Saturday merit presentation meeting brings together development proposals

Everyone hoping to build a residential project in Windsor in the
next three to five years will gather in Town Hall Saturday morning
to make their case as a cornerstone to future development.
A joint Town Council and Planning Commission Meeting, scheduled
from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., will hear presentations from 11 prospective
developers vying for Windsor’s coveted housing allocations. Under
the Town’s Growth Control Ordinance, 150 slots for market-rate
housing are available to divide between projects. On top of that
number are a series of waivers for construction downtown and
exemptions for housing affordable to families with low income.
Since the Growth Control Ordinance was passed, the 150
allocations per year have largely been controlled in an even split
between the Vintana and Vintage Greens housing developments. Both
projects are wrapping up shortly, and the backlog of proposals has
developers knocking on the door to be considered. All presentations
will be limited to 30 minutes, and public comment will be accepted
only in the first 30 minutes of the meeting, and the Council and
Commission will make no decisions at the time of the meeting. Only
a few, if any of the projects, are likely to be approved for
construction in the near future.
The Town Council directed staff to offer them a way to view all
possible forthcoming projects at once, so they could feel
comfortable with their allocation choices. Planning Director Peter
Chamberlin said Windsor has taken a different approach than Santa
Rosa, which began to offer an additional 1,000 building permits per
year to address a housing backlog.
&#8220What Windsor is looking for is a way to filter through
the various presentations and find different projects to give
priority with limited allocations,” he said.
A further constraint on the available allocations is that the
Windsor Mill Project was just granted an average of 50 allocations
for each of the next four years. All that remains of the 2006
allocations is a so-called &#8220meritorious reserve” of 25
units for a project of extraordinary quality. Windsor might choose
not to issue those 25 allocations.
If there can be said to be a theme among the 11 projects
expected to be presented on Saturday, it would be mixed-use, the
concept popularized in Windsor by developer Orrin Thiessen’s Town
Green Village development.
Thiessen himself will be presenting the sixth phase of his
overall development, offering 108-140 residential units. The
proposed project sits on land adjacent to McDonald’s and Windsor
Vineyards along McClelland Drive, Bell Road and Windsor River Road.
Some of the land in the project is undeveloped, while two major
components, known as Parcels C and D, are currently the sites of
churches. Parcel C contains the Unity Spiritual Center, which
intends to build a new church adjacent to a Thiessen development on
Old Redwood Highway near Shiloh Road. A boutique hotel will be
included in the proposal in a building at the corner of of Bell and
McClelland.
New to the TGV Phase VI is the potential inclusion of Phase D,
which was previously proposed as the standalone French Quarter
development. In presentation documents, Thiessen notes that he is
in negotiation with the owners of the parcel, which was considered
an unsuitable site for a small development constrained by
historical buildings.
&#8220Combining this in Phase 6 will allow for development
of this parcel at lower density while preserving the historical
structures and older mature trees.” Instead of a proposed 46
residential units for the parcel, Thiessen proposes to build 12
condos while refurbishing and continuing commercial use of the
Windsor Presbyterian Church and the parsonage building.
Another large mixed-use project of a scale similar to Thiessen’s
design is the Windsor Gateway Project, which is centered on the
Windsor Fuel site at the intersection of Windsor Road and Old
Redwood Highway. The project was presented to a warm reception in a
workshop before the Town Council last fall.
The other two presentations for downtown development represent
opposite extremes of size. The Windsor Commons, located largely on
the site of the Windsor Waterworks waterslide park, is a proposal
for 190 new residential units in Windsor, ranging from two
apartment buildings near a mixed-use and commercial center on Conde
Lane down to row houses and single-family homes further back into
the property. On the small side is the Village at Windsor, a 16
residential unit mixed-use project located at Conde Lane and
Armando Renzullo Way. Its architecture is inspired by Northern
Italy.
The presentations on proposed development outside the downtown
area offer greater variety, both in style and concept. Perhaps the
most distinct is the Shiloh Sustainable Village, proposed for land
behind Home Depot in southern Windsor. The 107-unit development
would include mixed-use, a small hotel, row homes and condominiums.
The project is designed to offer &#8220zero-energy” homes, with
each unit having its own array of solar panels to minimize
electricity usage, passive cooling, green building materials, water
efficiency, edible land-scaping and walkable retail oriented to
transit, including an organic grocer and an organic dry cleaning
store.
Standing entirely alone is Villa Sonoma, a proposed 65-unit
estate residential project on Jensen Lane on Windsor northeast
side. The proposed homes would be between 1,820 to 3,200 square
feet on 17.18 acres, about 3.78 units per acre.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is Hembree Village, a 200
residential-unit subdivision proposed on land directly behind
Wal-Mart in southern Windsor. The proposal includes 50 units of
housing for low-income families, and ranges from single family
detached homes in the north and east to apartment buildings to the
west. The project centers around a community park. This project and
Villa Sonoma are the only two projects which propose only
residential development.
two smaller projects offer individual takes on the mixed-use
concept. Shiloh Village, at 210 Shiloh Road, proposes 18
single-family homes located adjacent to 45,000 square feet of
commercial space, not on top of it.
Windsor Live & Work, located across the street from
Thiessen’s TGV Phase VII project on Old Redwood Highway, offers 11
residential units over commercial space.
Only two projects are listed on the agenda as pursuing the
meritorious reserve allocations. American Way Lofts, located in the
lightly developed area near the BMW Motorcycle dealership off Code
Lane, is designed from the ground-up to be a live-work solution
with smaller offices on the ground level leading up through
bedrooms to a loft area on the third floor. It would include 48
total residential units.
The Terra Partners/Coello Project, located across Old Redwood
Highway from Las Palmas Shopping Center is the other presentation
in the category. Originally approved by the Planning Commission as
small four-unit rental property, the site is now envisioned for 43
residential units in a mixed-used setting. The project’s most
distinct quality at the moment is its strong focus on
affordability. Of the 43 units, 11 homes, or 25 percent of the
total, will be sold to low-income first-time homebuyers earning up
to Sonoma County defined income limits. A further 21 homes, roughly
half the project, would be sold to moderate-income first-time
buyers earning up to California Housing Finance Agency-defined
income limits. The remaining 11 homes would be sold at market
rate.
For more information, visit www.townofwindsor.com.