WALNUT CREEK, CA – MARCH 08: Heather Park Farm is seen from this drone view in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Monday, March 8, 2021. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
WALNUT CREEK — Thirty acres of ranchland next to Heather Farm Park could be developed into a senior community with around 350 residences, but local conservationists are fighting the proposal, fearing the loss of the land’s scenic beauty.
Seven Hills Ranch, a hillside swath of land that serves as a habitat for wildlife, has been owned and stewarded by the Hale family for generations, most recently by Walnut Creek resident Sheridan Hale, who died in 2015.
But now, Hale’s family wants to sell the property in unincorporated Walnut Creek and has found an interested buyer: Spieker Senior Development Partners, a Menlo Park developer that owns continuing care retirement communities across California, including one in Pleasanton.
“We’ve been careful to design the community around waterways, view corridors and important trees so that our residents and their neighbors can continue to enjoy the site’s natural beauty,” Troy Bourne, a Spieker project official, said in an email.
Spieker is in escrow for the property. The sale will close after the developer secures certain entitlements, including a change in Contra Costa County’s general plan to allow multi-home developments on the land in question.
The site currently is zoned single-family residential, and the Hale family currently has a house built on the land. An environmental impact report is in the early stages.
In addition to 302 apartments in three- and four-story buildings, as well as 52 single-story cottage homes, the facility would have amenities that include a recreation center, an entertainment venue and close to 600 parking spaces.
Neighboring the housing will be an 85,000-square-foot skilled-nursing center with 100 beds, which Bourne noted will be offered to existing residents who need a higher level of care.
The Seven Hills Ranch is seen from this drone view in Walnut Creek on Monday. The 30.4-acre parcel of ranch land on the easterly end of Seven Hills Ranch Road would become a senior community for more than 400 residents if the Spieker Senior Development Partners proposal is approved byContra Costa County. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
“Traffic impacts are going to be something we look at closely,” Contra Costa County planner Sean Tully said about the environmental impact report in an interview. “We’ll also look at biology, water courses — that property has been left alone for an extended period of time, and I’m assuming there will be a species up there that may qualify for protection.”
Tully expects the project to appear in front of the Planning Commission toward the end of the year. The county Board of Supervisors will need to grant final approval.
Open-space advocates are already working to slow the project in its tracks. A group named Save Seven Hills Ranch pushed late last year to prevent the Walnut Creek City Council from selling to the developer a public path off Kinross Drive that would serve as a primary access point to the senior housing community.
The group’s Change.org petition opposing the project has received more than 2,500 signatures. Walnut Creek city manager Dan Buckshi said in an interview that the council intends to read the project’s environmental impact report before deciding on whether to sell the path.
Bourne said the Hale family approached the developer after reaching out to conservationist groups with no success. Family members could not be reached for comment.
“It was dragging on, and (the family) had to make a decision, so that’s the way they went,” said Michelle Sheehan of Save Seven Hills Ranch in an interview. “But if they’d heard from the community voices we hear now, maybe something different would have happened.”
The Seven Hills Ranch is seen from this drone view in Walnut Creek. The 30.4-acre parcel of ranch land on the easterly end of Seven Hills Ranch Road is next to Heather Farm Park. Spieker Senior Development Partners wants to develop a senior community for more than 400 residents on the site. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
The property’s “oak-spotted terrain,” its small wetland running through the middle and the viewshed it provides to Heather Farm Park make it worth conserving, Sheehan said.
Spieker Senior Development Partners already has held several community workshops, and Bourne said it would welcome more.
“The Hales’ home and ranch are beautiful, and it’s understandable that some will oppose the family’s proposed use of their property,” Bourne said. “However, it is not open space — the general plan has called for its development for decades.”
Stoneridge Creek, a similar housing community owned by Spieker in Pleasanton, has an entrance fee of roughly $400,000 for a studio and up to $2 million for a penthouse, though a large portion of the deposits are paid back when a resident leaves or dies. An additional monthly service fee ranges from $4,000 to $6,000.
Bourne said that the eventual Seven Hills Ranch community would offer starting entrance fees of $500,000, which he called “a considerable investment but about half the price of an average Walnut Creek home.”
“The beautiful landscape and amenities can give the impression of luxury, but most residents are attracted to the financial value and peace of mind,” he said.
