CV MAC: Dim Sum Planned for Rite-Aid Property

At its Monday night meeting, the Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) heard about possible plans for a long-empty Boulevard eyesore and learned about a possible serious misuse of millions in county park funds.

The meeting started with two hours of discussion regarding the vacant Rite-Aid site at the eastern end of Castro Valley Boulevard. The current owners have found a possible tenant for a portion of the building in a large dim sum restaurant and banquet hall, but neighbors are raising concerns about traffic, food smells, and the overall benefit to the community.

The MAC heard about the earliest planning stages of an HL Peninsula restaurant to the 5.5-acre site at 3836 and 3844 Castro Valley Boulevard. 

There are currently three other HL Peninsula restaurants in the Bay Area: South San Francisco, Burlingame, and Milpitas. These large-scale restaurants can accommodate hundreds of diners and host wedding banquets and other parties.  

The proposed 26,000-square-foot restaurant would not take up the huge Rite Aid footprint even with the large space they would require. The property owners noted they would be in the market for a second tenant for the remaining 40,500-square-foot space.

Well over a dozen speakers addressed the MAC, largely against the restaurant idea. Some said noise, cooking smells, and traffic would be backed up onto the Boulevard. Others said they’d like a children’s play place, a Whole Foods, a Target in the spot, or even a different restaurant with a broader appeal outside the Asian community. 

“I’m going to have to smell the food and hear the noise,” said speaker Matt Cole, who lives nearby. “It sounds like a nice plan, but it would bring a lot of people.”

Jaime Lam said she’d like to see the proposal come to fruition, as dim sum restaurants are a huge draw for large groups. 

“It’s a place where families connect,” said Lam. “It’s intergenerational. It will bring people from all over the Bay Area.”

Craig Semmelmeyer, the developer behind the Castro Valley Marketplace, encouraged the MAC and county planners to ensure a large-scale plan for the site, not just the portion planned for the restaurant.

“We are excited to see a project move forward here,” said Semmelmeyer. We’ve been waiting. Make sure you look at the whole project rather than approving things piecemeal.”

Others said that the community should be happy to see any project at the site after over two decades of vacancy and that ideas like Whole Foods are unrealistic.

“There isn’t anybody else raising their hand (to come into the spot),” said speaker Lynette Stack.  

A Sprouts market was proposed and ultimately withdrawn in 2016. The current owners said Whole Foods might be interested if they offered essentially free real estate, which they won’t be doing.  

“We’ve said no over and over again, and now you have nothing,” said speaker Linda Tangren, a former MAC member. “We have to stop saying no to everything that comes before us and find a way to make things work.”

MAC member Chuck Moore agreed, saying as long as zoning and things like trash enclosures and facade improvements are all in place, it’s not their position to tell an owner what kind of tenant to accept.

If HL Peninsula decides to proceed with its proposal, an application will return before the MAC.

HARD Fees

In other business, the MAC was openly irate after hearing an agenda item regarding spending for Hayward Area Park and Recreation District (HARD).

For years, HARD has collected in lieu fees from developers doing business in the unincorporated area. The current balance of collected fees is $4.1 million, including $2.5 million from Castro Valley. 

This week, the item on the MAC agenda was to create an ordinance that would’ve made the CV MAC and the Eden and Fairview MACs into an advisory committee to spend these park fees.

However, the MAC decided to continue the discussion to a future meeting after it quickly became evident that the issue was complicated. 

Some fees were collected years ago and should’ve been returned after five years if not used. It was also unclear if some funding would be earmarked for specific municipalities or the unincorporated area in general. 

Former MAC member and current Alameda County Planning Commissioner Marc Crawford spoke up, saying the matter should also be brought before the Planning Commission and that he wasn’t getting proper communication from county staff.

“I wanted an accounting of money- some of this happened 20 years ago, and the county ignores this ordinance,” said Crawford. “It makes you wonder if we should even be collecting park fees if they are just going to be ignored for 20 years.”

MAC member Shannon Killebrew said there had been an apparent serious lapse in handling the funds accrued from developers. She wondered, for instance, about interest, and county staff did not have an immediate answer.

“20 years is a really long time to accumulate fees, and I have no idea where they are going on the county’s part,” said Killebrew. “How are we going to have accountability going forward? This is really appalling to me.” 

Moore agreed, saying the request for the MACs to become an advisory body for the funding was inappropriate given the amount of uncertainty surrounding it.

“It doesn’t smell right,” said Moore. “The whole thing reeks wrong. If there was supposed to be a committee to review it, there should have been a committee to review it. The whole thing seems like a bad deal. We should give the money back to the people who put it in the pot. There was no plan for it.” 

MAC Chair Bill Mulgrew also expressed concern that the unincorporated area might have lost interest from potential developers by having these park fees that were ultimately not used. 

“I’m kind of blown away that there’s been a pot of money sitting around for years,” said Mulgrew. “I think it’s borderline criminal.”  

Mulgrew said he’d like to hear more background, get input from the community, and have the matter also go before the Planning Commission. The item was unanimously continued to a future meeting. 

Also, on Monday, the MAC unanimously approved an application to improve the facade of Wendy’s at 2475 Castro Valley Boulevard. 

A fast-food staple on the Boulevard since 1977, the owner plans to spruce the place up with a metal frontage and a more modern “asymmetrical” appearance. The parking lot will also be re-striped, old signage will be replaced, and small interior and landscaping improvements will be made. The restaurant will likely temporarily shut down during the interior renovations. 

The MAC also unanimously approved an amendment to the General Plan that tweaks the zoning map to correct the land use designation for two abutting properties from Public Facility to Rural Residential. 

The sites in question are located at 4820 and 4848 Crow Canyon Road, south of Parkview Road. The owner of both properties wanted to sell off one and needed the amendment to move forward.

Editor’s Note:

In our April 24 edition, we erroneously reported that  HARD collects in-lieu fees from developers. In fact, Alameda County collects "Quimby Act" fees from developers which are expected to be used to improve parks in the areas near those developments. The Forum regrets the error.