Developers show range of ideas

Merit Presentation draws mixed use, affordable and
ecological projects
By PETE MORTENSEN, News Editor
Windsor is at a crossroads. Saturday, the Town Council and
Planning Commission were handed the road map.
In a special joint meeting, the two groups heard half-hour
presentations from 11 developers hoping to construct residential
projects in Windsor in the next three years. No decisions were made
at the meeting, dubbed a &#8220Merit Presentation,” though the
field of projects will be narrowed to a few within about a month.
Councilmembers and planning commissioners evaluated each project on
a large chart relating to different qualities in an attempt to
objectively weigh the competition.
The ultimate prize for any projects elevated through the process
would likely be a long-term development agreement, though some
projects were seeking short-term commitments of a small number of
housing allocations for immediate construction. Both the Vintana
and Vintage Greens neighborhoods received such an arrangement,
which has granted each development 75 housing allocations per year
as they have built out. With both finishing up soon, the backlog of
projects that accumulated over the years is sizeable and diverse,
ranging from futuristic eco-development to a sprawling, cul de
sac-filled neighborhood featuring houses up to 3,200 square feet in
size.
A large crowd gathered to witness the meeting, including design
professionals and interested members of the public. Comment from
the audience was restricted to the first half-hour of the meeting.
Some spoke in favor of particular projects. Julian Cohen, co-owner
of Arc Design, a downtown Windsor business, used the event to call
attention to the challenges facing the Town going forward, asking,
&#8220What is Smart Growth?”
&#8220Affordable residential over boutique retail is the
wrong mix,” he read from a letter. &#8220It will not work. The
residents will travel away for their shopping and eating. Boutique
retail needs to be with a high-end residential component; otherwise
the full potential is lost.”
He also said Windsor’s downtown needs daytime professionals,
such as architects, lawyers and accountants, to increase
foot-traffic in the area during the week. Cohen also called for
Windsor to establish a Design Review Board, made up of design
professionals to make recommendations to the Town Council.
The schedule for the day was divided between projects located in
Windsor’s downtown district and developments every where else in
Town. Up for consideration first was the Windsor Gateway Project
located at the site of the Windsor Fuel Company. The proposal calls
for 152 residential units over roughly 40,000 square feet of
commercial space. The Town Council reviewed the project favorably
in November, and this week’s presentation was nearly identical,
right down to a computer-animated fly-in to the site from outer
space courtesy of Google Earth software. New to the presentation
was a discussion of green-building possibilities on the site.
Architect Steve Cuddy noted that it will be possible to use solar
energy to handle common services.
&#8220It looks like it’s going to be a home run for us,” he
said. The proposing developer, Windsor Gateway LLC, is hoping to
receive the allocations necessary to build the project over three
years, receiving as many as 79 in a single year.
Also on the high end for size is the sixth phase of Orrin
Thiessen’s Town Green Village project. The new project site is
located to the southeast of the Town Green and proposes the use of
pedestrian streets instead of vehicle roadways for the heart of the
area. The developer explained that he is not yet sure whether the
commercial space of the mixed-use project located on the walkable
streets would be used for retail or offices.
&#8220It all depends on how successful the whole downtown
is,” he said. &#8220You have to wait for a whole year to get
any commercial space downtown, and we’re turning people down if we
don’t like the use. It’s going real well in that respect. Some
areas we thought might not go retail are going retail. That’s why I
have the confidence we can get some retail and shops in the
interior of this project.”
Rather than provided detailed buildings designs, Thiessen showed
slides of French, German and Italian architecture structured around
pedestrian streets as examples of designs he might draw from in
building the project, which would also be the first of his Windsor
designs to incorporate underground parking.
&#8220We’ve done a lot of American architecture,” Thiessen
said. &#8220The European models are not only 100s and in some
cases thousands of years of doing downtowns, there are different
things we can do with different façades.”
The two remaining downtown projects presented Saturday would
both be visible from Highway 101, a fact their respective
developers played up as advantages for Windsor. Windsor Creekside
Commons, proposed for the current site of the now-closed Windsor
Water Works waterslide park, can be a beacon for the downtown, said
developer Richard Derringer.
&#8220Windsor Water Works has been in existence for
approximately 26 years,” he said. &#8220It’s a beacon or
location where most people driving by going north or south see it.
Š This is a way for people to not just see but know of Windsor and
get a better grasp of what’s going on downtown from the
freeway.”
The project also proposes two purely commercial buildings to
support mixed-use development in the immediate area. It has a
significant affordable housing component in the form of apartments,
as well as townhomes and single-family detached housing.
