MAC: In-Person Meetings Returning Soon
After more than two years of virtual meetings, the Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) will soon be back to meeting in person.
The MAC told county staff that they are tired of tedious tech glitches and Zoom calls and want to get back to meeting in person at the Castro Valley Library, as they did pre-pandemic.
The MAC voted to extend the authorization of remote teleconferencing meetings just one more time in order that Monday night’s meeting could be held but indicated they wouldn’t do so again.
MAC member Chuck Moore is forced to use a satellite link-up to access the internet and he says it causes frustrating lags and delays.
“That is a very unfair way for me to have to sit into a meeting,” said Moore.
MAC member Bill Mulgrew said one solution may be for the MAC to gather in person at the library and perhaps broadcast to the public at home.
“I don’t see the difficulty in doing that,” said Mulgrew.
The County Board of Supervisors is now holding meetings with a hybrid model—Supervisors that want to meet in person can do so and others can teleconference. County staff said that model would trickle down from the Supervisors to other various committees, commissions, and boards and the MAC should be back in person in the next couple of weeks.
The MAC’s frustration with the Zoom meeting bore out moments later when Community Development Agency representatives couldn’t connect to the meeting, causing brief delays. But eventually, everyone came online, and the MAC considered two land-use items.
MA Center Use Permit Vote Delayed
The MA Center, a religious facility that has been operating for decades at 10200 Crow Canyon Road, wants to extend its Conditional Use Permit (CUP). In addition to daily spiritual activities, the facility also hosts twice-annual special events that draw nearly 1,000 people. The ashram also hosts visits in June from Mata Amritanandamayi (known as Amma) the spiritual leader of the center. She is expected to return to the site in 2023, according to a spokesperson.
The County recommended that the MAC approve the CUP, but the council expressed concerns about large groups bottlenecking busy Crow Canyon Road and causing parking issues and about some possibly non-compliant setbacks on the land.
The MA Center’s permitting issues have come before the MAC several times over the past years, with the Center being granted Administrative Conditional Use Permits (ACUP) instead of the more traditional CUPs.
Former MAC member Marc Crawford chimed in at Monday night’s meeting with some background on the project and expressed his skepticism about how the County has been handling the ACUPs and the MA Center in general.
“I’m glad the MAC has their BS detectors on tonight because the staff is shoveling it at you in droves,” said Crawford, adding that he didn’t know why the MA Center has received 10 ACUPs in 10 years when they should need to get a CUP.
“The problem is what they’ve been doing before just doesn’t comply anymore,” said Crawford. “They got it (approval) back in the 80s when things were more lax.”
Mulgrew requested a “tightened up” staff report that considers current regulations and goes more in-depth as to how the MA Center’s use fits into the agriculturally zoned area.
The council unanimously approved continuing the issue until more information is provided.
The MAC also continued a proposal that would have subdivided a site at 2850 Grove Way, abutting Hoffman Way, into four residential lots.
MAC member Al Padro said that he felt the neighbors were not properly noticed about the project coming before the MAC. The county said the correct notices were mailed and posted, but the MAC said they wanted to make the matter expressly clear to the neighboring homes.
Seeking more input from neighbors, MAC member Tojo Thomas motioned to continue the item and that motion was unanimously approved by the MAC.