By Rick Radin
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 06/24/2011 09:22:09 PM PDT
Updated: 06/25/2011 12:28:42 PM PDT

Plans are on track for a transit village on a 50-acre site around the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station.

City planning commissioners are expected to weigh in on revises to the project's master plan in August. After that, it could go to the City Council for approval as soon as late August or early September, said Leigha Schmidt, a Pittsburg associate planner.

Pittsburg is hosting a final open house on the master plan Tuesday as part of a public review period that ends Aug. 1.

The master plan calls for retail stores, plazas and high- and medium-density housing, enabling residents to leave their cars at home while commuting to any part of the Bay Area served by BART.

"The housing market is what it is, but City Council approval would pave the way for development," Schmidt said. "It doesn't mean development will occur right away."

With the master plan and an environmental study in place, the city could form a joint powers authority with BART, leading to a deal with a master developer, Schmidt said.

The master plan calls for transforming the area around the station "from a suburban neighborhood to an urban center," said Loreli Cappel, a senior urban designer with Oakland-based PMC, a consultant on the master plan.

The goal is to build a self-contained community around the BART station, Cappel said.

The areas in and around the current BART parking lot would be developed with condominiums and apartments in buildings from two to five stories, with retail stores spread throughout the development.

BART owns the eastern half of the site, which is mostly covered by parking lots, and the vacant western half is owned by West Coast Homebuilders, an affiliate of Concord-based A.D. Seeno Construction.

Planners have remedied traffic-related concerns cited in study sessions on the master plan last year, Schmidt said.

"We made changes to the traffic patterns that give more consideration to pedestrians and pedestrian drop-off," Schmidt said.

"The planning commission felt that too much of the plan was given over to vehicles."

Similar transit villages have been built around the Pleasant Hill, Dublin-Pleasanton and Union City BART stations, she said.