Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Good evening, everybody. And welcome to the July 13th land use meeting of the Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council. We're glad you're all here. And welcome to the folks online and to our esteemed council and staff. Let's start the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. Council Member Devaney, would you lead us, please? Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Dan? All right. May we have the roll call, please, Rodrigo?

Yes. Member Thomas is excused. Member Mota?

Present.

Member Fiebig? Present. Member Davis?

Present.

Member Devaney. I'm here. Vice Chair Moore. Present. Chair Mulgrew.

Present.

We have quorum.

Thank you. All right, we will now take public comment from anyone in the room or online who wishes to offer comments on the call to order, the Pledge of Allegiance, or the roll call. Is there anyone here who wishes to comment on any of those items? Do we have anyone online that wishes to?

Nobody online has raised their hand to speak on these items.

A closed public comment on that item? Please. Commenting on either the call to order the Pledge of Allegiance or the roll call? Okay. That's coming. Yeah, thanks. All right. And I'm sorry, we said there's nobody online that wishes to. That is correct.

There's nobody online who has raised their hand.

All right, closing public comment on item A. Item B, this is the time for public announcements and open forums for anyone online or in the rooms to comment or discuss or talk about anything that is not on tonight's agenda. So if you wish to speak on something that is not on tonight's agenda, would ask that you please fill out one of these and they're on the table in the back and bring it up to the staff table. Tonight, because of the crowd and the time, we're going to limit public comment to two minutes and would just ask that if someone before you says what you wish to say, you can come up and say, I agree with that person. We ask that you not duplicate just in the interest of time. Thank you. So we'll start with online. Rodrigo, do we have anyone online?

If anybody online wishes to speak on public announcements on an item not on tonight's agenda, if you're in front of a computer, you can press the raise hand button at the bottom center of your computer screen. If you're on the telephone, you can press star nine and that will let us know you wish to speak. So far, nobody online has raised their hand.

Thank you very much. I will come to the room then and we will start I'm gonna read two names at a time. So when the first person approaches the podium, maybe the next person in line could be behind them waiting. Don Osborne, please. And you have two minutes, Don.

We have a problem on Parsons Avenue. The speed limit is 30 miles an hour and it's a residential street. Um, the stop sign at Christianson was put in because a friend of mine had to avoid a car, crashed his motorcycle into a tree and the stop sign was put in. Uh, another friend of mine, I guess what might've been going too fast and couldn't make the turn onto seven Hills road and crashed his Jeep into this, the house right at the end of Parsons. Um, We need, I advocated to get speed bumps on noon's Avenue after the little boy that got hit, leaving TK and karate got hit. It took almost three years to get the speed bumps in three years. That's a long time. I went door to door and got everybody's signature on that street. Um, we were advocating to get that done again on Parsons. And if it's possible to have a little bit of pull from the Mac board to help make that happen, that would be great.

Thank you. Um, also would ask that folks not applaud, uh, or boo or hiss, um, uh, unless it's about Chuck, then you feel free. Um, Rachel Nisbeth, please, followed by Webster Newbold.

Good evening, Mack Board. I'm here today to discuss the proposed Safari Kid Childcare on Seven Hills Road. I'm speaking tonight not only as a resident, but also as president of our neighboring business next to this lot, Agua Linda Swimming Pool. To understand why there's so many residents here tonight, it's important to understand Seven Hills Road. Seven Hills Road is a narrow two lane residential roadway with limited sidewalks. We have commuters, residents, parents, students, pedestrians and bicyclists using this corridor to access surrounding neighborhoods. It's a really busy thoroughfare. So adding a 98 child daycare to Seven Hills Road would drastically impact the community. The applicants, their own operational estimates proposed the childcare facility would add about 82 additional vehicles to Seven Hills Road, during the morning drop-off period alone. Their proposal also includes significant parking lot redesign with an outdoor playground, one-way circulation, reduced maneuvering and modified parking. All these changes are significant because not only do they impact the business next door, which has a longstanding established easement to access our property, but also it impacts the community as a whole. So understanding the unique configuration of our neighborhood, the community raised concerns to the county. Our request today is to ask the MAC board to help ensure that the site development review plan evaluates this project impacts using verified facts, objective evidence and site specific analysis, and that any necessary site improvements or operational conditions are developed to ensure the project is compatible with the surrounding area. Thank you.

Thank you. Webster Newbold, and before you start, sir, please, I would just ask staff if we can get the closed captioning on the screen. That's possible. There it is. Thank you very much. Mr. Newbold, the floor is yours.

Thank you. I'm a past president of the Agua Linda Swim Club, adjacent to the- And sir, could you please speak a little directly into the microphone?

Thank you.

I'm a past president of the swim club, And I completely agree with Rachel and the concerns that she has raised. We just learned today that there will be a site review of this project. And I want to thank the planning department for committing to that. And we just look forward in the future to having input into the project as a whole. impact on the neighborhood regarding safety and traffic flow and our access to the pool, which runs across the parking lot that is currently in question. So thank you very much. I won't take up any more time and look forward to seeing more on this at the appropriate time.

Thank you, sir. Molly Rose Gray, followed by Julie Reddick.

