Chef Thomas Keller Asks City Council to Gather More Public Opinion on Proposed Workforce Housing

Chef Thomas Keller Asks City Council to Gather More Public Opinion on Proposed Workforce Housing

In a city council appearance, the chef reiterates his support for Yountville Commons, but wants more discussion before the plan moves forward.

Yountville Commons is a proposed apartment complex located on 7.5 acres of land that was once the site of Yountville Elementary School. The current proposal calls for 120 units to be built, and the San Francisco Chronicle reports that discussion has heated up around Phase One of the project. Projected to break ground in 2027, an initial 40 apartments will be built, although the mix of housing units has caused disagreement with business owners and the city.

“I am all for employee housing,” Keller told the council members. “Because I know some of you have been sending out the wrong message about, ‘I’m against employee housing.’ I am not. I am for employee housing, but I am for employee housing that is actually going to work.” Keller is among some business owners in Yountville who feel that the proposed housing project doesn’t accurately match the needs of Yountville’s workforce. They’re suggesting that the council take more time to have conversations with the community and businesses “so that you understand what the needs are of our employees,” he said.

In his time at the podium, Keller alleged council members did not reach out to him or other local business owners to have a conversation about the project, stating that business owners he knows have not been part of past development meetings. “As I’ve talked to all of you, no one ever came to me and said, ‘What do you think about this project?’” Keller said. “Nobody, the town manager, town attorney, none of the council people, certainly not the mayor, had ever afforded me the opportunity to actually have a conversation with you about what this plan is.”

Both Keller and Ranch Market owner Arik Housley have called on the Yountville city council to slow down the project to “engage employers and workers more directly, and resolve outstanding financial and design questions before proceeding with major funding and construction decisions,” the two said in a news release on Tuesday, February 10, the Press Democrat reports.

One proposal for this first stage of the project would see eight studios, 16 two-bedroom units, and six one-bedroom apartments being built; another track would see 24 studios constructed, along with 16 one-bedroom apartments, per the Chronicle. The point of contention with Keller and Housley, is the fact that they believe employees want “family-oriented housing,” meaning two-bedroom apartments. In a statement from Housley and Keller, they said the “scale may not work for the workers it is intended to serve.”

Town manager Brad Raulston said that the designs were based on surveys and economic analyses, telling the Chronicle that he finds it “hard to believe” that the studios won’t be in demand. At the very same point, he does admit studios would be advantageous for Yountville, because with more studios, “you can have more revenues.”

A letter signed by Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, Housley, and councilmembers Hillery Trippe and Gary Jabara dated Monday, February 26, and submitted to the council asks that Yountville conduct a “data validation sprint” — what the Press Democrat notes include “a worker survey, an employer survey, worker focus groups, a study of commuting patterns, testing of unit mix demand and unit affordability and a review of policies to target and select employees for the housing without running into issues with fair housing laws that prohibit discrimination.” A town council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 17, to rein in some details of the project, including the final mix of units and how the project will be funded.