Ruby Meadow Housing OK’d to Build

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors has appropriated just over $10 million to build affordable housing at Ruby Meadow over the opposition of several community groups. The vote was 5-0 on Jan. 25.

The supervisors had voted on Feb. 4, 2022, to build the 72 units of housing planned by Eden Housing, a nonprofit that has built affordable housing nearby and throughout northern California but had not yet voted any funding for it. The apartments vary in size from studios to three bedrooms.

The vote on the money had been awaiting funding underwriting, a feasibility analysis, and planning approvals, which have now been completed, according to county housing staff members at the meeting. The money is the county’s share of costs of building the project and utilizes funds from the Measure A1 housing bond passed by voters in 2016.

The supervisors did not discuss the measure at the meeting, other than to ask county staff if there were any remaining blockages to the project. Housing staff and the county council said there were not, with one housing staffer saying that the project fit the general plan and had received necessary approvals long ago.

Two members of the public spoke against it, saying that a wooded natural area would be destroyed for a project that should be built on any of several different, less natural, parcels nearby. They also decried what they considered a lack of proper notice that the project was being discussed and had too few chances for public discussion, given that public bond money was being used.

No members of the public spoke in favor of the project at the meeting. It had received some favorable comments at previous meetings.

Ann Maris of the Grove Way Neighborhood Association, speaking on behalf of GWNA and other community groups including Friends of San Lorenzo Creek, said the project would kill 87 of 97 old-growth trees on the property and come just before SB1000 would take effect in southern Castro Valley. 

That law mandates stricter environmental safeguards for low-income neighborhoods already suffering from pollution, and southern Castro Valley has been designated an SB1000 area, she said. 

Public speaker Tyler Dragoni said building affordable housing using public funds is a municipal project and a process needs to be followed involving the public.

“It’s not housing versus open space, because we can have both,” he said.

After the meeting, Maris said the groups are considering a lawsuit over lack of public discussion, lack of consideration of alternate sites nearby, and environmental effects on the neighborhood.

The housing is planned for a six-acre site on Ruby Street near A Street in southern Castro Valley, with San Lorenzo Creek running on one side. The land is one of several parcels left vacant for years when plans to build Interstate 238 through Castro Valley and Hayward were dropped.

While opponents of the project have been vocal, proponents have made few recent public statements about it. The builders, Eden Housing, have not so far returned calls for comment, and Supervisor Nate Miley’s office referred us to statements supporting the project he made at the time of the 2020 vote. The proposed project sits in Miley’s 4th supervisorial district.