Seeno family developer opposes Costco project in Brentwood

West Coast Home Builders is trying to block a Costco big-box store in the East Bay city of Brentwood.

The Concord-based developer led by Albert Seeno III has appealed the 154,900-square-foot warehouse store approved south of Lone Tree Plaza Drive and east of Heidorn Ranch Road, the San Jose Mercury News reported. 

The Brentwood City Council is slated to hear the appeal on Tuesday, July 25.

Attorneys for West Coast Builders said the project should be blocked because environmental documents the city used for the project were allegedly outdated. They argued the city should either deny the proposed Costco or subject the plan to further environmental review.

The city says the proposed project is consistent with local zoning rules within the area’s specific plan for which an environmental review was certified.

It’s not clear why a local developer has drawn a line in the sand against another developer. The Seeno family has built homes in Contra Costa County for generations, and has been accused of violating environmental laws for years.

West Coast Builders aims to build hundreds of homes at the end of Sand Creek Road, just south of the planned Costco project. Its plans are now under review.

The Costco project was proposed by San Jose-based Arcadia Development on a 23-acre lot owned by Centre Pointe Associates, near a Kohl’s and Home Depot and the city of Antioch.

Brentwood residents had for years rejected warehouse retailers, but the City Council removed a prohibition against big-box stores in 2020, according to the Mercury News. The closest Costco is in Antioch, eight miles away.

The new warehouse store with a tire shop, gas station and parking for nearly 900 cars was set to break ground when West Coast Home Builders filed the appeal.

In a letter to the Planning Commission, West Coast attorneys said the city approved the environmental documents for the area’s specific plan in 2018. The city then updated the zoning last year from transit/mixed use to regional commercial.

The project, the attorneys say, is “not consistent with the development standards” of the new version, and would have environmental effects not previously studied. City staff has recommended the City Council reject the appeal.

The Seeno family, which has built homes in eastern Contra Costa County for nearly a century, is now mired in a legal dispute between Seeno III and his father, 80-year-old patriarch Albert Seeno Jr., over control of its real estate empire.

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— Dana Bartholomew

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