Zone change OK’d for north Merced apartment project

The Merced City Council has approved a zone change that will allow a developer to put an apartment complex on a parcel on the north end of town that was zoned for houses.

The decision came two weeks after plans for a larger, unrelated complex in north Merced drew complaints from residents and was delayed by the council.

The council on Monday unanimously approved the zone change from low-density residential to village residential for the roughly 6 acres near Horizon Avenue and Pacific Drive.

The two-story complex would be advertised to UC Merced professors and graduate students in particular, according to John Hinchey, director of real estate for Steiner Development Inc. in Atwater.

“There’s a dire need for housing for the UC,” he said. “We’d fill part of that void here.”

The developer is looking at two options for the proposed complex. One would build 136 units with the parking located within the “floodway” of Fahrens Creek, which is to the south of the project. The second option would reduce the number of units to 104 to allow the parking lot to stay out of the floodway, a designated area likely to be underwater during a flood.

The developer could build in the floodway if the building follows certain guidelines that would not change the capacity of the floodway, according to the city’s staff.

“These are steps we’ve gone through before, and we’d allow the applicant to go through that,” said David Gonzalves, the director of development services for Merced.

No members of the public spoke out against the project during the council meeting. Two residents wrote letters of opposition to the city’s planning commission, which approved the project.

“Too many homes were built after the UC was opened and many people expected to buy homes and sell them for profit – this has led to empty homes and unfinished housing developments,” wrote Keith Tetangco in his letter in opposition of the new project.

He lives just north of the new project.

Earlier this month, the council delayed a considerably larger apartment complex less than 2 miles north of the Horizon Avenue project after many homeowners opposed the plans.

The larger project would have had more than 400 units. Area homeowners put together a petition and voiced their concerns to the council, which asked the developer of that project to shrink the size of the complex.

The larger complex is expected to be advertised, at least in part, to UC Merced students.

This story was originally published July 21, 2015 at 5:10 PM with the headline "Zone change OK’d for north Merced apartment project."