Planning Principles

• Adhering to proven principles of smart growth by placing housing near jobs and transit centers
• Blending new neighborhoods seamlessly into Bishop Ranch’s existing design framework
• Complementing and expanding San Ramon’s reasoned interplay of development and outdoor amenities, including parks, trails and community centers
• Ensuring that San Ramon officials and residents — not non-invested outside entities — plan and control the City’s future growth and long-term reputation and economic viability

Bishop Ranch’s existing configuration provides an ideal, ready-made landscape framework in which to incorporate CityWalk’s proposed new neighborhoods.

In planning the mixed-use district, Sunset has used connectivity as the guiding principle, meant to ensure that all the components of the neighborhoods blend seamlessly into the surrounding community. Neighborhoods will connect with, and complement existing trails and parks, while putting residents within easy walking or biking distance from stores and restaurants, transit centers and, importantly, jobs.

Some of the neighborhoods will be located where now stand existing, under-utilized asphalt parking lots and empty lots, improving Bishop Ranch’s overall design efficiency.

The planning principles embody the concept of smart growth, resulting in a series of distinctive neighborhoods that will become an important, and integrated, part of Bishop Ranch’s admired community.

CityWalk at a Glance

Over the next 25 years, three blocks totaling 135 acres in Bishop Ranch — BR2600, BR1A and BR3A —will be transformed into a mixed-use district comprising new residential, retail and hotel uses.

The plan includes

• Up to 4,500 multi-family residential units
• A 169-room hotel
• An additional 170,000 square feet of retail
• New office parking structures that will replace several existing surface parking lots

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why is this project being proposed at this time?

A: Providing workforce housing in Bishop Ranch — San Ramon’s premier jobs center and economic engine — will provide numerous community benefits, including enabling people to live within walking distance or a short bike ride of their jobs, therefore reducing traffic and auto emissions.  It also will ensure San Ramon does its part to help ease California’s severe shortage of workforce housing.

Q: What is the plan?

A: The City Center Mixed-Use Master Plan — known as CityWalk — will fulfill San Ramon’s long-held vision to create a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly, transit-oriented mixed-use district where people can work, shop, dine, socialize and finally, live.

Q: Where will the new mixed-use district be in Bishop Ranch?

A: CityWalk will be located in a 135-acre area comprising three blocks – BR2600, BR1A and BR3A.

Q: When work began and how long will it last?

A: CityWalk’s groundbreaking is anticipated to take place in 2021. The entire project will be carefully phased over an approximately 25-year timeframe.

Q: Why would the city support this plan?

A: The plan complies with existing city zoning and is an outgrowth of the approved General Plan 2035 update. An environmental document will be prepared for public review.

Meanwhile, Sunset’s private investment plans to introduce long-awaited residential neighborhoods to Bishop Ranch will create new revenue streams that will help support the services and amenities that make the city such a desirable place to live, work, shop, dine and visit.

Critically, CityWalk will help ensure that city leaders and residents control San Ramon’s future — not non-invested outside entities.

Q: What exactly does the plan include?

A: CityWalk proposes up to 4,500 multi-family residential units located throughout several neighborhoods. It also includes a previously entitled 169-room hotel; 170,000 square feet of new retail space for shops and restaurants; and several new parking structures that will replace some of Bishop Ranch’s existing surface parking lots.

Q: Why should the community support CityWalk? What’s in it for residents?

A: CityWalk will provide many community benefits. These include new recreational amenities such as expanded pedestrian and bicycle trails, and new connections to existing trails, including Iron Horse Regional Trail.

Other community benefits include a new parkway system linking the planned residential neighborhoods; a 1,500-person capacity public amphitheater; enhanced amenities at and access to Annabel Lake; and new community centers and shared transit centers that will make it more convenient for residents to take advantage of San Ramon’s mass-transit modes. Also, the new housing will provide more opportunities for the next generation to live and raise families of their own here, if they desire.

Open Space

• Nearly 30 percent of the entire planning area will be set aside as open space
• Residents and visitors will enjoy new public parks, trail connections and other public and private open spaces

Open space is an important, central part of CityWalk. – spaces that are inviting and easily accessible for residents, Bishop Ranch employees and City visitors. Nearly 30 percent of the entire planning area will be dedicated to open space in the form of new parks, trail connections and private open spaces within the new residential neighborhoods.

Among the planned open spaces are a beautiful new parkway system that will serve as an inviting connective thread between the new neighborhoods; new public parks in each neighborhood; expanded open spaces along Bishop Ranch’s lake shorelines; and distinct private open spaces and gardens within the individual neighborhoods.

