Bahia Project

LATEST UPDATE

Ryder Homes purchased the property and is building nine $1.2 million-plus homes in the project, called Bahia Heights. View the Ryder Homes Bahia Heights Video.

HISTORY OF THE BAHIA PROJECT

Beginning in 2009, SALT and NFH began to consider development options for a beautiful site located in Novato, California. Known as “Bahia,” this site offers rolling hills, serenity and views of the San Pablo Bay. We launched an open design competition with the goal of optimizing their site’s potential uses, including ideas that address the need for senior housing in a suburban setting.

This cutting-edge project required designers to present ideas reflecting SALT’s mission of assisting low-income individuals and families find and buy affordable housing, including: 1) innovative, sustainable solutions that can also be applied to meet future housing needs; 2) a zero net energy goal; and 3) other benefits including job creation, carbon reduction, cost reduction and opportunities for local food production/agriculture.

We received submissions from over 100 teams, reflecting a broad range of creative ideas. From these submissions, our jury (link) selected 5 Finalists and additional designs that are in keeping with predevelopment guidance received from the City of Novato Planning Department and consistent with neighborhood characteristics and response. These entries may be viewed in the design gallery.

We took the ideas and designs from the winning entries to the Novato City Planning staff in spring 2010 for comment and consideration. Unfortunately, the city planning staff advised that the Bahia site isn’t well-suited for senior housing, and that instead the community would be best served by subdividing the site into 17 lots for single-family homes, with the possibility of additional affordable units on some of those lots. See the site plan depicting Bahia’s conceptual development: Page 1 and Page 2.

We would like to express our appreciation to all those who took part in organizing, judging and participating in the design competition.

In the end, the property was deemed suitable for single-family homes. Ryder Homes purchased the property and is building nine $1.2 million-plus homes in the project, called Bahia Heights.