The Livermore City Council voted unanimously on July 27 to authorize a development agreement covering roughly 122 acres at 3658 Las Colinas Road, the open hillside that runs along the north edge of the Springtown neighborhood.
The vote did not approve a single house. What it did was fix the outer boundaries of what a future developer will be permitted to ask for, and lock those boundaries in place.
Under the agreement, about 50 acres of the property become developable at a density of eight to 30 homes per acre. That works out to between 605 and 900 residential units. The rest of the site is to be preserved as open space or improved in ways the agreement specifies. Whatever eventually gets built there has to arrive with a neighborhood park, common open space, stormwater treatment facilities, private internal roadways, pedestrian and bicycle trails, and both on-site and off-site infrastructure.
In exchange, the landowner agreed to put $6 million into the city's community benefit fund, earmarked for infrastructure and amenities in the Springtown area.
The landowner is Adventus, a nonprofit public benefit corporation connected to the Diocese of Oakland. Its president, Attila Bardos, also serves as the diocese's chief financial officer. Adventus has held the land for more than 20 years, since the Livermore Planning Commission approved a 2005 development agreement for a Catholic high school on the site. According to a staff report by senior city planner Shannon Pagan, Adventus has told the city a school is no longer viable there. The corporation plans to sell the property to a homebuilder.
The land-use change came the same night
The Las Colinas vote did not happen in isolation. At the same July 27 meeting, the council adopted General Plan 2045, the document that will steer land use, transportation, housing and open space decisions in Livermore for roughly the next 20 years. Work on the plan began in 2021 and cost the city about $3 million in consulting contracts.
The new General Plan is what changed the Las Colinas designation from open space to something that permits limited residential development. The council certified the plan's final environmental impact report in the same motion and introduced a zoning map amendment to match. It then adopted a separate resolution finding that the Las Colinas development agreement is already covered by that certified report, which means the project framework does not need its own program-level environmental review at this stage.
Most speakers opposed it
Nine of the 13 people who spoke during public comment criticized the agreement.
Several residents raised traffic and safety concerns tied to the unpaved road that currently serves the property. Mayor John Marchand pushed back on that line of argument, saying no one is going to build a development served by a 23-foot dirt path, and that the agreement sets up the process for producing a real plan.
Two speakers came from labor organizations. Brian Werner, representing a local chapter of the Sheet Metal Workers, asked the council to write language into the agreement requiring things like state-approved apprentices and healthcare coverage on any future construction. Bardos objected, telling the council that adding a substantial new condition at that stage would upend years of negotiation.
Councilmember Evan Branning found a middle path. Rather than amending the agreement itself, he successfully proposed adding language to the council's ordinance restating an existing recommendation that a future developer engage with labor organizations on local hiring, state-approved apprenticeships, prevailing wage standards and employer-supported healthcare. A recommendation is not a requirement, and the distinction matters: nothing in the ordinance obligates the eventual builder to follow it.
Kimberly Gruidl, board chair of the Livermore Valley Chamber of Commerce, spoke in support, describing the site as an infill opportunity that lets the city grow in a balanced way.
Branning framed the agreement as leverage. He said it gives Livermore a chance to secure real community benefits, and that concerns raised during the hearing should get resolved once an actual project is on the table.
What this means if you live in Livermore
For Springtown households, the immediate change is not physical. Nothing is being graded this year. What changed is the legal baseline. Before July 27, a developer approaching that hillside would have had to argue for a land-use amendment. Now the argument is over.
The trade-off built into any development agreement is worth understanding, because it cuts both ways. The city receives certainty and money up front, in this case $6 million. The landowner receives vesting rights, which protect an approved project from most future changes to city rules. If Livermore adopts stricter standards three years from now, a vested project generally does not have to meet them.
For everyone else in the city, the number to watch is 605 to 900. Livermore, like every California city, is under state pressure to plan for its share of regional housing need. A parcel that can absorb several hundred homes inside the urban growth boundary reduces pressure elsewhere, including downtown and near the future Isabel Avenue transit area. Residents who have argued against density in the core have an interest in what happens here, and so do residents who have argued for protecting the hillsides.
What happens next
The development agreement is a framework, not a permit. Before anything gets built, a developer has to secure a neighborhood plan, planned development zoning, one or more tentative maps, site plan review and project-level environmental review. Development impact fees will apply.
Each of those steps is a public hearing. Traffic studies, school capacity, the access road, grading and building heights all get decided at that stage, not this one. Residents who want a say have more opportunities ahead of them than behind them, but the ceiling is already set.
Livermore City Council meets the second and fourth Mondays of the month at 7 p.m. at 1016 S. Livermore Ave. Agendas are posted at livermoreca.gov.
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