SANGER – The Sanger City Council has cleared the way for vacant land in the southwest corner of the city to start taking on the shape of a new neighborhood.
The city council unanimously approved the final map for a 147 single-family home subdivision, the first phase in what will eventually become a 490-home development built by San Joaquin Valley Homes. At the Sanger City Council meeting on June 27, council members had minimal comments on the project but thanked City Engineer Josh Rogers for his work in preparing the subdivision agreement.
“I know, this is kind of a big deal for us, so thank you,” Mayor Frank Gonzalez said.
The development in question is the Somerset Residential Community, located south of North Avenue between Bethel Avenue and Greenwood Avenue, just west of the new Serenade development.
Alongside the 147 single-family homes, the first phase of the project will see the complete construction of a 10-acre park, Rogers said. The park will be located in the southwest corner of the development off Bethel Avenue and will feature playground equipment, restrooms, parking, electric vehicle charging stations, baseball and softball fields and more.
Further, SJV Homes will contribute significant infrastructure improvements in the area surrounding the development. Rogers said this will include oversized sewer and water pipeline improvements along the major streets that border the development, a storm drain basin, major stormwater trunk lines and a traffic signal at the intersection of North and Bethel Avenues. The oversized pipeline improvements will help the city serve both the planned development and any future growth within the same area.
Rogers said the improvements incorporated into the first phase are what would normally be beyond the requirements of an individual project.
Developers are required to either pay development impact fees to help pay for upgrades to city infrastructure or to build or expand upon infrastructure themselves. If the infrastructure work a developer does is more than what is required of it, the city will reimburse the developer with money saved in its development impact fee funds.
Considering the improvements SJV Homes will make during the first phase, the developer would be due about $3.5 million in reimbursements from Sanger at the end of the phase, Rogers said.
“That does not account for future phases of that project then coming in,” Rogers said. “They’re going to pay some fees too, so at the end of the project, I think we estimate that there will be a little bit of reimbursement owed out of the park impact fee fund, but a lot of the other fees, either there will still be some owed or they’ll be pretty close to even.”
According to a city staff report, the tentative map for the full 490-home development was approved by the Sanger Planning Commission in March and May 2023. That map includes 197 single-family lots, a small lot development of 293 homes, 11.6 acres of parks, open space and trails and a 6.5-acre recharge basin, all across 99.4 acres.
The 197 single-family lots will have an average size of 6,600 square feet, while the 293-home small lot development will have an average size of 2,880 square feet. The planning commission has already approved a conditional use permit for planned unit developments that are a part of the small lot development, required because of the smaller-than-standard size.
