Despite having to modify designs for wetland mitigation and other site constraints, the overall design and look for the Burbank Housing affordable housing development at 155 Dry Creek Road is coming along.
Burbank Housing and the development team — West Development Ventures, BKF Engineers, Jane Valerius Environmental Consulting, Quadriga Landscaping Architecture and Planning, Reach for Home and Van Meter Williams Pollack architects — held a virtual community workshop on Jan. 12 to garner input on the project and provide an update on the current design and floor plan.
The project, situated on a 3.5-acre lot between Big John’s Market and Plank Coffee, will consist of two-four story buildings, a promenade area that backs up to the Foss Creek wetlands, and a total of 58 living units.
Ten percent of the units will be set aside for Reach for Home and will be used for supportive housing for their clients.
The mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units will target a variety of income levels.
Eight units (five of these units will be for Reach for Home) will be for people who make 30% of the area median income (AMI), 18 units will target 45% AMI, 18 units will target 50% AMI and 13 units will target 60% AMI.
Design elements
“This project offers a unique opportunity to transform what ends up being a very challenging site. The site does contain a number of constraints that dictate how it can be developed,” said Karen Massey, senior project manager for Burbank Housing. “The site is adjacent to the SMART (Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit) railroad tracks as well as the Foss Creek Pathway and along the top of the site there is a 20-foot easement for the geysers water line pipeline that impacts the eastern side of the site. The biggest constraint to this site are the wetlands.”
The site has two wetland areas that take up about over half an acre of the property. Additionally, the property is bordered by Foss Creek. Due to these elements, the project has a required 35-foot riparian setback.
Given these constraints, Massey said they see the project as an opportunity to not only provide much needed affordable housing, but an opportunity to protect and enhance the natural aspects of the site.
“We are all aware of the ongoing discussion in Healdsburg about providing housing for our local teachers, our firefighters and our hospitality workers and the desperate need for increased affordable housing stock and maximizing multi-family rental housing opportunities,” Massey said.
For these reasons, the architects for the project selected a four-story building style in order to maximize space.
The two separate buildings will be connected by a corridor bridge, and site amenities will include a community/teen room, a sports court and play area, a gaming center, laundry facilities, manager’s office and an outdoor promenade and courtyard area.
Each unit floor plan will be designed to have plenty of storage, and bathrooms and kitchens will be built out either as ADA accessible, or will be built with the ability to transform spaces to be accessible.
The style of the development will include a blend of rural and industrial materials, simple forms and sloped roofs for solar, according to project architect Rick Williams.
In terms of sustainability, Williams said, “While we think about all of these different technical design pieces, there’s a lens (with) which we look through all of this design effort and community building effort and that’s one of sustainability. We will do that through both the selection of the landscape and a focus on water conservation. The design of the homes themselves (will) be looking at natural ventilation, low VOC (volatile organic compounds) and formaldehyde free materials, as well as a focus on storm water filtration, which is integrated into the site plan as it’s currently designed.
He said they haven’t decided yet if they will attempt to get a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.
During the Q&A portion of the workshop, one resident asked whether the developers are considering the use of recycled water.
“Maybe that’s something we can discuss. We haven’t really got into the details of the utilities quite yet, but that’s definitely something that we can look into or at least broach with the city,” said project landscape architect, Brett Kordenbrock.
The property will have a total of 97 parking spots and will also have guest parking, a delivery turnaround zone and dedicated emergency vehicle access.
One workshop attendee asked about the site’s parking spot ratio and why architects decided on a four-story building.
Williams said since the site already has a “very tight” building footprint they needed to maximize the number of parking spaces and units.
“We’re providing one parking space for each one-bedroom unit and 1.5 and two parking spaces for the two- and threes. We do have accessible spaces and some (spaces) that are being wired for electric vehicles, so it is a delicate balance. The state requirement is a little bit lower than what we’ve provided here and we feel that given the location, we didn’t want to underpark, but we felt that this was kind of a right threshold for parking on a site such as this,” Williams said.
During the virtual workshop, the development team conducted a participant poll asking the 44 attendees whether they think the site plan is a good balance between meeting the community’s housing needs and protecting the area’s natural resources, and the majority of respondents said the design did indeed strike that balance.
Landscaping elements
The landscaping approach for the project is to use native and drought tolerant plants to complement and enhance the natural beauty of the area. There will be a mix of adaptive plantings, trees and ornamental shrubs and an environmental consultant will work to make sure the plant choices marry well with the current matrix of plants.
Kordenbrock said they’ll use, “What will remain hardy and what will require only low amounts of water. We’ll have to strictly adhere to the city’s water use requirements and everything that we usually specify into all of our projects is intended to monitor the water use and control it as best as possible with various sensors to ensure that it is a high efficiency system.”
The courtyard and promenade area will feature a shade fence, picnic tables, speciality paving, game tables, boulders, a play area, a low wall that backs up to the wetlands for safety and a seating area with benches and lush plantings.
Other project elements
While 10% of the units will go to Reach for Home for its supportive housing program, Reach for Home will also be providing other services on site such as case management and wrap-around services.
Project developers also hope to offer other on-site services such as after school tutoring, food distribution, health and wellness classes, financial literacy classes and rental assistance.
Next steps
The project will undergo some additional refinements prior to being submitted to the city and a Healdsburg Planning Commission design workshop for the project will be held at a date to be determined.
If you are interested in the application process for the affordable housing site you can add your name to the interest list by emailing
in**@bu************.org
or by calling 707-526-9782. Income eligibility for housing will be determined through review of income and assets at a later date.
To review project information or provide feedback, visit burbankhousing.org/coming-soon/155-dry-creek/
