Downtown Series: Change afoot for Alamo 

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Alamo is unique compared with its Tri-Valley counterparts for many reasons.

It is the only community in the San Ramon Valley that has been in operation since the Gold Rush era but has not yet incorporated like its neighbors to the south. And while some of its counterparts are grappling with either reinvigorating their downtowns – or creating new centralized neighborhoods from scratch – downtown Alamo is a longstanding hub for a range of retail, dining and services.

“It’s almost like a little city, but not,” said Contra Costa County Supervisor Candace Andersen, whose District 2 represents the community.

Alamo also stands out within the Tri-Valley region for the minimal population growth it’s seen over the years. Its population stood at 15,314 as of the most recent census – a modest 5.1% increase over the 2010 census, which reported a 6.8% decline in population. In short, Alamo’s resident count is currently less than it was at the start of the century, making it the only Tri-Valley community, other than Sunol, that has not seen major population increases in recent years.

But that could be changing in the coming years.

A housing project in the heart of downtown

One factor Alamo shares with its neighboring communities – and much of California – is its own share of a state-mandated demand for increased residential zoning and housing availability in the current General Plan cycle. 

Although they are the final decision-makers on new developments in Alamo, Andersen and her colleagues on the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors receive advice and feedback from two longstanding groups – the Alamo Improvement Association and the Alamo Municipal Advisory Council. 

Those two bodies – and Andersen – have had their hands full in recent weeks, with the county sharing plans for their review on a proposed 60-unit housing project that would replace existing office space across the street from Alamo Plaza.

Multiple shopping centers and storefronts make up downtown Alamo, a two-block stretch along Danville Boulevard on either side of the Stone Valley Road intersection. Alamo Plaza is particularly prominent, housing community essentials such as Safeway, the post office, the Alamo Women’s Club that serves as a primary location for public meetings and the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office’s Valley Station.

More than 60 people attended a virtual meeting of the Alamo Improvement Association last week for a conversation that has come to be a common sight at city council and planning commission meetings in the larger, incorporated Tri-Valley communities. The association’s planning committee led the discussion introducing the proposed project, with developers on hand for a presentation on the item.

The project would see the demolition of two existing office buildings at 3236 and 3240 Stone Valley Road West in order to make way for a cluster of three-story buildings with an underground garage. It is being pursued by developers from Danville-based Blake Griggs Properties, with architecture by the Pleasanton-based Dahlin Group. 

Although the project itself – a major multi-family development – would mark a change in the landscape of downtown Alamo, applicants Brad Blake and Scott Griggs said that their goal was to make something that could serve existing residents, not just newcomers.

“The buyer is likely to be the empty nester or the senior person who is moving out of their single family home somewhere in the area, someone who wants to move into something that’s lower maintenance, secure, sort of no hassle – I guess I’ll call it downsizing,” Blake said.

“And then probably some of the three-bedroom units, families that want to be in Alamo for the schools that can’t afford the typical $3 million to $3.5 million Alamo house,” he added. “We’re thinking that’s probably the market, and maybe some people that were divorced or separated and had to have a separate place to live.” 

“Or what we’ve seen in the project in both Danville and Lafayette is people who have kids in the area, and they’ve moved out of the area to Florida or Arizona or Nevada, and they buy one of these places to sort of come back and have a place to stay locally,” Blake continued.

The current proposal also marks a decrease in density from earlier plans for the site, which would have consisted of 111 units – a decision applicants said had made sense for the needs of the community.

Nonetheless, a 111-unit project would have been allowed – and perhaps even desired – by the county, given the current need for new housing and the increase in new housing opportunity sites assigned to Alamo in the Regional Housing Needs Allocation process. For the site in question, as many as 130 units would be allowed under its current zoning by the county.

“The county went through this process and it was a multi-year study in the General Plan and the zoning and the Housing Element, which has now been in effect for I think it’s going on two years, and there are a variety of sites that have been allocated up to 350 – a goal,” said Cecily Barclay, a land use attorney and member of the Alamo Municipal Advisory Council.

“Actually the range is, if you go to the top range of every single site I think you’ll go over 350 units – I’ve never gone back and looked at the charts again, but it’s actually a lot less than the county originally allocated to Alamo,” Barclay added.

However, a housing project of this scale — and the support for it from county and state government — remains a new occurrence for Alamo, which has traditionally been allocated approximately 50 units by the county in previous RHNA cycles, according to Andersen.

The item was set to be up for discussion again at both a land-use meeting of the MAC and its regular session earlier this week, with results pending as of press time.

“The MAC is an advisory body to the county, so ultimately the zoning administrator and the planning commission will consider their recommendation along with other community recommendations,” Barclay said.

Although the two advisory bodies work closely together, they are distinct groups.

The AIA – which marked its 70th anniversary this year – was founded more than half a century ago, functioning as a kind of overarching homeowners association for the community. Meanwhile, the MAC’s express purpose is to advise Andersen and the Board of Supervisors.

Given the gravity of the proposal in the context of the small community, and the heavy turnout at the AIA meeting on Oct. 1, the project is set for continued lively discussion at the local level.

Concerns abounded from meeting attendees, specifically about traffic impacts, potential parking overflow, the obstruction to hillside views on neighboring properties, and the removal of numerous longstanding trees – as well as the potential for all of those factors to impact property values, in addition to quality of life, for neighboring residents.

Breathing new life

Not all changes in downtown Alamo are controversial, however. As the housing project makes its way through the two local advisory bodies and the Board of Supervisors, another new addition to the area was also underway: Oktoberfest at EJ Phair Alehouse and Pub.

