The Sebastopol City Council voted 3-2 to approve a 39-home development on the former Mormon church property at 8100 Valentine Avenue, with Councilmember Sandra Maurer and Mayor McLewis voting no, the Sebastopol Times reported. Neighbors packed the meeting hoping to block the project.
The project
Stockton-based Grupe Investment Company Inc. will split the roughly 2.7-acre lot into 20 lots, with 20 single-family homes and 19 accessory dwelling units, according to San Francisco YIMBY. Three units will be deed-restricted for moderate-income households. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns the property and left it about two years ago.
The plan relies on AB 1033, which lets ADUs be sold as separate homes. Sebastopol opted into that law in January on a 4-1 vote, the Times reported. A developer representative gave rough price estimates at the meeting: low $600,000s for the 750-square-foot ADUs, high $600,000s for 1,000-square-foot ADUs, low $700,000s for 1,400-square-foot houses and high $700,000s for 1,600-square-foot houses. He said prices could change.
Trees and legal risk
The developer used its one density-bonus concession to get relief from the city's tree ordinance. Maurer said the alternative site plan would mean losing 16 of the site's 19 protected heritage trees. The developer is following the city's tree-mitigation rules, which require replacement trees or a per-tree fee.
City attorney Alex Mog told the council the city had very limited authority to deny the project under state housing law and that the developer would likely win if it sued. Councilmembers who voted yes said that legal exposure drove their decision.
SF YIMBY said construction is expected to take about 18 months from groundbreaking.