GALT, CA (MPG) - The Galt City Council sustained the appeal of a Planning Commission denial of a design review application for a major subdivision project, a decision allowing Summerfield at Twin Cities housing developer Lennar Homes to move forward with construction as early as this week.

Voting at its Sept. 16 meeting and after over two hours of discussion and some verbal fireworks, council agreed to overturn the commission’s decision and let construction proceed based on proposed changes Lennar made to housing designs in response to the commission’s decision.

Upholding the commission’s denial could have put the city in legal and financial jeopardy, Interim City Attorney Frank Splendorio said, should Lennar appeal the denial to Superior Court. Splendorio said the homebuilder had grounds for such an appeal by contending the commission exceeded its discretion in denying the proposal without using objective design criteria, something required under California’s Housing Accountability Act.

Such a move would have the city paying not only for its legal costs, but also Lennar’s, something “which could be in the magnitude of six figures.”

“This is not a scare tactic,” Splendorio said. “This is just to put all that information so the council and the public can appreciate how difficult and precarious a decision this is in light of everything else.”

A 58-acre gated residential subdivision originally approved in 2020, Summerfield is located north of Twin Cities Road and includes 204 single-family lots ranging from 6,510 square feet to 12,788 square feet. The subdivision is centered around a 1.9-acre private park and includes 7.9 acres of open space at its north end composed of wetlands and a retention pond.

Conditions of Approval for the original applicant, Sheldon Business Park, required homes be built in five tiers based on square footage and in “executive style housing,” although executive style was never defined. In 2022, Sheldon sold the project to Homes by Towne, which applied to modify the homes construction condition to three tiers with minimum square footage of 2,000 square feet for Tier 1, 2,400 for Tier 2 and 2,600 for Tier 3.

The Planning Commission at the time rejected this, but City Council overrode that decision on Nov. 1, 2022, by a 4-1 vote, allowing the three tiers for half of the homes with “developer’s discretion applying to the rest. That decision also removed the phrase “executive style housing,” something Mayor Shawn Farmer said was not a council decision and it was unclear who had made it.

His statement was backed up during public comment by former council member Jay Vandenburg, who played a recording from his cellphone from the 2022 meeting where it was noted the only change allowed was the square footage minimum.

Lennar acquired the project from Homes by Towne in December 2024 and proposed two categories of homes, but with five styles and nine plans in each, three styles for each floor plan and three different color schemes for each of these, along with other amenities and enhancements. According to its appeal letter, Lennar has invested over $15.5 million “to date on subdivision improvements consistent with the (2022) Vesting Tentative Subdivision Map.”

The commission rejected Lennar’s application after two public workshops and a public hearing on June 12, mainly on the grounds that aspects of proposed home designs, textures, colors, finishes and layouts were “ubiquitous,” common to other such elements in existing Galt homes and therefore failed to “set the designs apart from existing neighborhoods” as required by city General Plan Policies.

As part of its appeal, Lennar noted the latter phrase was vague, undefined and in conflict with stated code requirements for design review.

 

 

Summerfield at Twin Cities housing developer Lennar Homes moved forward with construction as early as Sept. 22 after an appeal to the planning commission’s denial of the project was sustained by city council at its Sept. 16 meeting. Photo by Idaly Valencia

In Lennar’s appeal letter, Heffner Law attorney Chad Roberts accused the Planning Commission of creating “an arbitrary and illusory test to deny the design review” by not citing specific standards in the city’s zoning code and instead relying on two, more vague General Plan Policies. He also listed “substantial revisions and enhancements to design” Lennar was willing to make, despite adding another $2 million in cost to the project.

Many of these were in response to the Planning Commission’s decision as well as public and council input.

“If your council were to sustain the appeal this evening, which we certainly hope you will, Lennar would be prepared to commence construction this coming Monday (Sept. 22),” Roberts said.

Like the two previous builders, Lennar representatives told council the requested changes were based on designs their customer research had indicated made the homes more marketable. Community Development Director Jenny Carloni told council during her presentation that planning staff also recommended sustaining the appeal as the project met all General Plan policies, findings from Galt’s municipal code on residential design and Planned Development requirements and the Conditions of Approval.

Council expressed frustration during discussions with the process, with members noting they were reluctant to override a Planning Commission decision they believed was based on expertise. Farmer also had sharp words for Roberts and some of the accusations leveled at the commission in the appeal letter, noting statements such as “No prudent developer would make substantial investments in a Vesting Tentative Subdivision Map only to be left guessing what might satisfy the subjective whim of each Planning Commissioner under this imaginary and unattainable goalpost that lacks concrete and objective standards to protect against arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement” and claiming the commission was “untethered” to standard processes were insulting and not helpful.

Nonetheless, Farmer said the meeting wasn’t about rehashing the past but trying to move forward.

“I hope to walk away tonight with something all can agree with and our dignity intact,” he said.

Councilmember Bonnie Rodriguez said while she was not on council at the time, she followed the Summerfield discussions closely, attending meetings on the project. She felt Lennar was up against high expectations and an image created by the original applicant, Sheldon Business Park.

“The original gentleman came, and he sold us, he sold everybody,” she added.

In overriding the commission’s denial, council accepted the proposed changes submitted by Lennar along with a change proposed at the meeting by Councilmember Matthew Pratton that garage entry heights be 8 feet instead of the proposed 7 feet.

Lennar originally refused to add this requirement, saying it would add additional costs to the project, but agreed to the request after a compromise of applying this to half the homes in the project was reached.

The vote to override the commission decision and sustain the appeal passed 4-1, with Farmer voting no.

“Good luck with your project gentlemen; congratulations,” Farmer told the Lennar team.