Harbor Pointe, a $7.44 Million Deferred Developer Fee, and Community Concerns
Updated: Aug 18
What the project proposes
The Harbor Pointe staff material describes a 170-unit affordable rental housing project on approximately 6.03 acres near the Discovery Bay Shopping Center.
The financing plan listed multiple public and private funding sources, including a “Deferred Developer’s Fee” of $7,441,950.
A developer’s fee is compensation to the developer. Deferred does not mean forgiven—it means payment is postponed and may be paid later under the financing agreements.
This is important to taxpayers. Public financial assistance and fee incentives use public resources to help make a project financially feasible. Taxpayers deserve to know what is being provided, what is being deferred, and whether the developer will ultimately receive the $7.44 million.
Discovery Bay residents have raised their own concerns about whether decisions affecting their community are being made with them or for them.
The Harbor Pointe affordable-housing proposal brought many of those concerns into focus.
The Measure X funding
The project material also showed a request for $1,548,560 in Measure X housing funds.
At the May 19 Board meeting, Harbor Pointe was removed from the housing-funding allocation before the remaining motion passed.
That happened only days after the May 16 notice of intent to recall described in my records. The timing caught my attention, although timing alone does not establish why the decision was made.
The larger Discovery Bay concern
Residents have argued that a project of this size should be evaluated alongside Discovery Bay's existing infrastructure and that the community should have a meaningful role in determining what scale of development it can support.
Affordable housing and community infrastructure do not have to be opposing goals.
Good government should be able to sit down with residents, developers and local agencies and work toward a project that addresses both.
What concerns me is the repeated feeling I hear from residents that compromise comes only after decisions have already been made.
What residents deserve
Discovery Bay residents deserve a clear accounting of the project's financing, infrastructure impacts and public subsidies.
They also deserve something simpler: a seat at the table before the County decides what is best for their community.
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