County Looks for Places to Add Housing

Alameda County’s Community Development Agency (CDA) says it is closer to a plan to add 4,711 units of new housing that the state is requiring them to build in the next eight years in the unincorporated areas, including Castro Valley and Eden. That’s up 2,000 units from the number required in the previous plans.

Last week, the Agency finished taking public comments about the county’s Housing Element update and will send its draft plan to the state for its 90-day review. The draft calls for increasing density in some places, including along Castro Valley Boulevard and Fairview. Several dozen public comments were received, and members of the public have another 60 days to make further comments to the state agency considering the plan.

The draft reveals proposals to increase the density of new housing built along Castro Valley Boulevard to 60 units per acre, compared with the 40 units per acre proposed in the first draft of the update.

In Fairview and northern Castro Valley, the CDA's proposal would increase the density on large, currently vacant lots to 17 units per acre. That would be enough to allow lower-density townhomes to be built there, but it would be lower than called for in most rezonings, the CDA said.

San Lorenzo Village could see its sites increase to 86 units per acre, up from 60 in the first draft the CDA proposed.

A few parcels where CDA had hoped to build housing have also become unavailable, including the Sheriff’s Emergency Dispatch Center on 150th Avenue. BART officials have also delayed any plans to include more housing on its Castro Valley Station property until at least 2034.

CDA is still confident of reaching or slightly exceeding the 4,711-unit goal. 

“We’re looking at some 500 possible housing sites,” said Oliva Ortiz, who is part of the Planning Department’s Policy Planning Team. “We always plan for slightly more housing than is required to make sure we at least meet our goal.” 

CDA staff are also working on zoning changes that protect mobile home park residents from displacement. Ortiz said any further tenant protections the Supervisors pass will be considered in housing plans. For the first time, the state is also requiring localities to consider environmental justice in deciding where to put housing so lower-income people are not further disadvantaged.

Ortiz said the CDA is also working on revising any administrative regulations that might impede building housing if a site is approved, as well as needed neighborhood improvements so that people can happily live in the housing once it is built.

“We’re trying to improve other things they need,” Ortiz said.

When the state certifies the Housing Element, the CDA will ask the Board of Supervisors to rezone some 125 parcels for higher densities of housing or to enable housing if that use is not currently allowed there.

You can read the latest update to the Housing Element at the CDA’s website at www.acgov.org/cda/planning/housing-element/draft-element.htm and send any further comments to the state at HousingElements@hcd.ca.gov.