Concord council doubles down on Seeno companies for Naval Weapons Station redevelopment

CONCORD — Despite a chorus of criticism from the public, the controversial and litigious Seeno family building companies will remain solely in charge of the East Bay’s most ambitious housing development in recent memory.

With a unanimous vote from the City Council, the companies formalized an exclusive agreement Tuesday to oversee the Concord Naval Weapons Station’s long-anticipated redevelopment, one that will see 13,000 new homes and millions of square feet in office and retail space — the equivalent of a small town.

The development team — led by Discovery Builders, which was established by a Seeno family member, along with partners Lewis Concord Member, LLC and California Capital and Investment Group — will partner with the city to see the project through in good faith.

The city and developers will try to nail down financial details and create a specific plan for using the U.S. Navy-owned land over the next six months. Within the next two years, the two sides hope to figure out the project’s environmental impacts, by which point the Navy expects to have transferred the land to the city after assessing it for toxic waste.

Going back several generations in the East Bay, the Seeno companies have a track record of suing public agencies and fighting with environmental groups and housing advocates, though they have also fostered strong relationships with local labor.

Council members Carlyn Obringer and Laura Hoffmeister, who had voted for competing developer Brookfield Properties during a selection process in August, decided to move forward with the Seeno team on Tuesday. Both urged city staff to make sure that key features of the eventual development — including a guarantee of 25% affordable housing among the new homes — survive the two sides’ negotiations. They also pressed for the agreement to safeguard against future litigation from the companies.

“It is my expectation that the development group is going to operate in a good-faith manner with the community, with the City Council with city staff and key stakeholders,” Obringer said at the meeting.

Part of the council’s decision stemmed from a desire to move forward with the project after a long dormancy. Last year, the city reached a dead end with former master developer Lennar Corp, which walked away after refusing to hire local labor for construction work.

“If we were to reverse course today, I’m not sure how many people, given what happened to Lennar… would be willing to come in and participate in a process with Concord,” Guy Bjerke, the city’s economic development director, said at the meeting about the prospect of rejecting Seeno and rebooting the search for a developer.

Bjerke further warned that if the city were to revert to square one, the Navy could possibly grow impatient and decide to auction off its former weapons site land instead of transferring it to Concord.

While many public comments at Tuesday’s meeting took aim at Seeno’s litigious history, there were dozens of other speakers who praised the companies’ efforts to hire local union workers.

“We need workers that are getting good on-the-job training,” said Israel Avila, a local carpenter, “and we need the council to support good partners like (the Seeno team).”

The new agreement will protect Concord from being sued by the development team if the two sides were to reach an impasse over the project’s details.

To the dismay of Seeno’s critics, the agreement also effectively prevents the council from arbitrarily changing its mind, Bjerke said. Any future disagreements would need to involve the project’s details and not Seeno’s track record.

Discovery Builders, the Seeno team’s leader, recently settled a lawsuit it had filed last year against the East Bay Regional Park District to stop the Navy’s transfer of nearby land for the creation of a new regional park. As part of the settlement, Discovery agreed to set back a housing development in Pittsburg so it won’t encroach upon the park’s scenery.

The companies also previously sued the Navy to halt its land transfer for the Concord Naval Weapons Station redevelopment itself — a short-lived suit that the developer filed after it had lost out to Lennar in the city’s previous search for a master developer.

One of the many residents who called in to Tuesday’s meeting with criticisms of Seeno worried that nothing could stop the companies from one day deciding to use litigation as a weapon in negotiations.

“It seems really naïve and really irresponsible to think our community would be immune to these same behaviors,” said Kat Hannah.

Councilman Edi Birsan, who vigorously defended the Seeno family from what he called personal attacks by critics at the council’s August meeting, said Tuesday that he doesn’t expect the companies’ history of litigation to be a factor in the naval weapons project.

“There is no developer without original sin,” Birsan said, adding later, “there’s going to be so many eyes on this development that I think we’re going to get a damn good job.”

Seeno’s opponents scrambled in recent weeks to change the council’s minds through political pressure, but their efforts fell short. Last week, the Democratic Party of Contra Costa County handily voted down a resolution opposing Seeno’s selection after party members worried taking a stance would jeopardize the Concord council members’ seats in future elections.

As part of the agreement passed Tuesday, the council won’t be allowed to take political donations from employees of the development teams or their subcontractors.

Hoffmeister, one of the two council members not to vote for Seeno in August, pressed city staff to make sure the agreement’s details are bulletproof so that the council doesn’t find themselves in hot water down the road.

“I gave it a valiant charge and tried last time for one of the other candidates,” Hoffmeister said of the master developer selection. “I was not in the majority position.”