The developers of the Village at Windsor, a 16-unit mixed-use
project, offered similar logic to their design, which sits adjacent
to the Holiday Inn Express on Conde Lane. The Northern Italy-styled
project includes a large water tower that would be visible from the
freeway with a sign reading &#8220The Village at Windsor” on
one face of it.
Every developer referred to his or her project as being an
example of Smart Growth, even in the case of Villa Sonoma, a
65-unit residential subdivision centered around larger lot homes on
cul de sacs, a style that has been discouraged in recent years.
Located on Windsor’s east side, the project is not adjacent to
commercial areas. It does meet the zoning of the area, however.
&#8220We feel it’s Smart Growth,” said Dave Snow, of DAS
Homes, the project’s applicant. He explained that its philosophy
was similar to adjacent neighborhoods and the agricultural area
nearby.
Randy Figueiredo, an architect working with Schellinger
Brothers, presented a plan for the 200-unit Hembree Village,
located directly north of the Town’s Wal-Mart. He explained that
the project could make walkable for the first time the Shiloh
Center, currently accessible largely by driving. The project would
add walking connections for neighborhoods that currently must drive
the long way around to reach the commercial area.
&#8220It’s pretty well cut off in the ‘70s and ‘80s style
planning,” he said. The project offers a diversity of housing
types, including apartment buildings, townhomes, duet homes and a
few different styles of single-family houses.
Derringer returned to propose a second project, Windsor Shiloh
Village, a small-subdivision south of Shiloh Road with 18
single-family homes and one large mixed-use building with
affordable units over commercial in the front. The project, which
is not within Windsor’s Town limits but is in the sphere of
influence, would need to be annexed to join the Town. Derringer
said the intent was to start a chain reaction to begin the
annexations for the Shiloh Village Vision PLan to occur.
&#8220For the future development of the Shiloh Village
Vision Plan, this property needs to be annexed,” he said.
&#8220Also, in the future, without this property annexing, the
other properties will not be able to annex in.”
He asked for early consideration of the project in order to get
the ball rolling.
Also at the small end of the scale was a proposal for Windsor
Live+Work, brought by Misha Weidman of Pegasus Ventures. The
11-unit mixed-use project is located across Merner Lane from
Thiessen’s Town Green Village VII. Each of 11 three-story buildings
would offer 900 square feet of commercial space below 1,500 of
living space. Weidman said he intended to truly restrict the units
to people who would live and work at them, including, design
professionals, psychiatrists and psychologists, doctors, lawyers,
business accountants, artists, writers, physical therapists and
journalists.
&#8220There’s a demand for this product out in the market,
and I think this is the area for it,” he said.
Quite possibly the most ambitious design showcased at the
meeting is for the Shiloh Sustainable Village, brought forth by
Sean Rodrigues. The 106-residential unit mixed-use project is
designed carefully along ecological and conservation principles,
right down to the concept of the eco-mortgage, a more affordable
way to own a home that factors in the money that could be saved by
having less-expensive utilities.
&#8220We’ve been having a lot of fun in developing this
project,” he said. &#8220What we really want to do is showcase
the culmination of various ideas, stretch the boundary. We like to
see Windsor as a very progressive town.”
Were the project ever built, that reputation would be cemented.
The project is more than 50 percent affordable units, in price
ranges reachable by families making 80 percent of the median income
for Sonoma County. Each unit has its own solar array, estimated to
cut energy use by 55 percent.
&#8220Can we save 30 percent in water?” Rodrigues asked.
&#8220Yes, we can. Does this mean we can reduce sewer capacity?
Yes it does, by 20 percent. Can we recover 1.3 million gallons of
rainwater per year? Yes, we can.”
The project would also include 60,000 square feet of commercial
space, targeted for organic and sustainable merchants, including
grocers and even a dry cleaners. Most of the affordable units come
in the form of tall, three-bedroom townhouses arranged around an
elliptical &#8220sundial court,” featuring edible landscaping.
All paving in the project is permeable to groundwater, avoiding
entirely problems of run-off. All parking is underground.
Up last were Terra Partners/Coello, proposing 43 units on Old
Redwood Highway in a variety of styles, with 75 percent of the
homes affordable to moderate and low-income families, and then
American Way Lofts, proposing 45 live/work Townhomes, while adding
two ball fields to the Town.
Scott Johnson, a principal with Terra Partners, said he was
impressed with the quality of work presented during the
meeting.
&#8220It’s a tremendous opportunity to choose from the
amazing, amazing proposals,” he said. &#8220I’d like to
acknowledge the other folks that came forward today. I hope our
project is seen to be of similar quality and similar merit.”
A date for a meeting where finalists will be selected has not
yet been discussed, Planning Director Peter Chamberlin said, but
will likely be selected later this week.