The Community Before

Ten years ago this underused, five-acre site along the city’s main thoroughfare housed marginal businesses, boarded-up buildings and Lafayette’s corporation yard.

There was also possible contamination from an old gas station. Yet the site was minutes from a freeway off-ramp and within walking distance of a BART station. The city knew there was a brighter future for this site. 

The Community Now

The city council created a discussion group to help identify guidelines aimed at creating a proposal that would garner community and developer support. The final project includes a transit station with retail space; 75 apartments with 15 of those units reserved for low-income families and individuals; and a footpath to BART. The Redevelopment Agency and developer are working to add 60 condominiums to the project, a plan that would include more low-income units. This was Lafayette’s first affordable housing project.

Redevelopment helped this community by:

• Creating 22,000 square feet of retail space fronting the city’s main thoroughfare
• Building 75 apartments, including units for very low-income households
• Creating a public plaza
• Providing needed access to BART
• Making street, sidewalk and landscape improvements
• Enhancing the creek corridor and walkway, now a major open space area in Lafayette