Our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group had an overcast morning for a special walk last Wednesday, and 44 walkers and three K-9 best friends were at the Exedra for it.
The Monday before, the Piedmont Planning Commission held a study session to receive a presentation from staff and the consultant team and discuss draft chapters of a Moraga Canyon Specific Plan covering land use regulations, site & building design and roadway improvements. Kevin Jackson, the City’s Planning & Building Director, is leading the project. We wanted to better understand it, so we asked Kevin if he would meet us at Coaches Field to explain the project and answer our questions. He generously agreed.
We went down Highland Avenue to and up Moraga Avenue. We walked on a boardwalk over the edge of the canyon to Coaches Field, which was dedicated in 1994. Walter Blair, the first European settler in the area, built his “Blair Park” in 1884 on 40 acres of this land between Mountain View Cemetery and Moraga Avenue as a picnic park attraction. He wanted people to come to the Piedmont Springs Hotel he built in 1872, and where the Exedra is today.
What is referred to as “Blair Park” today is the land further up Moraga. Before the canyon was filled to create Coaches Field, it was a landfill for Piedmont, and above the field is the Kennelly Skate Park that opened in 2001.
Kevin was waiting for us at Coaches and told us about the project. Piedmont’s General Plan is a state-mandated document that outlines the city's long-term policies for land use and development. The Housing Element is part of the General Plan. Development of Piedmont’s 6th Cycle Housing Element started in July 2023 and lays out a plan of policies and regulations that facilitate the construction of 587 new homes by 2031. This is the target mandated by the State and a dramatic increase from its prior mandate of 60 homes. It designates areas along Grand Avenue and in Moraga Canyon as "Priority Development Areas."
The City began work on the Moraga Canyon Specific Plan in summer 2023, with the goal of completing it by the end of 2025. It anticipates development of multifamily residential buildings with up to 199 units of new housing with 60 reserved for lower income households. The Specific Plan also includes improvements to the City’s recreation and public works facilities and the Moraga Avenue roadway. The plan will also include standards governing development.
The City Council chose two of four options to be considered for where buildings could be located, either on the north side or the south side of Moraga. Housing could be developed on either side, but it’s required that all housing, both affordable and market rate, be on the same side of Moraga. The housing could be up to 60 feet, or between 4 and 6 stories high. Additionally, two single family home sites near Abbott Way and Maxwelton Road could be built under either option.
Option 1 has housing on the current Blair Park open space. It preserves and expands Coaches Field and the Corporation Yard in their current locations and increases parking and transit access. Option 2 has hillside housing development on the open land above Coaches Field and moves the Corporation Yard to Blair Park. It would improve the soccer field and skate spot, increase parking and transit access, and avoid infrastructure relocation. In addition to the housing development, the Specific Plan includes roadway improvements including new sidewalks and bike lanes, and a traffic signal at the intersection with Red Rock Road.
Kevin said the project team is currently developing the Draft Plan, and another study session is tentatively scheduled for the Planning Commission’s regular meeting on October 14, 2024. The completed draft is expected to be released for public review and comment in late 2024. This will be followed by a series of City Council study sessions, anticipated to begin in January or February. The Specific Plan would then be returned to the Planning Commission for recommendation, then to the City Council for adoption in the spring next year. The City will seek proposals from developers and negotiate an agreement with one towards the end of 2025 to build and operate the housing.
Kevin said there is developer interest in the project, but the biggest challenges are the site and making the numbers work. We appreciated the information and Kevin taking time to be with us, but it was time for him to get back to work. We took the attached group photo with Kevin, and finished our walk with a climb up to the skate park for a view of the site and San Francisco before retracing our steps back to the Exedra.