The Blue Rock Business Center at Lone Tree Way illustrates the influence that community has on city development and the need to include residents in the planning process to ensure a project's success.
Blue Rock Business Center started out and remained in the form of two commercial parcels and one residential parcel. Plans for the residential development were to result in a 240 unit apartment complex and the project was approved in December 2003 by the City of Antioch. The residents of the City of Antioch, however, offered a high level of opposition to the residential plans as they related to the overall growth of the city.
Residents supported the commercial component, but were opposed to the residential approach being taken for that particular location, preferring instead to see single family homes be built in that location. The opposition was so strong that the residents collected enough votes to send the issue to a referendum in June of 2004, and the approved project plans were overturned.
Involved from the very beginning, Milani & Associates conducted all of the planning and engineering based on the initial client goals and throughout the necessary revisions that followed.
The two commercial parcels stayed as they were, but the 240 apartments became 86 medium-density single family homes which was a compromise that was acceptable to the client and welcomed by the residents of Antioch. One of the two commercial parcels, which will result in a 6-building Business Park consisting of approximately 115,000 square feet of Office/Commercial space, commenced construction in September 2005. Full build out of this particular commercial piece is expected by summer 2006. Plans for the third commercial element are still under development.
Milani was involved in the planning, layout and preliminary engineering for all aspects of this development project both commercial and residential. The tentative map for the 86 homes was approved in November of 2004, and the project is on schedule to begin grading in December 2005.
|
