Windsor to review trio of housing projects on east side of town

A number of new housing projects are being proposed in Windsor, reflecting a change from the stalled development of recent years.

Conceptual plans for three new projects along Old Redwood Highway totaling almost 200 dwellings were presented last week, signaling a pent-up demand for housing.

“To me it’s indicative of the changing economy. There is pressure for housing to be built, particularly for this area,” Windsor Community Development Director Ned Thomas said Monday. “The demand is extremely high, particularly for rental apartments.”

Last year, there was only one residential construction permit issued in Windsor, following 2012 in which no permits were issued, according to Thomas.

Developers now are lining up to request building allocations from the Town Council, though not at the rate of a decade ago, before the economic downturn.

The most recent proposals are centered in southeast Windsor, along Old Redwood Highway, north of Shiloh Road.

They include:

* Creekwalk, with 48 rental apartments on a 5-acre parcel at 6405 Old Redwood Highway. Rents are estimated between $1,350 and $1,600.

* The Oaks, a 39-unit mix of apartments and town homes and 5,750 square feet of commercial/retail space at 6122 Old Redwood Highway. It is proposed on a partially improved, 3-acre site, the remnant of an incomplete project by bankrupt developer Orrin Thiessen.

* Shiloh Senior Living Center, with 108 for-sale residential units and 15,000 square feet of retail space proposed on 3.4 acres at 6011 Old Redwood Highway.

Warren Hedgpeth, an architect working on the first two projects, said The Oaks will be like a “true little village.”

“The east side of Windsor is hungry,” he said “It’s kind of orphaned. It needs visiting, too. It needs life. It needs heart.”

The Planning Commission is scheduled on Sept. 23 to hold a public hearing on the proposals. And in November, the Town Council is expected to consider whether to grant them building allocations.

Windsor, home to more than 27,100 people, has a growth control ordinance which restricts the number of building permits to an annual average of about 150 market-rate homes. It’s intended to keep a lid on explosive growth that characterized the area in the past and led to incorporation in 1992 as Sonoma County’s youngest city.

But residents near some of the recently proposed projects are concerned about the density and increased traffic they will generate in the area. There is also another proposal farther along in the pipeline, the 36-unit Esposti Park apartment project at 6087 Old Redwood Highway, which already has received tentative approval.

“I like all the projects,” resident Bob Bernard told a joint Town Council/Planning Commission meeting last week. “What I see in maybe a little over a mile of Old Redwood Highway is 220 residential units and more than 20,000 square feet of commercial development. I don’t see how the street can possibly support that.”

Other residents expressed concern about the impact the Creekwalk project will have on a seasonal creek and wildlife that use it as a corridor.

One speaker described the proposed housing density as “absurd,” “out of whack” and “crazy.”

More traffic congestion on an already busy Old Redwood Highway was a common complaint.

“The place is packed already. What are you thinking?” said Rita Bevans, a Diana Place resident.

Community Development Director Thomas said if the projects advance, they will be subject to environmental review and traffic studies.

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com.