Hi, everybody. My name is Molly Rose Gray. If you're here for Parsons Avenue, can you please raise your hand? So over the past few weeks, I've gone door to door speaking with my neighbors about traffic safety. Tonight, I'm here with 55 signatures from residents and property owners requesting a formal traffic calming evaluation of Parsons Avenue. This is not a new concern. I have spoken with residents who have lived on Parsons for decades and families who experience these conditions every day. Residents have witnessed a fatality. Homes, fences and vehicles have been struck by reckless drivers. Nora, who is here tonight, has had her home crashed into five times by people who have been driving reckless on Parsons. Drivers run stop signs, families struggle to safely enter their own driveways, children and pedestrians navigate poor visibility and stretches of Parsons where sidewalks simply do not exist. I've experienced these conditions myself while crossing at Wilson with my six month old son and my dog. These are not isolated incidents. We are seeing drivers reach up to 80 miles per hour past our homes. I understand speed humps have previously raised concerns because Parsons is used for emergency response, but speed humps are not the only option. Policy 6.3-1 of Castro Valley General Plan specifically calls for traffic calming on residential streets where traffic commonly exceeds posted speed limits. We are simply asking the county to follow its own process by conducting a formal traffic calming evaluation and considering the most appropriate solutions for Parsons Avenue. Those solutions could include roadway dips or other emergency compatible treatments, raised crosswalks, curb extensions, permanent speed feedback signs, and targeted speed enforcement. The county policies and traffic calming measures I am referencing are included in the materials I have provided this evening. The current 30 mile per hour speed limit should also be reevaluated to determine whether 25 miles per hour is more appropriate and consistent with neighboring residential streets. Residents have also been told sidewalks are planned for Parsons.

Can the county confirm- Thank you, that's time.

Oh, okay. Tonight, I respectfully ask the MAC to support the formal traffic calming evaluation. Thank you. Thank you so much.

My name's Julie Redig and I live in the intersection of Waters Drive and Seven Hills for the last 33 years. I've seen cars come up Seven Hills, approaching California Street, airbound. It's hard to see the stop sign at Waters and Seven Hills when you're going towards Lake Chabot. There aren't sidewalks around the perimeter at all around the proposed childcare facility and they're dangerous. This is a corny thing I drew, but I hope you can figure it out. Here's the childcare center and here's Waters Drive. It has a little split rail fence here and a tunnel. little path along here if you want to walk down the street but that's the split rail fences so you don't fall into the parking lot down the hill and there's no sidewalks here this hill goes down to seven hills so you have to kind of if you want to go in here you have to walk out into the street to get into the parking lot People run this stop sign and this stop sign and this stop sign and this stop sign all the time. Frequently, we have a sheriff's car right here. But if they're gonna change the parking lot and remove some of the parking spaces, I'm sure they're gonna advise their employees to park on Waters Drive. I don't want the sheriff's car to go away. I'd like to see the intersections maybe marked better, with better pedestrian markings so you could feel it like they have on Chabot near the park. But this is the problem, this intersection and no sidewalks. Thank you.

Thank you. I think you might have a career in forensics coming. All right. We have Dorothy, is it Benninger or Berringer? And Wendy Franklin-Willis, please.

Okay, my name is Dorothea Berenger, and I'm here because of the childcare center at Seven Hills. My first point I just would like to add, there's no way parents will actually drop off their kids around the corner and walk them to school. It's too dangerous. They would have to walk in the middle of the street. There is no, no sidewalk, not even a tiny bit of shoulder, nothing. Nothing. So they will all drop off. Now, the first problem with drop-off is the plan they had that they make a one-way thingy through the whole parking lot. It will violate the easement that Agua Linda has because you have the right to drive up and down the left-hand side driveway. And not just down, but also up. We are not obliged to go around the whole parking lot and line up there until parents have dropped off their kids. And we are talking about toddlers. They have two drop-off spaces. Honestly, high schoolers, you might be able to load in five seconds if you've drummed it into them how to do that. Toddlers, it's more five to 10 minutes. So good luck. So I just request that we still will have our access to our parking lot without having to wait in line and without having cars parked there or being stuck. But even worse, it's a really perfect storm design.

I don't know how you can see it here.

Let's assume a car, there are some cars lined up in the parking lot to drop off. Another one wants to turn left into the parking lot. Well, it has to wait, so all the cars line up here. Now the cars who want to go out here and make a left turn, they no longer can do that. So nothing goes anymore. And of course, people getting stuck here are mostly residents or us trying to get out here or getting in. It's a design that's pretty much a disaster as soon as there are more than a few persons trying to drop off or pick up. And I heard it's about 80 cops they expect.

Time is up. Thank you. Wendy Franklin-Willis.

Hi, hello, good evening. I agree with everything that's been said. I've been living on Seven Hills for 22 years. I live a block from where the Ogwellinda, I belong to Ogwellinda Pool. And I live a block from where the new proposed daycare center is. My main concern, I'm a teacher in Castro Valley and have been for about 15 years. There's five schools within a mile and a half radius of that daycare center with people coming down the hill towards Seven Hills to drop, get their kids to school, students walking all up and down Seven Hills Road and down to the high school. There are no sidewalks on Seven Hills Road on that section and further down. and people don't stop at the stop signs. It's about community safety. And if you have drop off of, they say up to 100, probably not that much, but even if it's 30 or 40, the traffic in the community is gonna be majorly affected in the mornings and afternoons. It becomes a safety concern. It becomes a community concern when you can't get to school. And Seven Hills Road is a dangerous road. because from Lake Chabot to Redwood Road, it is the only straight shot and it has less stop signs than any other street allowing people to pass through. So people go down that going 40, 50 miles an hour And it's dangerous. My daughter got hit at the crosswalk. Well, the sort of crosswalk one morning on her way to school. So it becomes a liability for our community. It's a community. It's not a place for a business of that size. And so I think we need to band together in what's best for the community, all of the community, to make it a safe place and somewhere where people can get safely to school and home. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. Rodrigo, do we have anyone online with raised hand for this item?

