Lafayette Affordable Housing Could Replace Old Apartment Building

LAMORINDA, CA — The Lafayette City Council will decide Monday whether to demolish a downtown apartment and retail building to make way for a new four-story residential project that includes affordable housing.

Developer Madison Park wants to build a 71-unit, two-building project at 3483 and 3491 Golden Gate Way, just south of the Lafayette Library. The building's height would extend to more than 53 feet and include an underground parking garage, 65 apartments and six townhomes.

It would also require the removal of 48 trees on the site's 1.47 acres.

The city's Design Review Commission and Planning Commission have already signed off on the project, which has been in the works for more than two years. Constructed in 1962, the current building is two stories and conforms to the city's 35-feet downtown limit, comprising 27,040 square feet of residential and retail space.

There's been considerable pushback from the community over the project's height, the trees being removed, and its potential effect on traffic and parking, especially since it's across the street from the library.

"There are so many things wrong with it, I hardly know where to start," wrote resident Ty Allison, in a May 13 letter to the Design Review board. "This would create a monstrosity in the middle of Lafayette and adjoining a residential neighborhood as well as being in bloated contrast to the library complex."

Gary Fulcher, who lives across the creek, south of the complex, wrote the Planning Commission last October he's owned his home for 35 years and will lose a degree of privacy.

"Two years ago, the developer told me that they wanted to build a three-story building, they wouldn't cut any of the redwoods, and that no one would be able to look into my yard," Fulcher wrote. "Now they say they want four stories, and they want to cut down the trees. They lied to me."

The plan has undergone revisions at the city's request, including additional charging stations for electric vehicles, an increase from 50 bicycle parking spaces to 70 and the addition of a solar water-heating element. Madison Park has agreed to reduce the size of fourth floor windows, add exterior shutters and interior shades to windows on the third and fourth floors facing southeast.

The staff report for Monday's meeting also addresses tree removal, saying trees have been evaluated in an arborist's report, determining "some of the trees to be removed are in poor health and others are not in poor health, but are located within the area of development. The healthy trees outside of the construction area are proposed to be retained."

Madison Park will plant new trees at the site. The report says the trees in the parking lot -- which include redwoods -- will be cut down to make way for construction. "The trees along the southern property line are being preserved to the extent feasible."

The City Council meets virtually at 6 p.m. Monday. The meeting can be accessed on the city's YouTube channel.

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