When the pub was first opened in Alamo Plaza in 2019, it was then-brewery’s third location, having first opened in Concord then in Pittsburg. Following the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns, the Alamo location is now EJ Phair’s only one, having nixed its brewing operations and shuttered the two previous outposts.

However, the pub’s roots are in Alamo, where its namesake and co-owner EJ Phair calls home. 

“We don’t have that many emergencies, but let’s say something goes wrong, something with the gas or something breaks, or the water, they all call him because he’ll be here in three minutes,” said co-owner Becky Wynn. 

Despite the closure of their other locations, Wynn said the Alamo pub has continued to establish itself in the community in the years since it reopened, with more and more new faces coming to join the ranks of its established customer base. While most of the clientele is local, Wynn said that she has seen customers visit from as far away as San Jose specifically to taste their burgers.

“It’s a nice community and we really, really like it here,” Wynn said. “It took a few years to get going again, but now I’ve got to say, it’s going.”

The roster of regular customers and their relationships with the small staff – including Wynn’s daughter – are what Wynn and Phair have been seeking to foster since opening the business more than five years ago.

“We wanted to be that place, for lack of a better word, like ‘Cheers,’ where you come here and you know all the bartenders,” Wynn said.

Having recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic closures and established itself as a primary local watering hole – and restaurant, known for its authentic German dishes and weekly specials, as well as staples like burgers and fries – Wynn said that this year was a natural time to start a new tradition in the form of the pub’s first-ever Oktoberfest.

“It’s something different that we have never done before,” Wynn said. “And then I’ve had so many regulars come in and go, ‘Oh, I’m going to come back,'”

The special menu centered on German comfort food from Sept. 20 to Oct. 5 ranged from latkes to jagerschnitzel and bratwurst dinners, with apple strudel and German chocolate cake on the dessert menu, all while taps poured a range of imported German beers.

Although the event had not yet concluded upon speaking with the Pleasanton Weekly, Wynn said that it had already been a major success, and that she was already looking ahead to next year’s celebration. She said she was also eyeing a new springtime celebration next year.

‘It will still look like Alamo’

Not all changes at Alamo Plaza in recent years have been for the better, though. Wynn and Andersen both pointed toward an uptick in vacancies at the shopping center, which include the now-shuttered Rite Aid site that has joined the other vacant storefronts in the area.

Wynn noted that the shopping center has changed owners in the years since EJ Phair opened there, leading to higher rents and a landlord who is less connected to happenings on the ground – which Wynn and other business owners have sought to provide perspective on.

“We’re trying to help them out,” Wynn said.

Nonetheless, the plaza remains a staple, even among the surrounding shopping centers. It’s home to what Wynn said was the nicest Safeway she’s ever been to.

Despite the departure of Rite Aid and other businesses, downtown Alamo continues to offer the basics – specifically Safeway, the post office, one remaining pharmacy in the form of CVS, and a number of casual restaurants – and then some. Salons, medspas, fitness studios, and doctors offices abound throughout the plaza and the surrounding shopping centers.

Andersen noted that Alamo residents generally go to the larger neighboring communities of Danville and Walnut Creek for shopping, recreation and entertainment. But Alamo continues to foster its own local traditions, including an annual tree lighting ceremony at the heritage oak tree at Andrew H. Young Park, the Autos of Alamo car show, which marked its 12th year on Sept. 4, and a popular weekend farmers market.

The community’s beloved characters over the years are also memorialized in smaller, less prominent landmarks throughout downtown Alamo.

Andrew H. Young, the namesake of the small park at the corner of Danville Boulevard and Jackson Way, is memorialized both in the name of the park and a plaque that sits at the base of the prominent heritage oak tree at the park’s center. The tribute to the past Contra Costa Historical Society president, World War II veteran and prolific civic leader was established nearly 20 years ago, following his death in 2000. 

Meanwhile, a newer tribute has been installed two blocks to the south along Danville Boulevard, with chainsaw art on a massive stump outside On Track Learning dedicated to the former property owner Robert Swedberg. The public art installation and tribute was produced on the remains of the old-growth redwood tree at the corner of Danville Boulevard and Orchard Court.

Further south on Danville Boulevard sits a longer-standing landmark – a shoe repair shop, and former post office site topped with a distinctive, life-sized horse sculpture.

The sculpture was installed by the building’s late owner John Bellandi, a prolific rancher, horseman and operator of the now-shuttered Alamo Hay and Grain. He dubbed the horse “Easy Keeper”, contrasting the low-maintenance sculpture with the needs of his more than a dozen live horses – as well as the $900 price tag when he bought it in 1980.

It remains to be seen exactly what new sites will be on display in downtown Alamo by the end of the current Contra Costa County General Plan Cycle in 2040. But what is clear is that there will be new additions and changes, based on the current zoning of the neighborhood.

According to the guiding principles for the area in the county’s General Plan, multi-family homes “should generally be located within one mile” of the downtown neighborhood, with the goal of providing residents of those projects access to transit, services and the Iron Horse Regional Trail. In addition to housing, county guidelines emphasize maintaining and enhancing the community’s commercial core, and to maintain its character as a central gathering space.

Overall, Andersen emphasized that in spite of the relatively high number of new housing units on the horizon, the county’s goal was to minimize the impact of those new residences on surrounding neighborhoods while making downtown a livelier mixed-use neighborhood with increased attractions and services in addition to new housing.

“For anyone who comes to Alamo 10 years from now, it will still look like Alamo,” Andersen said.

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