Eight stories and 104 homes approved for a downtown Walnut Creek parking lot

Walnut Creek's Planning Commission approved an eight-story building with 104 apartments at 1532 Mt. Diablo Blvd. on Aug. 27. The vote was unanimous, the city said.

The site is a corner lot where Mt. Diablo Boulevard meets Commercial Lane, in the downtown retail core. Today it holds a surface parking lot, an unused auto body shop and an outdoor dining platform, according to the Planning Commission agenda report. In their place goes roughly 111,000 square feet of building: apartments on the upper floors and 8,483 square feet of commercial space along the Mt. Diablo frontage.

Fourteen of the 104 rental units will be restricted as affordable housing — nine for very-low-income households and five for moderate-income households.

Parking is the part neighbors will notice. A two-level underground garage will hold 49 car spaces and 32 bicycle spaces, and the garage is reserved for residents. No on-site spaces are set aside for the ground-floor shops. Cars enter from a single driveway on Commercial Lane, which keeps the Mt. Diablo sidewalk clear of garage traffic.

The building will stand about 89 feet where the zoning district allows 50. That, and several other departures from city standards, come through state density bonus law. Because the downtown Pedestrian Retail designation sets no numerical density for the site, city staff worked from a study concluding that a code-compliant project on the 0.41-acre lot could hold 60 homes. Setting aside nine very-low-income units earned a 50% bonus; five moderate-income units stacked more on top.

The applicant also requested six waivers and three concessions. Among them: a 10-foot, 7-inch sidewalk setback on Mt. Diablo Boulevard where 15 feet is required, a lower ground-floor ceiling for part of the retail space, and the elimination of required passenger loading areas.

Commissioners had limited room to say no. The staff report notes the project falls under the Housing Accountability Act, which bars a city from denying or shrinking a compliant housing project unless it makes written findings about a specific, quantifiable health or safety impact. Staff wrote that the record did not support those findings.

The design changed along the way. After a Design Review Commission study session on Feb. 18, which raised concerns about the building's massing, the developer cut two units, reworked the top floor and added a 2,425-square-foot eighth-floor terrace next to a 1,675-square-foot fitness center.

The application was filed by attorney Mark Loper of Reuben, Junius & Rose on behalf of the project team; the city identified Align Real Estate as the developer. The project was found categorically exempt from further environmental review as an infill project, and notices went to property owners within 300 feet of the site before the hearing.

No construction start or completion date has been announced.