Castro Valley General Plan Reviewed
On Monday, the Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) heard a report about the progress on its long-range, big-picture General Plan, the document that will guide Castro Valley’s future on a large scale.
As for specifics, stay tuned. Alameda County staff said that the various elements of the area-specific General Plan will continue to come before the MAC over the next several months before the document is finalized.
State law requires that each city and county in California have a comprehensive General Plan, a local policy document that guides growth on the physical, economic, and environmental level.
The County’s general Plan (which has been adopted by the Board of Supervisors) contains within it three Area Plans. The Castro Valley General Plan, the Eden Area General Plan, and the East County General Plan.
Each Plan serves as a “roadmap” for future development by assessing current needs and trying to anticipate future ones, according to county planners. As time goes on, these multi-year plans are amended as the Planning Commission makes recommendations to the Board of Supervisors based on feedback from the public and MAC.
By State law, each of these General Plans continues seven elements: Land Use, Circulation, Housing, Open Space, Conservation, Safety, and Noise.
Additionally, in lower-income areas, an “Environmental Justice” element must be included in the General Plan. This element is designed to address matters including air pollution, equitable access to public amenities, and food access.
Some of the elements are already in progress. The Housing Element Project Schedule is currently underway with technical studies, site inventories of areas available for residential development, and fair housing all currently being evaluated. A draft of the Housing Element is expected to be available for public review next March, with the final document adopted in February of 2024.
The Environmental Justice Element for the Eden Area MAC is scheduled for August 18 at the Ashland Cherryland Healthy Communities Collaborative. A public review of a draft of the environmental justice element is expected in October.
The timeline for the Safety Element also gets underway this month with a background report. County staff said it anticipates holding three virtual workshops over the next several months, with final County Board of Supervisors approval in December of 2023.
In other MAC news, the Board voted unanimously (5-0) to approve further development of a residential property on 167th Avenue near the intersection of President Drive. The project is exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act; to allow for an attached Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU)—commonly known as a mother-in-law unit—on a parcel that is over 30 percent natural grade.