Newsom Signs Law Tailor-Made For Concord Base Redevelopment

CONCORD, CA — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation seeking to push forward Concord's plans to redevelop the former Naval Weapons Station with 12,272 homes, commercial space, and more than 800 acres of local parks and trails.

Senate Bill 328, authored by Sen. Tim Grayson, follows an agreement with the U.S. Navy and years of planning and public input.

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Assemblymembers Ávila Farías and Buffy Wicks, who represent East Bay and Contra Costa counties, served as principal coauthors.

"Passage of SB 328 gives the City of Concord, Brookfield, and Concord residents certainty to move from vision to reality," Mayor Laura Nakamura said in a statement released Wednesday.

"Coming on the heels of the landmark agreement with the U.S. Navy, the legislation keeps this project moving forward to produce thousands of well-paying construction jobs and add many homes to our community," Nakamura said.

The proposed development would designate 25 percent of its homes as affordable to working families, seniors, and first-time buyers. Plans also call for approximately 6 million square feet of commercial space supporting up to 26,500 jobs.

In the coming months, Concord and Brookfield will engage residents in preparing a Specific Plan, the detailed blueprint for future development.

That plan will establish land uses, neighborhood character, transportation networks, infrastructure, public amenities, parks and open space, and design standards.

The law is not without opposition, which centered on how far Concord should ease environmental review and public-land requirements to advance the Naval Weapons Station redevelopment, and whether the project will deliver its promised affordable homes.

SB 328 aims to accelerate redevelopment of the former Concord Naval Weapons Station by allowing qualifying projects to rely on previously completed environmental reviews and exempting land transfers from the usual Surplus Lands Act process.

Under the provisions described, projects that match the adopted reuse plan's land-use types and locations would satisfy CEQA through the existing environmental impact report and addendum.

Projects that relocate a planned land use would receive additional review that builds on earlier studies without repeating their analysis. Courts would resolve challenges to project approvals, including supplemental environmental reviews, within 270 days where feasible.

The redevelopment plan calls for more than 12,000 homes, with 25% affordable to lower-income households, and more than 6 million square feet of commercial space. Brookfield's commitments include infrastructure and prepared sites for affordable housing, financial contributions, parks, trails, school sites, community facilities, and a project labor agreement.

The central policy dispute concerns accountability. Concord argues that applying surplus-land requirements to every phased transfer could disrupt the master developer's ability to coordinate construction and finance infrastructure.

SB 328 would protect those individual transfers from challenges and generally require challenges to compliance with the Surplus Lands Act within 180 days of signing the development agreement.

The bill preserves the 25 percent affordability requirement, prohibits the city from weakening it through amendments, and allows later challenges if the completed project falls short.

The question is whether those protections provide sufficient oversight during a redevelopment that could unfold over decades, particularly if enforcement depends on evaluating affordability at completion.