A vacant church lot on Valentine Avenue in Sebastopol is set to become 39 new homes after the city council granted final approval to the project this week. The development, proposed by Stockton-based Grupe Investment Company Inc., will carve the roughly 2.7-acre property into 20 lots, with 20 primary houses and 19 smaller accessory dwelling units across them; one lot will hold only a primary house.
The site previously belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which vacated the property roughly two years ago, according to San Francisco YIMBY. The city council's approval clears the way for what is described as a 20-lot subdivision with 20 single-family homes and 19 ADUs, for a total of 39 homes on the Sonoma County parcel.
Per the same outlet's reporting, the application was filed under Assembly Bill 1033, a state law that allows accessory dwelling units to be sold as separate dwellings rather than bundled with the main house. That detail matters because it could eventually let buyers purchase individual ADUs on their own, rather than treating them strictly as rentals or in-law units tied to a primary residence.
Design Team and Home Sizes
Bassenian Lagoni Architects is handling the project's design, with the houses depicted as gable-roof starter homes finished in composite shingles, Hardy lap siding, stone veneer, and stucco, the article notes. Sam Harned Landscape Architects is overseeing the site layout, which includes a central courtyard, planters around the surface parking areas, and an accent lawn facing Valentine Avenue.
According to Sebastopol Times, the 20 main homes will range from 1,422 to 1,640 square feet, while the 19 ADUs will each measure 749 square feet. The primary residences are planned as two-story buildings, while the ADUs will be single-story, the publication reports.
Affordability and Parking
Three of the 39 homes will be deed-restricted as affordable for households earning around 120% or less of area median income, the Times reports. The remaining homes and ADUs are generally intended to be sold at market rate, though the developer has not yet estimated what they will cost.
The project also includes 83 parking spaces, more than double the 40 spaces required under city rules, per the same Sebastopol Times account. Residents will also have access to roughly three-quarters of an acre of shared amenity space and landscaped walking paths.
Sewer Capacity and State Law Constraints
Sebastopol Public Works determined that the local sewer system would have sufficient capacity if certain repairs were completed, and the developer has agreed to cover the cost of those fixes, according to the Sebastopol Times report. That finding was one of the technical hurdles the project needed to clear before moving forward.
The newspaper also notes that state housing laws limited how much the planning commission could alter the proposal, since such laws generally require approval absent specific health and safety impacts. Construction is estimated to last around 18 months from groundbreaking to completion, though the project's overall cost has not yet been established.
