Piedmont's City Council is set to decide Monday whether Eden Housing and City Ventures should become the development team tasked with building new housing on city-owned land in Moraga Canyon. The vote, scheduled for the council's Nov. 16 meeting at Piedmont City Hall, 120 Vista Avenue, would not green-light a finished project, but it could authorize city staff to begin exclusive negotiations aimed at a future development agreement.
According to Piedmont Exedra, the meeting starts at 6 p.m. and residents can take part either in person or remotely via Zoom. A three-month review by a city selection committee, whose members brought expertise in real estate finance, housing development, land use planning, and architecture, led to the recommendation now before the council. Under the proposed arrangement, Eden Housing would lead the team and handle the affordable housing component, while City Ventures would be responsible for the market-rate units.
What the Selection Committee Found
The committee conducted multiple interviews, reviewed each firm's financial capacity and development experience, ran reference checks, and assessed each company's track record against the plan's requirements, per the same account. Reviewers concluded that both firms have strong credentials and a history of successfully delivering housing projects in partnership with local governments. Project references described the developers as collaborative, responsive problem-solvers who communicate effectively and engage constructively with communities, and together the two firms bring more than 70 years of combined experience working with public agencies.
Eden Housing has built affordable housing communities elsewhere in the Bay Area, including in Castro Valley, Mountain View, and Fremont. City Ventures, meanwhile, has developed residential projects in Novato, Moraga, Oakland, and San Mateo.
A Preliminary Concept, Not a Final Plan
The development team's early concept calls for 132 homes on the south side of Moraga Avenue, split between 81 affordable apartments and 51 market-rate townhomes. Further development on parcels at Abbot Way and Maxwelton Road is proposed only after additional topography investigation. City officials have been explicit that selecting a development team does not approve a specific project or authorize construction.
The City of Piedmont first sought a development partner through a request for qualifications issued in May 2026, looking for a team with the expertise and financial resources to meet the community's vision for Moraga Canyon, according to the City of Piedmont's request for qualifications. That document required any proposal to include at least 132 units, with the greater of 60 units or 40 percent of the total set aside as affordable, and specified that up to 5.09 acres of the overall 22.8-acre Moraga Canyon site could be developed for housing. An earlier Exedra report on the council's March 16 session had described the adopted plan as calling for a minimum of 130 multifamily units rather than 132; the discrepancy between the two figures is not explained in available city records. That same March report also noted that the RFQ process itself does not approve a specific development proposal, a framing the city has repeated as the project has moved forward.
Next Steps and Lingering Conditions
If the council authorizes negotiations Monday, an exclusive negotiating agreement would begin a process toward a development agreement without committing the city to a specific project, and would establish a formal method for evaluating site conditions, refining plans, and negotiating potential terms. That agreement is expected to return to the council for further consideration in early 2027. Any specific development plans, land use approvals, and a potential transfer of city-owned land would still require separate future council review and approval, and city officials say future project review will include additional opportunities for public engagement.
The city has framed the push to select a development team partly around its Housing Element commitments and the desire to preserve access to funding, including $2.1 million in Measure A-1 funds earmarked for Piedmont. The Moraga Canyon Specific Plan itself, adopted in October 2025 after more than two years of study and community engagement, envisions a new neighborhood on city-owned land that would allow up to 132 new homes, including 60 affordable to lower-income households, alongside road safety improvements and new requirements for building design, landscaping, and wildfire safety.
