Public Hearing: MAC Proposal Criticized by CVUSD, EBMUD and Redwood Chapel

A blueprint for Castro Valley's growth has schools, churches and the East Bay Municipal Utility District upset about a proposed new category of land use (other examples are commercial, single-family, etc.) that is unusually restrictive.

The category is "public facilities," which—as the has defined it—. In other towns "public facilities" , according to Alameda County Planning Director Albert Lopez.

The  will hold a public hearing on the proposal tonight at 6 in the public hearing room at 224 W. Winton Avenue in Hayward. If the Planning Commission approves the plan, it will go next to the county for final approval.

Two of the planning commission's seven members are Castro Valley residents: Ken Carbone and Richard Rhodes. None of the supervisors are Castro Valley residents, although Board President Nate Miley of Oakland regularly champions Castro Valley issues.

The blueprint for growth is officially called the Draft Castro Valley General Plan.

The intention of the new "public facilities" designation is to keep schools, churches and EBMUD from selling property to housing developers and to preserve the land for parks and open space.

However, the designation has also raised unintended consequences for the property holders such as reducing the amount of money schools can raise in a bond measure and giving the county authority over the use of churches.

To see PDFs of the and s objections in their own words, click on the highlighted words in this sentence.

 However, the schools, churches and EBMUD have continued to object to the plan and continue to hope the Planning Commission will understand and respond to their concerns.

The previous plan was adopted in 1985.