Builder cautious on 231-unit project

LARGEST IN A DECADE FOR SANTA ROSA AFTER SEVEN YEARS OF HURDLES

SANTA ROSA – A developer of the largest proposed residential subdivision in Santa Rosa in more than a decade is taking a wait-and-see approach to construction after receiving key city approvals.

Danville-based Trumark Companies recently received final approval from Santa Rosa’s Design Review Board to build the first two phases of Dutton Meadows, a 56-acre master-planned community in southwest Santa Rosa that was rezoned last year for up to 586 homes.

Trumark received approval for 126 attached townhouses and 65 single-family homes, in addition to 40 affordable units that would be turned over to another entity for construction.

However, after seven years of planning and a costly mitigation process for endangered species and wetlands, the company said it is now not sure when it will start building.

“If the market and jobs stay stable, we’re hoping to start building next summer,” said Garrett Hinds, Trumark’s director of architecture. “If the market stays flat, maybe we’ll wait another year.”

Greenbrae-based developer Harvey Rich, the project’s other major developer who is seeking approval for a separate phase including 148 attached townhouses, declined to comment on his plans.

With land costs now well above their levels of several years ago, Mr. Hinds said Trumark will not be able to develop additional phases of the project, including a planned shopping center with 84,000 square feet of commercial space.

“We were excited about it, but it became unfeasible,” Mr. Hinds said.

The company was nearing the end of the city approval process in 2002 when the California tiger salamander was federally listed as an endangered species in Sonoma County, effectively freezing the project, along with many others in southwest Santa Rosa.

Together with Mr. Rich, the company became one of the first large developers to successfully navigate the mitigation process for the salamander, primarily by agreeing to purchase more than 100 acres of additional land for a preserve.

While the federal mitigation process was under way, Mr. Hinds said he redesigned his portion of the project to meet the city of Santa Rosa’s increasing demands for higher-density development. Now high-density housing is being hit particularly hard by the current market slowdown.

“The timing didn’t work out too well,” Mr. Hinds said. “It would have been a lot nicer to build in 2004.”

Mr. Hinds said that Trumark is “strong enough to weather the storm” and that all developers in Sonoma County will have to adjust to a future with more higher-density housing.

“It is a change, but you only have to go as far as Novato or Petaluma and you see it changing already,” Mr. Hinds said.

Mr. Hinds believes the project will ultimately succeed because it will target the lower end of the market in the region.

“You’ve already got a large supply of higher priced housing for the upper middle class, and other people have to live here,” he said.