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Would you support 78 affordable apartments at this location? What concerns would you want addressed before the project moves forward? Who do you think Dublin's affordable housing should primarily be designed to serve—families, seniors, young adults, teachers and public employees, or a mix?
A proposal would bring 78 affordable apartments to Francis Ranch in Dublin. Learn what's being proposed and share your thoughts on housing, density, and neighborhood impacts.
One happening right now is **Eden at Francis Ranch**, a proposal for **78 affordable apartments on approximately 2.05 acres at Central Parkway and Byrne Street**. Two community meetings are scheduled for **August 26 and August 27**, which means this is exactly the time for residents to start asking questions.
I'm including the reference links below so you can review the proposal and information directly rather than relying only on my summary:
**Sources / further reading:**
https://www.dublin.ca.gov/m/newsflash/Home/Detail/5561
https://edenhousing.org/about-us/mission-history/
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/231716750
I want to hear especially from people who live near Francis Ranch and the surrounding neighborhoods, as well as renters, homeowners, seniors, young adults, families, teachers, public employees, and anyone who has struggled with Dublin's housing costs.
**Would you support 78 affordable apartments at this location? Why or why not?**
If you have concerns, I'd also like to know specifically what they are. **Traffic? School capacity? Building height? Parking? Neighborhood character? Infrastructure? Or something else?**
And for residents who support more affordable housing: **Who are we having the hardest time keeping in Dublin because of housing costs, and what should we be doing about it?**
You don't need to know the terminology of housing policy or city planning to participate. If you live here, your experience matters.
Different perspectives are welcome. My goal is to hear what residents think **before the community meetings**, attend and listen, and then come back here afterward to continue the conversation about what we learned.
**So, Dublin: What would you want me to ask at the Francis Ranch meeting?**
After listening to the residents at the Francis Ranch meeting, I came away with a clearer understanding of why the priorities I have been talking about matter so much to Dublin.
### 1. Move Dublin Better: Transportation That Works in Real Life
Residents raised questions about parking overflow, visitor and caregiver parking, traffic, and speeding.
For me, this is about more than whether a project technically meets a parking or traffic standard. **We need to make sure our transportation planning works for the people who actually live here.**
Growth should not mean that we approve a project today and then ask residents to live with parking and traffic problems tomorrow.
### 2. Building Dublin’s Next Chapter: Smarter Growth
The discussion around 60 versus 78 units, three versus four stories, building placement, privacy, and how the project fits into the surrounding neighborhood is exactly why I believe Dublin needs to approach growth thoughtfully.
**I support housing. I also believe we have to get the scale, design, infrastructure, and neighborhood impacts right.**
For me, smarter growth is not about being for or against development. It is about asking whether the development works for Dublin as a whole.
### 3. Neighborhood Quality and Public Safety
Residents talked about privacy, views, speeding near the park, visitor traffic, and how a larger development will interact with the homes already surrounding it.
Those concerns matter.
**A project can meet the minimum requirements on paper and still create real quality of life concerns for the people living next door.**
When we make development decisions, I want us to look at both: whether a proposal meets the rules and whether it actually works for the surrounding community.
### 4. Fiscal Responsibility: Understanding the Public Investment
One question that stood out to me was the discussion about whether the project could work with 60 units versus 78 units.
That raises an important question for Dublin: **What is financially necessary to make a project work, what is the City contributing, and what public value are we receiving in return?**
I believe residents deserve to understand those tradeoffs clearly before major development decisions are made.
### 5. Better City Government: Making Information Easier to Understand
Another major theme was transparency.
Residents expressed frustration that they did not feel they had a clear understanding of what could eventually be built in the area when they purchased their homes.
Regardless of where responsibility ultimately falls, I think the lesson for Dublin is clear:
**Residents should not have to be experts in planning documents, development agreements, or City websites to understand what is happening in their own neighborhood.**
City information should be easier to find, easier to understand, and available early enough for residents to meaningfully participate.
### 6. Community First: What Happens After We Listen?
Perhaps the biggest question I heard was not simply, “Will the City listen?”
It was:
**“What happens after the City listens?”**
Residents want to know whether their concerns can actually affect a project and how the Planning Commission and City Council will weigh that input when making the final decision.
That is at the heart of what **Community First** means to me.
Public engagement should not be a box we check. **Residents should be able to see what they said, how it was considered, and what changed as a result.**
### What I Took Away
The Francis Ranch meeting reinforced something I have believed throughout this campaign:
**Dublin does not have to choose between growth and community.**
We can build housing.
We can plan for our future.
And we can still demand thoughtful development, responsible spending, better infrastructure, transparent government, and a meaningful voice for the people who already call Dublin home.
**That is what I mean by A Dublin That Works Better.**
Who gets to live here? What AMI/income bands will apply to the 57 general affordable units and the 20 I/DD units? Will there be any Dublin residency, employment or other lawful preferences?
What is Dublin paying? What's the total City contribution when land, the reported $5 million loan, grants and other assistance are counted?
Why 80 parking spaces? What does the parking study predict for one-, two- and three-bedroom households?
What's the traffic effect? How many daily and peak-hour trips are projected at Central Parkway/Byrne and surrounding intersections?
What about schools? How many school-aged children does the analysis estimate and which Dublin schools would serve the property?
What's being requested under Density Bonus Law? Which normal development standards would change?
How permanent is the affordability? Are restrictions 55 years, longer, or permanent, and what mechanisms enforce them?
How are the 20 I/DD apartments actually operated? Sunflower Hill says residents bring their own individualized care services while Sunflower Hill provides enrichment programming. Who coordinates emergencies, accessibility, transportation and caregiver needs?
What happens to the surrounding neighborhood? Where will visitors, caregivers, deliveries and overflow vehicles park? How will the building interface with nearby townhomes and the park?
What happens next? Which approvals are discretionary, who makes the final decision, and when will residents have another opportunity to comment?
All answers are recorded live on the City of Dublin Website