By Elisabeth Nardi
WALNUT CREEK -- Next to a bustling BART station and just steps from the city's busy bars and bistros, a proposed apartment complex is aimed at those mobile millennials.
The four-story, 178-unit apartment project called The Landing is proposed next to the Interstate 680 and Highway 24 offramp on Ygnacio Valley Road across from the Walnut Creek BART station.
The Landing will offer studio, one- and two-bedroom units ranging in size from 524 to 1,156 square feet. Rents will likely range from $1,900 to $2,900 per month. Developers anticipate 380 residents, and amenities include a dog park, gym and rooftop decks.
The Planning Commission will decide whether to recommend approval to the City Council at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Young professionals, often called millennials, are the targeted demographic because they tend to be environmentally conscious, owning at most one car and relying on public transportation, said Brad Griggs, one of the developers on the project.
"This demographic is socially mobile, not ready to get married right out of school and not interested in purchasing a home or condo until later in life," he said. "They are focused on living in infill locations where they can be within walking distance of their employment, friends and services."
Millennials have partially perpetuated the boom in transit-oriented, infill high-density apartments in Walnut Creek in the past few years, he said. And a boom it is. Just across the street from The Landing will someday be the Walnut Creek BART Transit Village, set to have 600 apartments.
Down the block, the 126-unit North Main Apartments are under construction, as are the 300-unit Brio Apartments, near Ygnacio Valley Road and Civic Drive. In the next few years, more than 1,500 new residents will be in the general vicinity.
The nine homes that currently occupy the nearly 2-acre site of The Landing would be demolished and replaced by the 155,804-square-foot building, as well as a two-level parking garage with 223 stalls, some of which would be underground. The Landing will be accessible only on Lacassie Avenue, a side street to the south that runs parallel to Ygnacio Valley Road.
And this is why nearby landowners are concerned.
Office building owners adjacent to The Landing site say they worry people will use their parking lots, accessible from Ygnacio Valley Road, and cut through to Lacassie.
The same concerns are felt by leaders at Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church, which is on Lacassie. Already, the church's parking lots are used as a drive-through, a major concern because of preschool and youth programs, said Issac Stokes, the church's business manager, in a letter. And exiting Lacassie is already difficult, he said.
"Lacassie is a dead-end street with a very busy California Avenue to try and accommodate approximately 178 units of people (and the resulting traffic flow) according to the current street configuration," he said.
Over the past 18 months, Griggs said the developers have been working with property owners about their concerns. He said cutting through parking lots is already a problem, and they are trying to come up with solutions, such as gates, barriers and speed bumps.
Griggs has joined with Brad Blake to form BHV CenterStreet Properties for this development. Blake is known for downtown's Plaza Escuela, home to The Cheesecake Factory, Forever 21 and The Men's Wearhouse. Griggs and Blake are also partners in Artist Walk, a Danville mixed-use development.
If the Planning Commission recommends approval, the City Council likely will make a decision within the next month.
If approved, construction would begin in 2015.