UPDATE: Antioch Council votes 5-0 to table update to new development area plan
By Allen Payton
After three years in the development, the Antioch City Council voted 5-0 to table the Sand Creek Focus Area Specific Plan update to the city’s General Plan on Tuesday night, October 25.
The plan calls for 4,000 new homes in the area surrounding the Kaiser medical center on Deer Valley Road. Approximately 1,174 homes have already been approved in two developments at the east end of the valley.
The decision means that the current Specific Plan for the area adopted by the City Council in 2005 is still in force and that development can move forward under its guidelines. It also means the remaining developments will have to include any General Plan Amendments with the submission of their plans.
According to the city staff report on the agenda item, they made the recommendation because the city is undergoing the development of both a Habit Conservation Plan and the Natural Community Conservation Plan which will allow the city to mitigate any habitat and biological impacts. Those plans are expected to continue to be developed through 2018. Plus, the Ranch project which is proposing 1,337 homes on the west side of Deer Valley Road “is required to undergo extensive environmental review including the development of an Environmental Impact Report, under the California Environmental Quality Act.” The timing of its completion could be confused with the city’s efforts to finalize the Specific Plan Update. So tabling it now would avoid it in the eyes of the public, staff stated.
The final reason given by staff for their recommendation to table was cost. The City has to update the General Plan again in 2023 at an estimated cost of $800,000 and the fund currently has only $80,000 remaining. If the update continued to move forward it would deplete the fund by another $40,000 to $60,000.
What the council decision doesn’t do is to stop or preclude any development of new homes in the Sand Creek Focus Area. The two projects that have already been approved can move forward when those developers are ready to, and the other developers who own the rest of the land can also move forward on submitting their projects to the City for approval through the normal process.
Why build more homes when There is no demand to live in Antioch? Who are they building these homes for? Watch our current home values decrease as these 4000 homes turn into more section 8 rentals.
I know they are not going to pop up over night but we do not need more. What we DO need is sewer service to Dozier Libby High and the hospital. This is a critical situation and they claim the only way to get sewer to those two places is to build the homes. You see, they need the builder to PAY for the sewer. Who ever agreed to putting the high school and hospital on holding tanks should be run out of town. This is a terrible situation for both places and they should never have been placed in jeopardy.
The sewer system is already approved and will be installed with the 1,200 homes already approved.
Julio, it was the AUSD that wanted Dozier Libbey High School located there. And Kaiser was planned lone ago. The AUSD wouldn’t pay the full cost of running a major sewer line and pumping station down to their high school (they would be partially reimbursed when other development takes place in their area).
Mr. Simonsen: The city should not build anything infrastructure cannot be provided for. If the high school and hospital couldn’t take care of this with the city it should not have been built. Easy to say ten or 20 years later but that is what is wrong with the thinking in this city.