DANVILLE - A proposal to build apartments, retail and office space on the 10-acre Navlet's site at Camino Ramon and Sycamore Valley Road had its first public airing Tuesday night, before the Town Council and the planning commission.

The Navlet's site is the last significant commercial parcel in town.

Local developer Blake Hunt Ventures wants to build 48,450 square feet of specialty retail and office space on 5 acres of the land, and 54 multi-family rental apartments on 21/2 acres. The remaining 21/4 acres would contain a new Navlet's garden center on the southern portion of the site. Navlet's now operates a garden center and rock and gravel operation there; the mixed-use project would be called the Rose Garden.

The high visibility "gateway" parcel has been eyed by developers for more than a decade. Various proposals to build a hotel, home improvement center or grocery-drug store complex have fallen away, partly due to discouragement by town planners over traffic issues or appropriateness of those uses there.

Brad Blake of Blake Hunt hopes this new proposal will see the light.

"We were encouraged by the council and the commission and plan to move full speed ahead (considering their) comments and suggestions," Blake said Wednesday. "We would like to think we have credibility with the council."

Blake Hunt hopes to have a formal application to the town within the next few months. Tuesday's study session was the first of many public meetings to come.

Longtime Councilman Mike Doyle sees merit in the project, especially the housing units.

"I wish we had more apartments in town," Doyle said. "It is difficult for young people who have grown up here to afford to move back and have a place of their own."

There is a median home price of $800,000 in Danville, and a limited number of affordable housing units or apartments for young families.

Planning commissioner Mark Graham said most residents' comments Tuesday focused on concerns about the traffic another retail complex would generate. Graham said there would be no driveways on or off Sycamore Valley Road, and a thorough traffic analysis will be part of the project planning.

The parcel is bounded to the west by a Best Western lodge, a restaurant and service station, and by the Iron Horse Trail to the east. It's across from the park-and-ride lot to the north, with residential neighborhoods to the south.

"I give credit to the developers who brought this out early to give people a chance to get their voices heard," Doyle said. "People have to know something is going in there eventually."