We have one person, William Smith, with a raised hand. William, if you could please go ahead. You have two minutes.

Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. My name is William Smith. I live on Moreland Drive, just next to the pool. And I agree with everything that's been said so far. And it sounds like we have an opportunity for further comment. I look forward to that. Just a few thoughts. I mean, just you can just... I'm just a layman, right? I'm a grandpa now, and I've done school drop-offs and pick-ups, and I continue to do so with my grandson. And you can just see the disaster when you look at that facility for 100 kids. I could see a mom-and-pop shop for 20 kids, maybe, pull that off. But further, I took a look at the Q&A that the – New owners of the complex have responded to, and just a few in Q&A number six, they mentioned, and it was mentioned earlier, Waters Drive, absolutely not, never, no one will ever be on Waters Drive. And then just a few later, Q&A number 14, we're back on Waters Drive. And they say, well, if people do park on Waters Drive, and obstructed, we'll give them a talking to or something like that. Q&A number 22, they talk about enhancing local quality of life. I mean, how does that work? You come in and step right on the locals. I mean, the local community quality of life is the prize booth and the other small mom and pops right there. And those people are shaken up. And this all happened under the cover of darkness. And finally, Q&A, I mean, they didn't even know the property was for sale. they would have made a counteroffer. Q&A number 34, the applicant considered neighboring businesses that shared the driveway. Well, first, they got rid of the prize booth and said, you're out by October. Second, then the applicant, once again, is telling on themselves and how disconnected they are from the community. They say, well, Aguilinda has access from Moreland Drive. So there you go. Well, I live on Moreland Drive. We've been through all that and we need that parking lot. So that's my input. I hope we have a chance to speak further on this. Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks Bill. All right. Do we have Nora Patterson?

Hi, I'm here for the, actually I like both of the ideas because I live on Seven Hills, but I live on probably the house that you don't know me, but you know my house. It's been hit by cars so many times. Twice our house was knocked off its foundation from people coming up Parsons. One hit airborne. He was going 85 miles an hour and knocked our house off the foundation. He It's been a nightmare. Something needs to be done. I've gone to the fire department. I've gone to the county. Thank you, Molly. I never thought to come to MAC board, but please do something. And I'm getting tired of people saying, well, you should just move. Do you know how many houses in Castro Valley are on a tee like I am? Hundreds, if not a thousand or more. And yet my house has been hit five times. And it's all because we can't put in a speed bump, a speed bump, a simple seat bump that would wake people up if they're drunk or smoking weed or whatever. I'm sorry, I'm just done. I don't know what else to say. And also, we do have a problem on Seven Hills with the traffic, the school traffic. I'm up high so I can see everything happen. I actually saw the last car hit my house. I'm still shaking. I'm still on therapy. I did not have gray hair two years ago on August 29th, 2024, when my house got hit this last time. Blew out of my windows, out of my house.

Could you please speak into the right into the mic? I'm sorry. It's not getting cut.

Okay. So I just want to see speed bumps there and the traffic on seven Hills. We need more police. And every time my house does get hit, they do, you know, sit out in front of Parsons more I've noticed. So yeah, I'm done. Sorry.

I'm so sorry for your troubles and I appreciate your sharing. Do we have anybody else online, Rodrigo?

Nobody else has raised their hand on this item.

Is there anyone else in the room who would like to comment on anything that is not on tonight's agenda? Please, come on up.

But at least I know they're not magic. You know, you have to talk into them. But anyway, my name is Rick Turi, and I appreciate everybody being here. Rachel came to see me and has been canvassing the neighborhood. I know a lot of you have been doing that. And I appreciate that. And there have been an awful lot of work and research put into this, and I appreciate that. And I would just say, because I didn't do any research or work on this, this was just, my wife read this to me out of the forum, and I just slapped my head figuratively and said, this is obviously such a dumb idea. It's a bad idea for all the reasons that everybody has mentioned tonight. I just, how many people here think it's a good idea? Yeah, I kind of thought that and we're relying on you people to carry this forward and make sure that this thing just doesn't proceed in the manner that it's been outlined. Thank you.

Please come on up.

Hi, my name is Marilyn Lawrence and I live on Moreland Drive and I'm a member of the pool. Moreland Drive, the traffic and the parking is atrocious just for the people that live there. I can't imagine if that parking lot is affected by this business that may start. And I also wanted to give, my son uses a power wheelchair and in that parking lot, he one time he went around because there are no sidewalks. So he went up into the parking lot and actually fell into a ditch. that's there and people that probably know that it's kind of a screen ditch thing. Anyway, he fell in there and luckily somebody saw him and called the fire department because it's a power chair, nobody could lift it. But to say that, I don't know if you are familiar with Seven Hills, but there are absolutely no sidewalks. When my husband and I take walks, it's like you have to walk into the street and that's just with normal everyday traffic. I can't imagine. The other thing I'm curious about, the pool has been there for I don't know how long. I've been a member for probably 30 years at least. Isn't there some sort of a grandfather clause that it would be grandfathered in to protect it? I would think so. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else in the room who would like to speak on an item that's not on tonight's agenda, please? And if... If you have not filled out a speaker card and you have spoken, if you could fill one out and bring it to staff, that helps us keep the minutes straight.

