San Ramon is getting ready to come to grips with a giant in its midst: Chevron Corp.’s campus.
“I think the city needs to look at this slowly, with a great deal of forward thinking. This could represent that giant Christmas present of a land use opportunity in a part of town that we never really thought could change,” San Ramon Planning Commissioner Jean Kuznick said during an Aug. 16 commission meeting. “What could it be? It doesn’t have to only be housing.”
And, perhaps most importantly, there’s the will of Bishop Ranch Business Park owner Sunset Development, which sold Chevron the land for its campus more than 40 years ago under a set of terms and conditions that effectively give it permanent control over what kind of development can rise there. “We have always worked in close partnership with the city and agree that adding housing in Bishop Ranch makes sense and will contribute to the city’s process to make it a great place where people want to live,” he wrote. He said Sunset had identified sites — namely surface parking — where residential could be added near jobs, retail and Interstate 680.