Lafayette Hillside Memorial could be saved from development
Anyone who has ever driven or taken BART through the city of Lafayette has probably noticed thousands of white wooden crosses, symbolizing the tragic toll of war.
The Lafayette Hillside Memorial didn't start out as a memorial. In fact, it was meant as a protest against the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, but it has come to mean so much more to people.
While the display has been threatened in the past by developers, it now looks like it may be saved by a developer.
When they first went up in 2006, some people were outraged. The in-your-face protest by local contractor Jeff Heaton about the people killed in foreign wars was seen as disrespectful by many.
"It took a lot of bravery for Jeff Heaton and the founders, many of whom are still on the board right now, to protest in that way. It was absolutely a protest," said Lara Dutto, who lives about half a mile away. "And over the years it's just come to take on so many different meanings for different people."
Slowly, the display started to change. People began adding names to the crosses, and sometimes pictures, and before long, the community began to see it as a memorial to their loved ones who were lost.
But it never felt very permanent, sitting on private property right across from the Lafayette BART station, a prime location for housing developers.
So in 2023, Dutto, herself an architect, made a decision to buy the property.
"Well, for years, there was always this risk that it was going to be sold, or we were going to be asked to take the memorial down," she said. "So, I think at that point, I sort of did take a leap of faith in thinking that maybe I could do some housing back here and maybe preserve the memorial as part of that. I didn't see the reason why that needed to come down to do this."
"This" is a housing development on the back side of the hill, 15 single-family homes of different sizes on the 3-acre property, all without touching the cross memorial, which Dutto has already given an easement for the preservation group to maintain.
"Definitely, as a small-scale developer, this is the biggest project I've ever attempted," she said. "But, yet, somehow it feels comfortable because it's in my backyard."
But, the project, called Oak Hill Place is different from most of the homes in Lafayette and Dutto is expecting some pushback. She's erected a string of flags on poles to simulate the elevation of the two-story homes and it's something that Peony Wellen can't really miss.
"It looks like an apartment complex to us, not even like a house," she said, staring up at the flags. "It's very, very close. Yeah, it's right on our backyard."
The new structures will tower over Wellen's home and the pastoral scene from her backyard will not be the same.
"We didn't even expect that," she said. "Because there's so many spaces around here and we have no idea why they have to put that right in front of the neighbor, blocking their view."
Wellen hopes they will make an adjustment to the plans, but state law has given the power to developers to build higher-density housing without much interference from anyone.
So, the city has pretty much admitted that they have no authority to force any changes at all.
The Lafayette Planning Commission will hold its first informational hearing on the new development Monday night.
Dutto thinks her proposal will bring some much-needed new forms of housing to the city. And no matter what happens with it, she's happy to play a part in preserving the protest that became so much more.
"Yeah, makes me proud to be here," she said. "Makes me proud to be in this community that people would put themselves out like that, and made such a statement at a time when it needed to be made."
With its weathered wood and faded flags, the memorial itself has always looked a bit ragged. But Dutto thinks that is its charm. he community built it, cross by cross, and it will continue because they want it that way.
