MAC Reviews Grove Way Housing

A new affordable housing project is being proposed on Grove Way, the Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) heard at their meeting Monday night. 

The property, located at 1467 Grove Way, about 250 feet from Foothill Boulevard, is owned by the City of Hayward and Berkeley-based affordable housing specialist group Resources for Community Development (RCD). 

RCD currently has 5,000 residents in its affordable housing projects throughout the area.

RCD told the MAC they are looking into securing state funding to allow the project to come to fruition, and they are currently in a “hopeful stage.”

According to Nora Guzman of RCD, state funding decisions will be announced in August. Guzman said they are also looking at other funding sources and would return to the MAC with more detailed plans in the future.

The tentative plan would be to demolish four existing buildings on the Grove Way site and renovate two others to create “Bridge Court,” a housing development with seven residential units and one retail space. 

This would not impact current residents, as the property is not fully occupied, Guzman added.

The MAC expressed that they’d like to see some sort of childcare element included in Bridge Court, as has been the case with other affordable housing developments. They said they hoped RCD would be successful in its attempts to secure state money.

“We wish you all the luck with your funding- we hope you get it all,” said MAC Vice Chair Chuck Moore.

T-Mobile Towers on Crow Canyon

Also, at this week’s meeting, the MAC continued a vote on a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to allow T-Mobile to continue operating a cell tower in the agricultural area. 

Currently, telecommunications companies Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile all operate antennae at faculties located at 10410 Crow Canyon Road. 

Many of these have been operating since the late 1990s and early 2000s, with ten-year CUPs periodically expiring and renewing. 

The issue is that, for the past twenty years, the condition of the CUPs has been that the towers be camouflaged in some way, and they have not been. They are currently housed in small buildings. 

The MAC continued the T-Mobile CUP, but they aren’t the only ones that do not comply with the desired landscape and camouflage conditions. The MAC said it’s time to start requiring compliance moving forward. 

“To be perfectly honest with you, it’s pretty ugly,” said Moore of the facility, which is visible on the ridge top. 

Moore said that more modern cell towers, often disguised as trees and other natural structures, are as visually disruptive. 

“It’s a good start to require (landscape improvements) so they don’t become unsightly,” said Moore. “God knows we need the service- we don’t want to discourage it.”

MAC member Ken Carbone agreed, “It’s a needed service, there’s no doubt. Hopefully, the conditions will be met.”