City’s largest housing project in nearly a decade will feature 440 houses in its first phase

A batch of 440 new homes will rise on an open patch of land on Antioch’s southernmost edge. 

Richland Planned Communities got the green light to move ahead with the first phase of development of the East Bay city’s largest residential project in nearly a decade, first reported by The Mercury News. The development will take place in the Sand Creek area which has miles of foothills and flatland. 

The project would create a new community dubbed The Ranch, featuring 1,177 new homes. Phase 1 development was approved on a 4-1 vote, with Mayor Pro Tem Tamisha Torres-Walker, who questioned the project’s lack of affordability, casting the sole “no” vote.

Torres-Walker said the project was never meant for working-class people, and “that’s unfortunate.”

“I wish it would have been a more thoughtful development process,” she said.

The development has struggled to get off the ground for nearly a decade and saw the developer reduce its 1,667 home plan to 1,307 units in 2017 and further shrink it to 1,177 a year later.

The total project will cover 254 acres, and will feature a mix of houses, with lots ranging from 4,000 square feet to more than 8,000, as well as a 5-acre village center with commercial, retail and office space plus a new fire station. 

The eventual residents of The Ranch will have neighbors, with DeNova Homes’ 533-home development in what’s known as the Aviano Farms, near the Kaiser Permanente hospital five miles from the project. Blackhawk Nunn Partners is also developing the 220-unit Creekside Vineyards which is adjacent to DeNova’s project. Blackhawk is also building 641 homes just  east of The Ranch.