I'm Cynthia Navarro. I wanted to add that you don't have on there is you can get speed bumps that are for the emergency vehicles that can go right over it, but it is not for cars. They do have it. I don't know how new it is. I just know it's out there because I've seen them. So that's something that should be considered. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Craig Patterson. I live on Seven Hills Road. My wife Nora was speaking about what happened to our house. And I must say that even the highway patrol was not on our side on this. On the last accident, they tried to say that the person was only going 45 miles an hour when he struck our vehicles in our driveway. We had two vehicles in the driveway. He went right between them, right through those, pushed those into our garage, took out vehicles in the garage, took out windows in the back of the house. The house actually moved about seven inches. I was in the backyard when it happened. And it moved the house. And the officer's trying to say that he was going 45. He was going over 80 miles an hour. It's not the first time this has happened. Five times. We've had where we called the CHP to come out about the first time when it happened. They wouldn't even come out. I had to send my sons out because our car was ruined. They went around the neighborhood and found the person that did it. And the next day after they go out there, and it was a juvenile, and he tried to say that he hit a truck on another street. But this is continuous. We've had thousands and thousands of dollars of damage, which the insurance companies do not cover. Like our vehicles that got wiped this last time, they gave us minimal amount of payment for them. We had to go out and buy new vehicles each time. I've had six vehicles wiped out in that house because of these people going too fast up the hill and running into my house. And then, like my wife said, it's been five times they hit the house, and every time they hit it, we have to fight with the insurance companies to get this stuff done. It's not right. Anyway, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Patterson. Rodrigo, is there anyone else online with a hand up?

Nobody else online has raised their hand for this item.

Is there anyone else in the room that wishes to speak? Hi, come on up.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Karen Kennedy. I'm going to do it this way. I actually live right behind the building that is going to or has already been purchased on Seven Hills and right next to the pool. So this easement that you all have been hearing about actually directly also involves our home. because it's the back entrance to our garage. So what I wanted to say in this meeting is that it's hard to trust if the information that has been received is accurate. For example, on the courtesy notice, it said Safari Day Camp. but then there's been permits with two other names. So as an actual direct homeowner, I'm curious about the transparency here. And in order to move forward and be able to have conversations with the owner's trust is important. And I don't necessarily feel that they are being transparent as to whether or not this is a daycare or is it actually a school because the permit is zero to 17 years old, right? Of course, I'm concerned about 100 kids having a tiny little playground in the back parking lot. I don't know how that's going to work out. And also, the pool is great. It's seasonal. We live there all year long. So how will that impact neighbors like ourselves, in addition to all of the concerns about safety that have also already been brought up? That's it. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. Do we have other speakers? You already did, I believe.

You spoke on.

Yeah. Come on up, Mr. Osborne.

Take one minute.

No worries.

All right. My name's Don Osborne. I'm born and raised in this town, 1962 Eden Hospital. I went to Parsons Elementary, A.B. Morris, and Castro Valley High. You cannot stop progress, and I understand that this daycare center is probably going to get built whatever we do here, but maybe we could limit it to X amount of maybe 30 or 40 kids. And that will alleviate a lot of the confusion, a lot of the traffic problems, a lot of the pedestrians on Seven Hills. Because it's probably gonna pass because we can't stop progress. It's all about money. Thank you.

Anyone else?

My name is Jane Key. I live directly across from that building, right across the street. And I've lived there for 25 years. The thing that I've noticed about Seven Hills Drive lately in the last 10 years is that the highway 580 goes from the Oakland side and it comes all the way around and goes out towards Stockton. And anytime there's an accident... On the Oakland side or the Stockton side, people get off the freeway, come up Redwood Road, go over Seven Hills and out the back to Chabot to get on the other freeway. So you can't even get out of the driveway on my street when that happens. Now you're going to have, even if you had 40 kids, you're going to have 40 cars every day dropping them off and picking them up at night. You can't get out of the driveway now and cars race up and down that street. So I just want you to take into account when you pass or don't pass this about the traffic that's already there that we can't deal with. Thank you.

Thank you. Rodrigo, anyone else online for this?

Nobody else has raised their hand.

We have one more in the room.

Hi, my name is Annette Robbins, and I also live on Moreland Drive. All of my kids have graduated and are adults, but I am still getting stuck in the traffic that we have now. And if you put the daycare in for 98 kids, if you think about it, that's 50 cars just because you have half. two kids per household. There's only 24 parking spots there. So how are the neighbors going to feel when the staff parks in their driveway, the staff doesn't get a parking spot, anywhere near, now they're running around on Seven Hills, or the parents are running around because there's no parking spots. That is going to be a dangerous situation. Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have anyone else that wishes to speak on this? Anyone else online? Oh, we have one more. Yes, sir.

Yes, my name is Rick Cappellino. I live directly across the street from the project. And about the parking spots, they're planning on taking half the parking spots up and putting the playground there and one in the back. So there's even going to be less parking than what you're saying. And then I also have a video in the wintertime, that corner on Waters and Seven Hills goes under a foot and a half of water right there in the corner. So how are they going to walk around to get into the building? Thank you.

Thank you. We have anyone else that wishes to speak?

Okay.

I really had, I really had no intention to speak, but there's been a point that I have not heard brought up. So, um, I guess my over overreaching concern is we're hearing a lot of dangerous situations. Um, Eden medical is seven Hills is a major route to Eden medical. Um, We've heard about the narrow, the turns, but I'm concerned about emergency vehicles as well, just being able to get down Seven Hills to get people help.

