Appreciation: Dennis O’Brien Fought the Good Fight for More Housing
The Bay Area lost an unsung and accidental champion for housing this week. The Bay Area lost an unsung and accidental champion for housing this week with the passing of O’Brien Homes Founder Dennis O’Brien.
O’Brien founded O’Brien Homes (formerly O’Brien & Hicks, Inc.) with his late partner, Dan Hicks, in 1976. Under Dennis’ leadership the company built and sold more than 6,000 homes and lots throughout the nine-county Bay Area, from Monterey to Napa. Dennis also found time to serve on the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Council and BRIDGE Housing Corporation for 30 years.
However, Dennis was best known in housing advocacy circles for the homes his efforts have not yet built; the Terraces of Lafayette. In 2011 Dennis submitted a plan to build 315 homes on a 22-acre parcel next to Highway 24 in Lafayette. The site had been zoned by the city for over twice that many units and two years later the voluminous environmental impact report was certified. In a normally functioning world that would have meant a relatively smooth path to begin construction…but this is the California housing world.
A well-heeled collection of anti-housing opponents mounted a coordinated campaign to stop the project and used every tool available to them including a referendum, plan changes, legal threats, and hundreds of hearings to try and grind Dennis down. Most other developers would have thrown their hands up in frustration and walked away; not Dennis. He stood his ground on principle and refused to be bullied.
In 2024 Dennis submitted final plan drawings to the City of Lafayette with a proposed timeline to begin construction in 2027… a full 16 years after the first plans were submitted.
Dennis’ fight helped inspire a generation of housing advocates and he was the catalyst that led to many of the housing reforms that have been passed in recent years. He will be missed by all his friends at the Bay Area Council and the broader housing community in our region.
