A New “Work From Home” Project Underway

An announcement about one of our newer communities in planning, from Leah Beniston, VP of Entitlements:

The San Ramon office is proud to announce that we have another community in the works in Hayward, California.  Processing on the heels of our 189 residence, mixed-use property (Mirza), MOREAU is a smaller community of 55 townhomes with 9 homes designed incorporating work from home ‘store-fronts’. MOREAU is about a mile south of Mirza and faces the same main thoroughfare; Mission Boulevard. TTLC is excited to be trailblazing ‘work from home’ in 2020 especially during this era of stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19.  At the beginning of our first round of stay-at-home orders, this past March, I sent out some floor plans showing the various ways TTLC is designing ‘work from home’ space. Live/Work Residences Fronting Mission Blvd MOREAU uses one of these floor plans and its design provides Hayward with a desired commercial storefront architectural style. The City hopes a storefront atmosphere will enhance the pedestrian experience and get more people out of their cars and walking to retrieve their goods and services.

As a reminder, these are not glorified dens. TTLC’s work-from-home spaces are designed with separate residential and commercial entrances so that each use can operate independently.  This provides the flexibility to the homeowner to rent the space for income.  Each space is designed with an ADA accessible bathroom and a kitchenette which meets the Building Code standards for commercial operations; yet, allows the flex space to be used as an ADA accessible studio apartment.  For all intents and purposes the design is a Win-Win-Win. Site plan with landscape and pathways

MOREAU is only .04 miles further away from the South Hayward BART Station than the .5 mile walkable goal, but for anyone looking to get a nice stroll in before or after work, this is a prime location.  Even better, it looks directly across the street to Moreau High School; a highly sought after educational institution.  Let’s hope we get a handle on COVID so that our schools can re-open sooner rather than later.

Kelley Rutchena has been designing and shepherding MOREAU through its preparation and is now squarely in the middle of processing her first SB 330 project. SB 330 is the Housing Crisis Act of 2019 which reduces the ability to block or slow down housing development with unwarranted delays, over-reaching subjective requirements and costly community benefit payments; among other extractions.  SB 330 is a new law and TTLC is trailblazing again by using this approach. The crux of this law is to improve the ability for cities to approve general plan and/or zoning conforming projects at a faster pace. Through this new law, cities have the ability to respond positively to the extreme need for housing that we see throughout the State of California.  SB 330 states that if a housing project is permitted under existing general plan or zoning designations then the City is compelled to approve it so the developer can get on to housing production.  MOREAU is a general plan and zoning conforming project.

Should you want to know more about the details of this community, please contact Kelley. We will be highlighting Kelley’s other SB 330 sites in the coming weeks.