Thank you. All right. Rodrigo, anyone online?

No one else online has raised their hand.

Anyone else in the room?

Somebody just raise their hand online.

Please.

Jenny, this is for the open public announcements. You have two minutes, please.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

I'm a little nervous. I agree with everybody that's talked about this issue that, you know, is being proposed on Seven Hills. I'm a lifer, a cash to file lifer. grew up on Lansome, and I have a home on Moorland. And I'm worried about the transparency with the new owners. Safari Kid is what they're proposing, not a Montessori. And Safari Kid is a franchise. And, you know, I'm going to be honest. I didn't buy my home to live next door to a franchise. And I commute every day to work. I love kids. I'm a kindergarten teacher. I've been a kindergarten teacher for over two decades. And I dedicated my life to that. And when I heard that it was going to be in Montessori, I got curious. But not a cash grab like Safari Kid. So that's my concern. And on top of the traffic, parking for... the pool because we are a member too, but also our children that walk to school and our grandchildren that walk to school. It's a busy road. And I just wanted to share that. Thank you.

Thank you very much. All right. If there's no one else, I will close public comment on this issue. And Rodrigo, is there a date scheduled for the site development review to come before us?

So we don't have one yet. We're still talking to the proposed business. We had originally hopefully intended for two weeks from today, but that seems like it may not happen, or at the very least, as of today, it's not ready for that hearing date yet.

how will the community be notified when?

So we will do posting within the neighborhood of 500 feet. I will be around. I'll actually put my business card in the back of the room. People email me your email addresses. We'll add you to an email list.

Thank you very much.

All right. I will put my cards in the back of the room right now.

Do we usually put things like that in the forum?

So we do not do newspaper noticing. We do mailings and postings.

Thank you. All right.

I want to thank everybody who came and spoke on this. Safety and traffic are probably the two biggest issues that we deal with here. I promise you, you've been heard. Keep watching the website, Alameda County Board of Supervisors website, Castro Valley MAC, to figure out if any update or when the updates are scheduled for coming to us, okay? And you can email any one of us to get information. Thank you. All right, we're moving on to item C, approval of the minutes. Has everybody had a chance to read the minutes for? He's on the urban forest. Stick around.

And just so folks know, as you leave the room, we are continuing to conduct the hearing. So if you can. Keep the noise levels down.

Ask folks if we can please chat when you're outside the room. The meeting is still going on. All right. Item C, approval of the minutes. Has anyone had a chance to read the minutes for June 8th, 2026? If so, would entertain a motion? I move that we approve the June 8th minutes. Council Member Devaney, could you repeat that, please?

I move that we approve the June 8th minutes. Thank you.

Do we have a second?

I second that.

I second that.

Thank you. We have a motion. Council Member Devaney moved. Council Member Feebig seconded. Do we have comments?

Yeah, I'm a little concerned about approving them when we had such an extensive conversation about item number four on the minutes. And there's very little comment regarding item number four in the minutes. And so I can't support them.

Thank you, sir. We have other comments. Before the council votes, we would like to invite public comment on the minutes. Is there anyone in the room that would like to speak on Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council's June 6th, June 8th minutes?

There's nobody online who wishes to speak on this item.

Thank you. We'll close public comment. Do we have any other council comments on this item? I would just like to say that throughout the minutes, there are questions that are, the minutes capture questions asked by council members, but what isn't captured is the answers to those questions. Good example would be an item number two. The other thing that I'm not happy about is we don't have, when motions are made, we don't have the motion maker called out. We don't have the second called out. So I would like to see those changes. I would like to see much more detail in terms of specificity, as Vice Chair Moore has pointed out, especially on the Ralph M. Brown Training Act. So I would support continuing these minutes. But we have a motion and a second.

So can we have a vote, please? Excuse me, Chair. I think you just made an alternative to continue. Is that an alternative motion? And perhaps should we hear or vote on that first?

Thank you. Yes, that was an alternative motion. And if we can hear the alternative motion roll call, please.

So the alternative motion is to continue the item until updates are made or council comments. So the vote is as follows. Member Mota.

I second. I second.

So there is a alternative motion made by Chair and a second made by Member Mota. Correct. OK, on the alternative motion, the vote will be as follows. Member Mota?

Yes.

Member Fiebig?

Yes.

Member Davis?

Aye.

Member Devaney? Aye. Vice Chair Moore? Aye. Chair Mulgrew?

Aye.

OK, the alternative motion passes.

It could be a substitute question, but that's fine.

Yes. All right, onto our regular calendar. Item D1, the unincorporated urban forest plan project update.

Good evening.

This is an informational item and Allie Abors.

Thank you so much, council members. Happy to be here with you this evening. I'm just going to go ahead and share my screen. Let's see. I have the spinning wheel of death here. Oh, I'm going to stop this chair. I apologize for some trouble here. So while I am getting this going, again, I'm Ali Abbers with the Alameda County Planning Department. I have to restart my computer or possibly here to talk to you about the Unincorporated Urban Forest Plan. And I'm just going to give this one more try.

Okay.

I see what's happening. I just did.

having internet problems, it sounds like. So if this doesn't go, I'll just go ahead and go off the cuff. And you do have a copy, I believe, of that presentation before you? OK. So let's see if I can get this to go. All right. Seeing that not happening, I'm going to go ahead and grab it from the back table and just talk about it.

