Brentwood
Transition is the name of the game in Brentwood these days, as years of double-digit housing growth came to an abrupt halt amid the mortgage and financial crisis sweeping the country. While the expectation among city leaders had been that a shift from residential to economic growth was on the horizon, the speed with which it overtook the city of Brentwood required a quicker adaptation than planned.
The city of Brentwood, which is expected to reach a population of 63,000 by 2012, has been able to respond, maintaining a balanced budget and a healthy reserve of 30 percent of its annual operating budget. some growth-related jobs at City Hall were trimmed, but the police budget has remained intact. Also, the authority and practice of the Code Enforcement Department were enhanced to keep the city looking good in the face of empty houses resulting from the real estate slump.
Meanwhile, the first phase of the biggest retail project in Brentwood’s history, the Streets of Brentwood, opened in 2008. The first 300,000 square feet of upscale shopping, dining and entertainment – Rave Motion Pictures operates a 14-screen, all-digital theater at the Streets – will eventually grow to 400,000, adding more than $1 million per year to the city’s sales-tax coffers.
In 2009 work began on the construction of a new $38 million downtown civic center complex, including a new city hall, community center, expanded library, parking structure and a re-vamped City Park. A second major downtown project, a $10 million streetscape project designed to make the city’s traditional business core more pedestrian friendly and encourage outdoor dining, is planned to coincide with the civic center project. Both projects are expected to be finished in 2011.
Agriculture continues to play an important part in the the life of Brentwood. The City Council continues to work with the Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust on acquiring easements that will keep nearby farmland in agriculture in perpetuity. Winemaking and organic farms, as well as the area’s famed U-Pick farms, continue to help the Brentwood area serve as the transition zone between the suburban areas to the west and the breadbasket of the Central Valley.
