Bryant wants people to stay in Brentwood as city continues to grow

“There’s been a tremendous amount of progress,” he said to The Press. “We’re able to start planning for some infrastructure needs and bringing in high-paying, high-quality jobs for local residents.

“The goal is to keep them from having to be gone so much, spending two-to-four hours of their life just commuting every day and being able to work a great career and great job here in town.”

According to the World Population Review, Brentwood currently has 65,618 people calling it home. According to a U.S. Census report from 2021, the median household income in Brentwood is $150,167.

Bryant explained to The Press that companies are starting to see the city as an option for them and that more major companies that come to Brentwood would mean less commuting time and stress for the local residents.

“We are at the point where we are now getting out in the fields of different medical venues and tech venues,” Bryant said. “They are now becoming aware that we are an option for them, technologically, infrastructure, and quality of life as well. We’re able to work with the property owners to attract this out here and the 'reverse commute' or the 'no commute.'

“The idea is that business has changed so dynamically since COVID. A lot of business plans and their business model for the next 10 to 20 years are going to be heavily partnered with commute-less work or work from home, so we are ideally situated as an option for them.”

Part of that tech growth will come from the planned Innovation Center. The $25 million infrastructure improvement project is a privately-owned job-creating business park that has seen its share of challenges as the land that it's planned to be developed on isn’t owned by the city. However, Bryant and the city of Brentwood are confident that once they get the deals done with the property owners, that the technology corporations and medical technology corporations that the city has talked to will start making their way over to Brentwood.

“(Brentwood) is making partnerships with companies that were totally unaware that Brentwood isn’t just agricultural anymore,” Bryant said in his presentation.

Brentwood has seen a massive amount of growth since the turn of the millennium. According to World Population Review, Brentwood’s population in 2000 was about 23,300, doubling a decade later to about 51,500 in 2010. Bryant’s 64,513 total population from his presentation is almost triple that of just two decades ago.

“I love that we have a lot of great families moving to Brentwood,” Bryant said. “Over 20 years ago, it was significantly smaller, but at the same time finding a good balance in the growth point, focusing on the traditional values, the agricultural values and foundation that we have as a community and bringing in new, diverse cultures into our community. We’re becoming a stronger, more integrated community so that we can more appreciate the strengths of different cultures and the ideas that they bring.”

In addition to the continued growth of the city and with the desire to bring the technology industry to Brentwood, Bryant still wants the city to hang onto its agricultural roots. Brentwood identified itself as the ‘U-Pick’ capital of the world. 

“Agricultural technologies and the future, that’s absolutely essential for the city of Brentwood,” Bryant said. “It is our identity.

Bryant also gave several other updates through the hour-long presentation.

He mentioned in his presentation that the expansion of the wastewater treatment plant is in the second year of its three-year, $65 million project and is going according to schedule, and that once the expansion of the water treatment plant is complete that the city “will be able to take care of any of the future growth of the city far into the future.”

He also gave an update to the improvements of the parking garages by City Park and the Highway 4 Livorna Road sound wall project this summer. 

Bryant gave new details on the Sand Creek Road extension that was approved by the county and that it was delayed due to 11 mating pairs of golden eagles that all found a tree in the middle of the construction area. The project will continue once the eagles leave their nest.

One of the other big projects that has begun is the Highway 4 overcrossing at Mokelumne trail. 

According to Bryant, the trail will link six Bay Area counties, starting near South San Francisco and going all the way out to the foot of the Sierra Nevada. The city also did not pay anything toward the project as it was funded by the developers as part of a multi-county regional transit system. 

He also commended the police department, especially after they released their video explaining the events of the March 12 shooting on Sycamore Avenue.

“Some of the recent incidents that have happened here in the city of Brentwood highlighted the professionalism, the bravery, and the sacrifice that our officers show on a daily basis,” Bryant said. “The video is out everywhere and I want to thank the staff and our police department. I have friends and acquaintances from all over the world that are in military and law enforcement, and every single one of them said (they) have never seen an incident reported with such clarity, transparency and such professionalism.”

The city is also getting two new fire stations within city limits.

In the next two years, Station 51 will take its place on Empire Road and Amber Lane, while Station 54 will call downtown Brentwood on First Street home. The goal of the new station houses is to cut down response time by ConFire, especially to areas like Knightsen, Bethel Island, and Discovery Bay.