MAC Board Upset with State’s Plan to Add 1,978 Homes in CV

A frustrated Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) and several public speakers discussed plans to expand housing in the unincorporated area for nearly three hours at Monday night’s MAC meeting.

State law requires each jurisdiction to revise its housing element every eight years. Alameda County is currently towards the end of another cycle and is currently detailing a draft of the housing element to the various MACs.

Due to state Senate Bill SB35, counties and cities throughout California have had housing quotas handed down to them- a Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA). The RHNA is based on estimates from the state about the amount of residential construction that will be needed to fulfill housing needs based on projected population growth.

The state’s RHNA for unincorporated Alameda County is 4,711 units of housing between 2023 and 2031. Of these, 1,252 are designated for very low-income housing, 721 for low-income housing, 763 for moderate income, and 1,976 for above moderate income.

The county has identified a “sites inventory” of possible places where housing can be developed or where projects are already planned. These sites include vacant public and privately owned parcels. The government would not develop these projects, but rather individual property owners.

In Castro Valley specifically, 1,978 possible units are part of the RHNA, which would account for 42 percent of all the unincorporated units, and of these, about 52 percent would be low or very low-income units.

Key sites that have been identified include the Bay Fair and Castro Valley BART station parking lots, the county radio communication station at Foothill Boulevard and 150th Avenue, the First Presbyterian Grove Way site adjacent to Trader Joe's, and the San Lorenzo Village area.

The MAC and a flurry of public speakers expressed frustration that a large amount of housing is being thrust upon Castro Valley from the state and county level with no infrastructure to support it.

“1,978 homes are a lot of homes,” said MAC member Tojo Thomas. “Property crime is up all over. We want to maintain quality of life. Are we going to have enough law enforcement? Everybody in Castro Valley, including me, wants to keep quality of life the same.”

The county staff said the sheriff's office will review and comment on the housing element draft before it is finalized. Others spoke up with concerns about construction, school capacity, and traffic.

MAC member Al Padro asked county officials what would happen if they simply did not comply with SB35.

“What if we don’t?” asked Padro. “What if we say as a community, ‘We can’t accomplish this?’ What if we simply say that our infrastructure can’t handle this.”

If the county doesn’t submit a housing element to the state, they would receive non-compliance letters from the state, then be referred to the attorney general's office and potentially taken to court. County officials say that no other jurisdictions that have attempted to get out of SB35 have succeeded. Eventually, the state would come in and take over the county Planning Department.

The MAC was clearly upset at having little control over the matter, though they thanked the county staff for their hard work.

“The lunacy of the state is beyond me,” said MAC member Ken Carbone. “We don’t have the infrastructure for anything like this.”

The MAC also said they wanted to hear from CVSan and the school district if they could sustain many new residents.

“Before we build houses, we need to build schools,” said MAC Chair Bill Mulgrew. “There are so many questions and issues.”

The housing element was a discussion item at Monday’s meeting, so no vote on the matter was taken. There are still a few opportunities for public comment before the draft reaches the Board of Supervisors for approval (scheduled for September 21).

County staff will present the draft again at the San Lorenzo Library on Monday, August 21, at 6:00 p.m., at the Agricultural Advisory Committee meeting on Tuesday, August 22, and at a Planning Commission meeting on Tuesday, September 5. The public may also leave comments on the county's website at https://alamedacounty.consider.it/ or via email housingelement@acgov.org

Because the housing discussion dominated the meeting, the Board voted to hear an update on the Castro Valley Central Business District Specific Plan (CVCBD SP) at a future meeting.

In other MAC news, last month, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors approved extending the service tenure of MAC Board members Tojo Thomas and Chuck Moore for another four years apiece.