Ruby Meadow Housing Decision Delayed

A decision on a 72-unit affordable apartment project planned for “Ruby Meadow” near San Lorenzo Creek is on hold following its unannounced removal from a scheduled Alameda County Board of Supervisors meeting.

The six-acre site is located at Ruby and A Streets near Crescent Avenue on the Castro Valley border with Hayward. The agenda item was penciled in for the Supervisor’s regular meeting last Thursday, but the item disappeared off the agenda without explanation. 

Eden Housing, which has developed numerous nonprofit housing sites in the East Bay and throughout Northern California, wants to build 72-units of housing with 109 parking spaces. The apartments vary in size from studios to three bedrooms.

The county’s Planning Commission had approved the housing proposal, but final approval was needed from the Board of Supervisors.

Some 20 residents had written to the board asking that the item be pulled, saying it was an improper use of funds from Housing Measure A1, passed by voters in 2016. It is not clear if those arguments played a role in the item being removed, however. 

Next week’s board meeting was canceled, and there are not currently any other regular Supervisors' meetings scheduled for January or February.

Calls to Supervisor Nate Miley’s office last week asking why the item was pulled, and when it will next be considered, were not returned.

The Ruby Street project would join several hundred more units of affordable housing Eden is currently developing on several sites in Castro Valley. Their website is https://edenhousing.org.

“This is a 100% affordable housing project that will provide 72 homes for the East Bay’s most vulnerable families, dedicate land for a community trailhead, and permanently preserve a majority of the site as open space,” a spokesperson for Eden Housing had written after earlier board approval of the proposal.

“The project balances the need for housing with responsible management of environmental resources, and it includes many features that the community requested,” they added.

The supervisors were being asked to appropriate just over $10 million in two procurement contracts with Eden, the county’s share of the project cost under Measure A1.

Neighborhood groups including the Grove Way Neighborhood Association and Friends of San Lorenzo Creek have argued that the site is the last creekside open space before the stream enters a concrete culvert the rest of the way to the Bay. Besides a grassy area and some 97 old-growth trees, they say, the site also contains Native American artifacts that date back some 4,000 years.

Also joining in the appeal of the planning commission decision to the supervisors were the Cherryland Community Association, Eden Community Land Trust, Ohlone Audubon Society, Padres Unidos De Cherryland, and My Eden Voice Parks and Open Space Committee.

Challenged to come up with an alternative site for needed housing, the groups produced a list of nearby ones where few signs of nature are left and are not far from the Ruby Meadow site. These were presented to the supervisors and also shown on the Save Ruby Meadow website, www.saverubymeadow.org.

The site for the proposed housing is among several hundred parcels originally seized by Caltrans to build the Interstate 238 Freeway through Castro Valley and Hayward. The freeway plans fought considerable opposition and were officially abandoned in 2010.

For artist’s rendering and more information on the Ruby Meadow Apartment project, please visit: https://edenhousing.org/properties/ruby-street-apartments/

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