Merced project supported by City Council would add thousands of housing units to city
Marking a move decades in the making, Merced City Council on Monday unanimously voted to support the preliminary annexation application for the Virginia Smith Trust (VST) development project moving forward, which would eventually integrate 654 acres of mixed-use property into the city.
Located south of the UC Merced campus at the northeast corner of Cardella and Lake roads, the project would add an estimated 3,857 total dwelling units to housing-scarce Merced — and significantly boost trust scholarship funds available for Merced County students.
“I for one am very supportive of the project,” said Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Blake, who filled in for the absent Mayor Matt Serratto on Monday. “It just look like a wonderful project.”
The trust was established in 1975 via the Last Will of Virginia Smith, which specified that students in need should receive a scholarship per year.
The Merced County Board of Education, serving as trustee, made VST a permanent scholarship fund in 1984. Around 35 to 50 local students are currently granted a scholarship each year.
The VST development project was first conceived of in the 1990s, when the trust property was pledged to a burgeoning UC Merced. The university, which opened in 2005, was built on the trust land.
“We often refer to this as being the other half of the Merced promise. When the UC was encouraged to come to Merced, there were two promises made,” project planner Stephen Peck said of the potential annexation on Monday. “We think we’re ready to go, we did our original planning 20 years ago.”
Building Merced housing, giving back to local students
Along with VST donating thousands of acres to UC Merced, the project proposed developing a world-class neighborhood next to the campus that would become a community for UC Merced students and staff, Peck said.
As part of that promise, any proceeds from the development of the VST project would go into an endowment and expand the scholarship program “exponentially,” he said.
Long-term community benefits of developing the VST property are estimated to establish a more than $100 million endowment that will offer $8 to $10 million annually to provide scholarships for Merced County students.
Representing growth on the scale of 50 times the current level, the increased funds would allow students graduating high school to apply for VST scholarships. Currently, only college students are eligible.
“The children of Merced will benefit long into the future, long after we’re gone and forgotten,” said Merced County Office of Education Superintendent and VST Executive Director Steve Tietjen.
Project timeline
The development project timeline spans in two phases over the course of 2025 through 2042. A combination of student housing, apartments, town homes and single-family units make up the over 3,800 imagined units.
More than 2,100 of those total units are planned as multi-family homes intended to suit students and other lower-income residents.
“This is a project that was designed based on the needs of the community,” Peck said, noting Merced’s need for this type of housing. “Students need multi-family housing. Staff and instructors at the university need multi-family housing.”
Affordable housing projects are planned to account for a portion of developments, too. Although no extremely low income units are part of the project’s conception, 75 units are planned for very low income levels, 1,367 for low income residents and 1,682 for moderate income earners.
The community will also include 862,000 square feet of retail, office and hospitality space, as well as various neighborhoods, parks, a clubhouse and town center. In total, more 2,400 jobs and $8.9 million in city revenue is projected to come from the project, according to Merced Planning Manager Kim Espinosa.
Merced City Council’s action on Monday gave support to the potential annexation of the VST development project, representing a critical step in a vision that is still decades in the making.
“(It’s) one of the greatest projects that is probably going to hit Merced in a long, long time,” said City Councilmember Fernando Echevarria prior to the unanimous vote of support.
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 12:14 PM.
