New plan for stalled Windsor housing project calls for houses instead of apartments

Two months after construction halted on what was set to be Windsor’s largest housing project in decades because of “evolving economic issues,” the 14-year effort to redevelop a former mobile home park is back with a new development team and a much different project.

The town Planning Commission Tuesday is set to get its first presentation on a new plan for houses instead of apartments and town houses, and 60% fewer units on the remainder of the park, fronting on the west side of Highway 101. The site at 9290 Old Redwood Highway is north of the Oliver’s Market-anchored retail center, which opened in 2014 as the first phase of the 24.5-acre redevelopment.

The housing portion, most recently called Vintage Oaks on the Town Green, was approved seven years ago for 387 units in three- and four-story buildings on 18.4 acres. Demolition and grading started last year, with plans to build 120 units in the first of three phases. But work stopped in July because that project was no longer economically viable, the Business Journal reported.

The new proposal, called The Cottages at Vintage Oaks, would have 125 two-story single-family detached homes on small lots, and 28 of the houses would be built with integrated second units set aside for very-low-income households, according to a preliminary application letter to the town dated July 26.

Eric Higuchi, co-founder of 330 Land Company LLC, the new developer, declined to comment Friday on the economics behind the project change. He did, however, note such reasons in his letter to the town.

“Due to rising interest rates, the development of new multifamily communities, in nearly all California markets, is presently not economically viable,” Higuchi wrote. “However, even prior to the recent increase in interest rates, the Previous Project was not economically viable due to higher construction costs in the North Bay Region due to limited availability of labor especially for residential building types that are three stories or greater.”

Higuchi wrote that “significantly higher construction cost” for building attached for-sale housing such as the townhomes originally proposed makes that project type “not economically viable,” compared with single-family homes.

Envisioned for The Cottages at Vintage Oaks are four floor plans, each with four bedrooms and two-car garages on at least 2,475-square-foot lots. The homes would range in size from 1,935 square feet with 2.5 bathrooms to 2,219 square feet with three bathrooms.

While no target price range was noted, the project is set to be “affordable by design” and target entry-level buyers.

Problem is, local pricing of homes already has gone past what residents are able to afford, according to Amy Kramer, a broker associate in the Healdsburg office of Compass.

“We’ve escaped the entry level,” Kramer said.

That would be under $600,000 or $700,000, but current listings in Windsor start at $599,000 for newer condominiums and begin at $749,000 for single-family homes, Kramer said.

When submitted, the new Vintage Oaks project would have to take another trip through the entitlement process, including a development agreement, environmental review, site plan and design review, rezoning, and amendments to key town planning documents, namely the general and station area plans, the staff report said.

Among the hurdles the new proposal would have to clear in pursuing new entitlements is that with single-family homes it would have fewer dwellings than the 221 minimum (or 12 unites per acre) town planning documents call for at the site, according to the staff analysis. And California government’s concerted effort to create housing might warrant the town starting to pursue the higher end of the range of housing per acre, it said.

“However, for this site, there may be a justification to lower the density somewhat for the long-term preservation of stands of oak trees,” the report said.

Saving old oak trees at the former mobile home park has been a sore issue for nearly a decade. A public outcry rose over 157 oaks that were cleared in 2016 for the housing project, and it configuration was redesigned around the remaining trees, The Press Democrat reported. The new proposal also would have buffer areas around the trees, part of the nearly 3 acres of planned open space. And the project would have a 1.44-acre “community benefit” undeveloped area at the north end for public use.

Since the first redevelopment proposal for the former Windsor Land mobile home park in 2009, the housing effort has had two ownership changes, multiple reconfigurations and a number of extensions of planning entitlements, the town staff report said. The current owner, an affiliate of New York-based Ready Capital, got the property back after it went into foreclosure in 2021, according to The Press Democrat and Journal reporting.

To lead the reworked project, the ownership brought in Irvine-based 330 Land. Among its several current Northern California projects is Promontory at Watson Ranch, 330 Land in December 2022 submitted a proposal to the city of American Canyon to build 216 single-family homes with 58 accessory dwelling units on 27 acres of the Newell Property portion of the 309-acre Watson Ranch redevelopment project.

Higuchi is set to present the new concept Tuesday to the Planning Commission, according to the agenda. The panel won’t be making a decision at the meeting, the staff report said.

Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.