Yeah. So Ali, we also have a copy. We can just do, and you can tell us to move to the next slide, et cetera.

I think it might be. It might have worked. I don't know what's going on here. Let's try it again. All right. I think we might. OK. It appears to be working.

So can I go to the next slide? No, it is dying again.

It's just spinning.

Would you mind sharing it for me? Thank you.

Sorry about that. We're going to try a different way. So I will just start by telling you a bit of background. So back in 24, 25, you may recall that planning department staff, myself, and an intern that was working with us at the time, presented to the MACs, including to your MAC, to explore interest in tree protection and management for private property. And that included a presentation on And I believe it was June of 2024 to your council. At the same time, planning department staff was pursuing a grant from CAL FIRE to support long range urban forest planning. So beyond just thinking about the specifics of tree protection for private property, but, you know, a broader look at the urban forest overall in the unincorporated county. And this was as directed by the board of supervisors in the county's environmental justice element. So this is the right slide. Thank you, Yanni. So in 2024, late 2024, early 2025, the county was awarded $685,000 from CAL FIRE to pursue this long range urban forest planning project. We had some federal funding delays because this is a federal funding source. And after those delays, CAL FIRE authorized the county to proceed about a year ago. So we've done work over the last year to engage consultants and to kick off this project, which officially began in March of 2026. And all of our grant activities for this project need to be completed within two years by March of 2028. And so if you were on the council at the time that we came around with those earlier presentations, those efforts and what we heard from those earlier presentations will be, um, incorporated into the work that we're doing as part of this larger urban forest plan.

Next slide, please.

So a bit about the project scope. There are two main deliverables for this project. The first is an unincorporated urban forest plan. And the second is delivery of an urban forestry job training program, which we're calling Growing Futures. So I'll talk about growing futures in a minute, but first I'll tell you a bit about the Unincorporated Urban Forest Plan. So it has some key goals. One is fostering civic engagement in urban forestry, which is going to include a multilingual outreach effort and formation of a tree advisory group. The project will include assessing tree policies, ordinances, plans, and programs, so a really deep look at what resources, staffing, et cetera, the county currently has available so we can understand what the county might need to do were it to set goals in order to reach those goals. This includes the first ever complete street tree inventory for the urban unincorporated areas. So there are boots on the ground, possibly not as we speak, but there were boots on the ground earlier today, counting street trees one by one, assessing their health, assessing the species mix, So that's happening right now. That's very exciting. There's also a high-level tree canopy analysis. So this is kind of a desktop exercise looking at existing data that are out in the public record to analyze how trees are distributed throughout the area, how it interacts with things like urban heat, so where there's excessive heat, not much tree canopy cover. That would be an inequity that we'd be interested in looking at and looking at how fire risk interacts with tree canopy and thinking about where the County may be able to make recommendations to alleviate that. This will include setting canopy goals and proposing some strategies that the County may want to consider to meet those goals. And then at the end of the project in probably February of 2028, right before the project closes, we'll be hosting a 10 tree planting event. to celebrate urban forest plan adoption and kickoff implementation. And that event will likely be, we're hoping, with our partner, the Hayward Area Recreation and Parks District, although a site has yet to be identified. Next slide, please. So the project geography, this is a map of Alameda County. As you can see, the hatched area or that dotted area is the unincorporated area of the county. And the project that we're working on now, this urban forest plan focuses only on the urban unincorporated communities, and that's as defined by census. So that's the Eden area, that's Ashland, Cherryland, San Lorenzo, and Hayward Acres. That's Fairview and then Castro Valley. So those are the urban communities that this is considering. And for the purposes of this MAC, it's important to note the parts of Castro Valley and of your jurisdiction that are not included in this plan. So the Canyon lands are not part of this plan because they are outside of the urbanized area as defined by census. Um, so next slide please. All right. I had a way better slide for this, but we're gonna have to make do with the slide that's on here. Um, so the, uh, the timeline for this project, um, we are beginning outreach right now. So outreach is happening. It's going to, and it's going to go throughout the project. So it's going to involve, as I mentioned, establishment of a tree advisory group. That's going to be a group made up of residents and folks who have, who either work, live, or go to school in the urban unincorporated areas and experts in arboriculture or fire risk analysis. So getting all of these folks together 10 times between 2026 and 2028 to work sort of come along with us on every portion of this journey. We're going to have four large public meetings. So those are going to be in English, Spanish, and Chinese. They're going to be at communities or areas throughout the urban unincorporated communities. And we'll also participate in a number of tabling events, including at Fall Fest, which I know is coming up soon. Very open to other ideas. If you have ideas, we're looking at maybe participating in some of the the sheriff's activities that are happening in August as well. We're working on a regulatory and program analysis. So that's that deep look, as I mentioned, into the county's existing programs, our existing policies, our staffing, our budgets, all of that. That we anticipate being done in fall of this year. And around the same time, our tree inventory and that canopy analysis will be done. So like I said, boots are on the ground right now. counting street trees, and we'll have those data available soon. And once they are complete, we'll be able to make the street tree inventory data public. We'll be completing an urban forestry goals report, and then we're going to spend a good six months developing the draft plan, which we anticipate releasing in about a year, so in summer of 2027. with final adoption anticipated for October of 2027. And as I said, that tree planting celebration in winter of 2028. So I mentioned in a previous slide, the Growing Futures Workforce Development Program. So if you go to the next slide. I'm going to go into that a little bit. So this is a workforce development program that is being developed through a partnership between the county, the Hayward Area Recreation and Parks District, and Merritt College, which has an arboriculture training program. So this is a pilot program, first time we've done this. It's going to provide five to eight students of Merritt College with fully funded arboriculture coursework. So we'll pay scholarships for folks to participate in these classes. They'll get hands-on field experience and professional connections and opportunities to participate in the urban forest planning process. So we're really excited about that. It is just getting off the ground and... On the next slide, there's a link to how folks can apply for that. We're actively seeking applicants. So go ahead to the next slide. So how can folks get involved? This is the first presentation that I'll be giving to you on this. We are just starting the process. I wanted to give you a heads up so that when we come back with some of the data that we've gathered or with some recommendations, that you will know what we're talking about. So some ways for folks to get involved. We encourage folks to join our listserv. We're going to have program updates, workshop announcements, everything to do with the program. We'll go ahead and send out through this listserv. As I mentioned, we are actively seeking applicants to the Growing Futures job training program. So if you know of somebody who is interested in pursuing arboriculture as a career, they can get free classes through this program at Merritt College. and seek their credentials. So we really hope folks will apply. Please keep an eye out for the tree inventory crew. There's a picture of one of the tree inventory folks. They will be, as I said, walking through the streets, looking at street trees for the next few months. And then you can always go to our website, where we'll have the most up-to-date information as it comes. And finally, I think we've just got my contact information on the next slide and that is it. I look forward to your questions. Thank you. And thanks for your patience with the tech issues.

