Bay Area Town: 44 Single-Family Homes on a Site Once Considered for 315 Apartments

Lafayette provides a case study of the San Francisco Bay Area housing market.

1 minute read

August 15, 2015, 9:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Lafayette BART

Franco Folini / Flickr

"Despite last-minute protests from a group of affordable housing advocates, lawmakers have greenlighted a high-end housing development that replaces a plan for 315 moderate-income apartments proposed for a grassy hillside near Highway 24," reports Jennifer Modenessi.

The decision ends years of debate over the development proposal and provides an example of the challenging of delivering new housing supply around the Bay Area—not just in San Francisco where the housing crisis discussion usually focuses.

"The approvals allow developer The O'Brien Land Company to build 44 clustered single-family homes and a number of public amenities at the former quarry site on the city's eastern edge. The million dollar residences in the Homes at Deer Hill development replace the Terraces of Lafayette apartments, which O'Brien and landowner Anna Maria Dettmer pitched more than four years ago," adds Modenessil in describing how the project has evolved.

The article includes more details about the political debate that surrounded the decision. 

Tuesday, August 11, 2015 in Contra Costa Times

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