San Ramon has long been admired for its expansive network of outdoor spaces — and CityWalk’s planned abundance of additional open space is certain to enhance the City’s reputation for healthy outdoor living.

Walkability

• CityWalk places major emphasis on walkability
• The district’s walkable scale will reduce car trips while promoting healthier lifestyles
• Green streets, parks, and new trail connections will make walking easy — and fun

Smart growth is the guiding principle of CityWalk, and a key principle of smart growth is walkability. Thoughtful planning and good design translate to endless opportunities for residents, visitors and employees to get out of their homes, out of their cars, and away from the office to enjoy the outdoors. With that important goal in mind, CityWalk at every stage is being designed as an integrated, pedestrian-friendly and highly walkable experience.

From “green streets” featuring wide landscaped setbacks and shaded with lush trees and plants, to a graceful new parkway system connecting the residential neighborhoods, to expanded accessibility and activities at Annabel Lake, CityWalk delivers on the promise inherent in its name.

Walkable, human scale communities like CityWalk are sought after and cherished because they foster a strong sense of community and social connection among those who live, work, shop, dine in or visit them. They create places with something more, something intangible, something uniquely human. Imaginative, thoughtful planning provides the solid foundation from which the people enjoying each block, in each new residential neighborhood, will create that dynamic thing called community.

Workforce Housing

Provides housing that makes it possible for people to live within easy walking distance or a short bike ride of their jobs

• Creates new opportunities for young career professionals, like teachers, firefighters, new tech workers — to live in San Ramon
• Helps the City meet stringent new state-mandated directives to reduce California’s severe and growing housing shortage
• Preserves San Ramon’s neighborhoods by placing new multifamily housing where it is needed most — near jobs, transit centers, shops and restaurants.

At least 15 percent of CityWalk’s proposed residential neighborhoods will comprise affordable units, which will help the City meet state-mandated affordable housing requirements.

Providing new workforce housing in the city’s mixed-use district is important because it will make it possible for individuals and families, many of whom could not otherwise afford to live in San Ramon, to experience and contribute to the city’s admired character and lifestyle.

Economic Benefits

• A strong, sustainable long-term plan
• New revenue streams that support City services and amenities

Since its establishment more than 40 years ago, Bishop Ranch has been San Ramon’s major economic engine. Today, with the introduction of CityWalk, Sunset’s plans to create residential and mixed-use neighborhoods within its core will bring new revenues into the City.

The strong and sustainable CityWalk proposal embraces and builds upon San Ramon’s renown as a modern, progressive city. It has been carefully planned to bring a range of benefits to the City, including the creation of new revenue streams that will support the services and amenities that make San Ramon such a desirable place to live, work and visit.

Among the financial benefits will be the growth in jobs in construction and related businesses, which will occur as development proceeds over the next 25 years. In addition, over the long term, new residents will contribute to the sales taxes the City collects through shopping, dining and other daily activities.

25-Year Plan

• CityWalk will be thoughtfully and incrementally implemented over 25 years
• Phasing will ensure new residential neighborhoods are ready when needed
• Approach extends San Ramon’s proven track record of measured community growth

CityWalk’s neighborhoods — to be built and occupied over a span of 25 years — will honor San Ramon’s long history of carefully phasing its growth.

This measured approach will ensure a steady, well-managed construction schedule that minimizes impacts to circulation patterns of both vehicles and pedestrians, nearby business operations, and outdoor recreational activities.

It also ensures that City leaders — and not non-invested, outside interests — set the pace of growth, by keeping control of San Ramon’s growth and destiny in local hands

Sustainability

• CityWalk’s smart-growth planning principles put environmental concerns at the core of all planning
• Buildings will be designed for high energy efficiency
• Green streets, parks, trails and native vegetation will create a healthy outdoor environment

A major focus on sustainability — and in turn, creating a healthy environment for people — is guiding virtually all planning decisions and designs for CityWalk. The mixed-use district’s focus on walking and bicycling will serve as the foundation for its comprehensive commitment to sustainability and the environment.

Following are just a few examples of this focus:

• Native vegetation and drought-tolerant landscaping will be used throughout the new neighborhoods
• All outdoor landscaping will be irrigated with reclaimed water
• Energy efficiency will be maximized in the new residential neighborhoods through thoughtful building massing and orientation.
• Housing units are being designed to promote healthy living by taking advantage of natural light and the flow of fresh air
• Buildings will be constructed using the most advanced, environmentally friendly materials available
• Planning for transit, automobile, bicycle and pedestrian circulation has been carefully integrated with the existing local and regional system to reduce traffic and auto emissions.