Lafayette Commission Shoots Down Terraces Project

The Lafayette Design Review Commission emphatically rejected a proposal to build 315 apartments along Deer Hill Road on Monday night.

The commissioners voted 5-0 to direct city planners to draft a resolution recommending The Terraces project be denied because the commissioners are unable to make findings that it fits with city guidelines.

They will vote on that resolution on Nov. 25 and send it to the Planning Commission.

David Baker, an executive with O'Brien Land Company, said his company plans to move forward with the process and take the proposal to the next level.

Baker said the developers want to come up with a design that is acceptable.

"We want to find something that most people can live with," he said.

Baker and his team tried that on Monday night. Their efforts were applauded lightly but rebuffed nonetheless in a public hearing that was packed with more than 50 residents.

The original Terraces project calls for 315 apartments in 14 buildings at the southwest corner of Deer Hill Road and Pleasant Hill Road, near Acalanes High School.

The plan also calls for a clubhouse and a leasing office as well as 569 parking spaces.

The development would require the removal of 92 trees and the movement of 500,000 cubic yards of earth.

On Monday night, Baker brought in a new design that reduced the number of apartments to 208 and the parking spaces to 375. It also calls for less grading.

That plan still didn't satisfy the design review board.

Commissioner Ken Hertel suggested the developer "restart the process" and submit a new application.

He said the parcel has such visibility because of its proximity to Highway 24 and Pleasant Hill Road that the development needs to be "so special, so over the top" that it will shine.

"Right now, it looks like it's on a flat piece of property in Dublin," said Hertel.

He said it's up to the developer to come up with a design that marvels onlookers.

"It's not for me to do for you," he said.

Commissioner Shalini Agrawal was equally critical.

She said the project has no theme and no direction. The new proposal, she added, was simply not enough.

"We need to see more than a trimmed down version of the first one," she said.

Commissioner Andre Ptasynski said the development needs to fit in with the hills and have more "heart."

"I want people who drive by to say I really want to live there," he said.

Their comments followed an hour and a half of public comments in which residents criticized the project as too large and too dense.

Several residents also suggested the developer scrap the current plans and start over.