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Vote against rezoning a victory for Angwin project

PROPOSED ‘ECO-VILLAGE’ WOULD HELP COLLEGE FUND ITS ENDOWMENT

ANGWIN – Pacific Union College’s plan to build a 380-unit “eco-village” in the unincorporated, hilltop community of Angwin is a step closer to reality, with the Napa County supervisors rejecting a proposed land-use change aimed at stopping the project.

The college, Angwin’s largest landowner and only major employer, wants to sell some of its land as way to raise $80 million for its endowment. It has signed an agreement with Vallejo-based Triad Communities to develop an environmentally friendly, mixed-use development.

Opponents of the project, who organized themselves as Save Rural Angwin, asked Napa County to re-zone the proposed project site to institutional, which would have limited the possibilities for future development. But last week, the supervisors declined to take up the proposal. Their decision is a victory for the project, which must now go through the county’s routine approval process.

“It allows the normal process to take place,” the college’s President Dr. Richard Osborn said of the decision.

The proposed eco-village includes 321 homes, 59 units of student housing, 55,000 square feet of retail space and a 20-room hotel. It includes typical green features, such as solar panels, but also a 70-acre organic farm, geothermal power capabilities and sophisticated rainwater and wastewater reuse systems designed to prevent any increase in net drinkable water usage. The project also calls for a redesign of Angwin’s main commercial center, which is owned by the college, to make it more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly.

“We are confident that this is the greenest project in the U.S.,” said Curt Johansen, an executive vice president for Triad Communities, an affiliate of Seattle-based Triad Development Inc.

Houses in the eco-village range from 800-square-foot student units to 1,600-square-foot townhouses to single-family homes of up to 3,400 square feet. The target market for most of the housing includes college employees and workers at nearby St. Helena Hospital, according to Mr. Johansen. He said Triad will offer incentives for buyers who work close to the development. The company hasn’t calculated prices, Mr. Johansen said.

“The pricing of the housing is going to have a fairly significant range, but we want a lot of the housing in the community to be priced under $1 million, and for Napa County – particularly the upper end of the county – that would be quite an achievement,” he said.

“Housing that would be priced in the $700,000 to $800,000 price range, that would be below several areas’ median-priced housing,” he said.

The average home sale price in Angwin was $829,950 in 2007, down from a peak of $1.1 million in 2006, according to data from Bay Area Real Estate Information Services. In St. Helena, the nearest city, the average price was $1.9 million in 2007, a slight increase from 2006.

As part of its agreement with Pacific Union, Triad will purchase more than 70 acres of land for development, 80 percent of which is developed land slated for reuse. In addition to the eco-village, Triad will rebuild 110 units of student housing and purchase about 400 acres of agricultural land, which is divided into 12 lots, each permitted for one home.

An environmental report is under way, and the project is expected to reach the county’s Planning Commission by late summer or early fall. Once approved, the project could take 10 years to complete, according to a project spokesman.

Pacific Union said it has no plans for new projects after the eco-village, but the county is still debating a separate land-use issue that will affect the college’s long-term development rights in Angwin.

Last week, the supervisors voted 3-2 against a proposal that would have effectively required the college to seek voter approval for development on most of its land. The supervisors will revisit the issue when they consider changes to the county’s 12 so-called “urban bubbles,” – unincorporated zones, including Angwin, designated for development.

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