Board of Supervisors Vote 3-0 on Revised Castro Valley General Plan

After a seven-year process, a revised Castro Valley General Plan was approved at Tuesday's Alameda County Board of Supervisors meeting by a 3-0 vote.

"It was a successful day in the sense that this long process came to an end," said Alameda County Planning Director Albert Lopez. 

The General Plan, affecting Castro Valley for the next 25 years, covers major planning issues such as land use, housing, open space, noise, safety, natural resource conservation, community design, development and historic preservation. 

Members of the , and and East Bay Municipal Utility District spoke during the hearing. Areas of the SLUSD are within the boundaries of the General Plan, therefore the decision had an impact on it as well.

The board's decision went in favor of the two elected boards — CVUSD and EBMUD. It was voted on by Supervisors Nate Miley, Wilma Chan and Scott Haggerty. Supervisors Nadia Lockyer and Keith Carson were excused. 

Lopez said the General Plan was "99.5 percent" in agreement among the parties, except for the lingering issue on how to deal with public land.

For months, EBMUD and the school district lobbied against the MAC's desire for the "Public Facilities'" designation, which would allow the public to have influence into what gets built on sold parcels within the General Plan. 

The school district said this would increase costs and add an "unnecessary layer of regulation" to the process of disposing of surplus school property — a process the district has used for more than 30 years.

The plan was originally adopted in 1985. MAC officials said this plan was out of date and did not reflect the demographic and financial changes in Castro Valley over the past 20 years. Redrafting efforts began in summer 2004 with a full redraft published in early 2007.

According to Lopez, county planners worked many hours with the council, taking all their suggestions into consideration prior to crafting .

"[The MAC] wanted local control over land," Lopez said. 

To address the MAC's concerns, the board ended up introducing new language highlighting this public benefit issue. It requires that if school surplus property were sold to a developer, it would need to prove to the county that it would be used in benefitting the public in some way such as a park, trail, recreation center or low-income housing.

"We're pleased it's over," said CVUSD Superintendent Jim Negri. "We can move on. We got a lot of other things to be dealing with."

You can watch or hear archived video and audio recording of previous board meetings by visiting the following website: http://www.acgov.org/board/broadcast.htm