East Ranch Project: DUSD Doubles Down On Concerns As Council Gives Final Approval

DUBLIN, CA — Dublin city council members have removed the first hurdle facing developers of the controversial East Ranch housing project on the city’s eastern boundaries.

Despite objections by Dublin Unified School District officials and a parade of area residents at a public hearing two weeks ago, in a unanimous vote without debate or discussion Tuesday night the council approved a Planned Development Zoning District permitting developer Trumark Homes to proceed with its proposal to build more than 500 residential units over the next several years. The developer says the first units are expected to be completed in late 2024.

In a letter sent to the council last Friday, the school district renewed its objections, saying project approval was predicated on outdated environmental studies and development plans and the council erred in approving a resolution exempting itself from the California Environmental Quality Act because changed circumstances necessitate further review.

“For this project, the city is relying on data from 28 years ago to justify exempting the project from further environmental review,” school district attorney Harold Freiman wrote. “The city and district have both changed in such a way that the circumstances under which the project is to be undertaken have changed substantially” and there are a multitude of impacts the city has failed to consider.

One of those adverse impacts, school officials say, is the effect the development will have on already overcrowded classrooms, an aspect not considered in the approval process, but something the city claims it was prohibited by state law from taking into account, a position the school district said is open to legal interpretation.

Trumark, a San Ramon-based developer whose majority owner is Daiwa House USA, a subsidiary of Japan’s giant Daiwa House Industry Co. Ltd. Trumark has completed several projects in Northern and Southern California and Windsor, Colorado, north of Denver. In the Bay Area Trumark has developed projects in Alameda, Newark, and Sunnyvale with other projects underway in Morgan Hill, San Rafael and Manteca.

The 165-acre East Ranch project is located north of I-580 and east of Fallon Road, an area that has experienced explosive residential growth with the completion of both the Jordan Ranch and Positano developments. Trumark first outlined details of the East Ranch project at a council study session in October 2019 and filed its formal development application last year.

If completed as currently proposed, East Ranch will consist of 573 residential units including 72 affordable units, two parks totaling 11.5 acres and two acres set aside for future affordable housing consisting of 77 low and very low-income rentals.

The council’s project approval allows Trumark to satisfy the affordable housing requirement of 72 units utilizing an “alternative method of compliance,” by providing 18 moderate-income homes scattered among the six neighborhoods, contributing two acres of vacant land for future low-income rental development by an affordable housing developer and meeting the requirements for other units by paying the city a fee.

A staff report submitted to the council Tuesday said the proposal included an in-lieu fee for 25 units that would satisfy 35 of the developer’s affordable housing requirement. Presently those fees are $217,696 per unit, adjusted annually and payable when building permits are issued. At the current rate, Trumark would pay $5,442,400.

As part of the project implementation, the staff report said formation of a Community Facilities District is proposed to finance infrastructure and other public improvements within the development.

Community Facilities Districts are special tax districts created in 1982 by the Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act passed to circumvent Proposition 13’s property tax limits by providing a method of financing infrastructure such as water, sewer, streets and other services by imposing additional special taxes on property. Many of these districts raise funds by issuing tax-exempt municipal bonds paid off by property owners in the district with each homeowner’s share of debt service collected on annual property tax bills.

Dublin has one Community Facilities District, created by the city council in 2015, to facilitate the Dublin Crossings development located on 180 acres of federal land between Scarlett Drive and Arnold Road north of Dublin Blvd.