Thank you, Ali. We're going to start with public comment and then come back to council for, for comments. Rodrigo, do we have anyone online who wishes to speak on this? Any raised hands?

Nobody online has raised their hand on this item.

Okay, in the room we have Mr. Peter Rosen.

Hi, everyone. I'm speaking on my own behalf. I have not met with Hart about this. We haven't talked about it. We talked about the principle behind this several months back. But I just want to let you guys know I had an excellent conversation with Allie earlier this afternoon. Allie allayed my fears about some of the concerns I had about what was going to happen about private property and what would happen with the conflict between insurance requirements versus personal property rights versus these requirements and the goals of eliminating the heat island effect and increasing the tree canopy. And it was, I have a lot of faith. I know the people that she's been involved with at Merritt College, because I don't know if you all know this, but my background through horticulture goes through Merritt College. And their Aboriculture Department, their Horticulture Department is excellent. I have a lot of faith in how this is gonna happen. I like the information. I think it's always good to have better trained people assessing tree health and actually learning how to prune trees and actually to care for trees and identifying trees. I think that's excellent. So I look forward to hearing more about this and that's it.

Thank you, Peter. Do we have anyone else in the room that would like to speak on this topic? Anyone else online, Rodrigo?

No one else online.

I'm going to close public comment on this item and we'll start council comment. And I'll just ask Allie, is there any particular aspect of what you've presented tonight that you would like feedback on or just general?

So my main goal in coming to you this evening is to give you a sense of what's coming and to let you know that we're starting this project. We'll be coming back to you. I had a great slide that I had redone that had like when we would be coming back to you, but we'll be coming back to you at least two or three more times before this plan is adopted. So I just wanted you to know that it's important, you know, as part of your involvement in the process. And as I mentioned, we are currently actively recruiting for that Growing Futures Workforce Development Program. With your permission, I may be able to put a slide on the screen with a flyer for that. So I will go ahead and do that while you're, yeah. Okay.

We'll start council comments with Council Member Devaney.

Thank you, Chair. Allie, Cal Fire seems like an unlikely sponsor of this program. Am I just being too cynical? But it seems to me like CAL FIRE may have a desire to not see trees. I understand about heat islands and stuff like that, and perhaps a greater canopy would soften some of that, but how is this in their interest and how might they affect the end product?

It's a really, really good question. So CAL FIRE is the short name for, I can't remember exactly. I remember it's the department, California department of forestry and fire prevention. So it is forestry and fire prevention, which is a really, is that where I did it right? Yeah. So it's their, their job is to look at both of those things. And this project will look at the intersection of those things. They have a, a program and it's the program to which we applied for this grant. It's called the Community and Urban Forestry Grant Program. And it funds, through it, CAL FIRE funds projects like this, urban forestry plans, tree master plans, tree maintenance plans, tree planting throughout the state. So I know it does seem, you know, particularly if you think of them specifically as a fire organization, it's a bit of a...

That's a great answer. And I didn't know that Cal Fire included a forestry section of it. That's a great explanation. Right now, Alameda County doesn't have a tree preservation ordinance. Is that correct?

There is a tree preservation ordinance for the public right-of-way, only for right-of-way trees. There is no tree preservation ordinance for trees in public space.

For private property.

I'm sorry, private property, correct.

Thank you for that. And might a tree preservation ordinance be an outcome of this effort?

So this, the sort of final document that's going to come out of this is going to be a study. So it'll be all of the information that we're gathering as part of this deep look that we're doing into trees and tree programming, et cetera, and a set of recommendations as to how the county can go from where it is to the goals that the Board of Supervisors has set of 20% canopy cover in all of the urban and unincorporated communities. it is possible that a recommendation to adopt a tree ordinance for private property could be one of those recommendations. But I can't speak to exactly what will, you know, what those recommendations might be. What I can say is that as part of that tree road show that I believe you were on the council at that time, you might not have been, might've been before your time. We heard, particularly in Castro Valley and Fairview, that a one-size-fits-all recommendation for a tree ordinance was not something that the community was interested in. And we are very, very mindful of any recommendations that come out of this process need to be suited to these communities, need to be suited to the needs and lives of the folks who live here. So very, very mindful of that. And I know that the idea that a recommendation for a tree ordinance can be scary. It will not be the direct result of this. So the end of this is not going to be a tree ordinance. And any recommendation that we were to make would be very mindful of the community.

Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you for that. I understand that this is an urban forest plan, not a rural forest plan. You specifically said that the canyon lands are not included in it. Just note of interest that a lot of our subdivisions, you know, Polymeris Hills, Columbia, Greenridge, are all surrounded by forested areas, some of them in their own common areas, some of them in the private ownership of the canyon lands. So there's definitely an interface there. And I understand it's beyond the scope of this project, but I have a good slice of forest coming through my property. I don't know how to maintain it. All the action reports after a big wildfire say that people weren't properly maintaining their forests. Well, nobody's maintaining our forests, I can assure you, particularly the ones owned in common area by the homeowners associations. So Coal Canyon clearly, private ownership is clearly affecting Columbia's fire safety. So just a point of comment on that. Thank you for the presentation.

Thank you. Council member Devaney, council member Moda. What do you have?

Thanks chair. Um, thank you for your presentation and giving us the heads up on this. Um, I kind of, some of the information that was already shared or your, you heard it and it's on your radar to kind of follow back up with that. I think one thing, um, we, I, I personally would like to see is that, um, I understand that the County received 685,000, um, for this project, but can staff provide a specific breakdown on how those funds will be allocated among consultants and tree inventory, community engagement, work, workforce development, all of those things, um, I think would be I think we like to see a nice, you know, this is the potential of where these funds might go, even if they're not concrete numbers, but there is a plan that you're thinking about on how you're allocating the funds. I think that's the only comment that I have, but thank you.

I have that. And I would be so happy to share it. Yeah.

Okay. Thanks.

Thank you. Council member Moda, council member Fiebig.

Great job on the presentation, Allie. Thanks for being here tonight. I don't have many questions. I was just wondering is the why we're doing this and why we think it's important. Is it because we want to analyze the canopy equity and urban heat and the fire risk as you outlined in one of the bullet points?

So the why stems back to adoption of the environmental justice element, which the board approved in August of 2024. So that document includes a canopy goal of 20% canopy cover in the urban unincorporated areas by 2050, which is a very long goal. Some of the communities, the named communities in the urban unincorporated area, have already met that goal. So Castro Valley as a whole is actually already at, I think it might be at about 21%. But if you take the sort of Southern and Western census tracts of Castro Valley, which are part of the focus of the environmental justice element, that number is much, much lower. Hayward Acres, small community between San Lorenzo and Hayward has 9% tree canopy cover. Ashland and Cherryland are at about 12 or 13%. And then Fairview is at like 36%. So really broad differences. And some of those differences are because of development patterns and because of just, you know, you can't have all the trees everywhere all the time, just site limitations. But there are also you know, inequities, structural inequities that have led to these patterns. And so the idea of this plan, first of all, it was, so the policy in the EJ element tells us to develop this plan in order to look at those, sort of look at the distribution of trees, see where the county's programs are, you know, working toward meeting those goals, see where we may be able to do better. and then make those recommendations to the board. So it's really a deep look at where we are and a set of plans for where we could go.

Okay, thank you. Wow, that's a good goal. A lot of years to catch up with that too. So is there a type of trees that we're planning to use? Is there something that we like a lot?

The only plan to plant specific trees as part of this project that's funded by CAL FIRE is that 10 tree planting celebration at the end. They're going to be 10 coast live oaks and they're going to be planted. Those are very big native trees. So they'll be planted in appropriate spaces that can accommodate their root structure and their canopies. And then apart from that, part of this work is going to look at the, there's a recommended tree list that the Public Works Agency has. It's going to look at that tree list and update it for what we understand now about the changing climate and that trees in the future are going to have to be more resilient to climate. temperature fluctuations, more heat. So we're going to be looking at revising that list for climate preparedness, climate readiness, and then for other things like trees planted in the appropriate place. So is a tree going to get up into your power lines? Is it going to bust up your sidewalk? How can we make recommendations for the right trees in the right place? But this is sort of higher level than that. We'll come up with lists to recommend, but we're not going to say we're going to plant these trees here. It's more of a set of recommendations.

Okay, great. Oaks are beautiful. Wow.

That's going to be, yeah, it's our iconic inner East Bay tree.

Okay. I'm glad to hear that's not an ordinance. I'm on a board in Alamo and we look at these kinds of things. We have a tree committee. So, and they definitely, you know, are mapped and, you cannot move or cut them down.

I would be so interested to talk to you about that offline.

I've looked at their ordinance.

I'd be very interested to hear about it.

Okay, great. That's it for me. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Davis.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Ali, for your presentation. Just a couple of clarifications and then a comment. So we're taking the inventory of all the street trees on public streets online. What about streets that are not maintained by the county? Are we going to include those or those?

No. So yeah, it only includes street trees that are regulated by the public works agency's street tree ordinance. And so those are only trees on county owned roads. And then hard park trees because we have a partnership with hard and they've agreed to that.

And then through the identification process, will there be heritage trees that will be identified and then trees that should be removed like eucalyptus or something like that?

So the inventory itself will not make those specific recommendations, but the data that are going to be collected could, you know, if the county wanted to pursue something like a heritage tree program where it you know, puts plaques next to trees on the street that are particularly important. These data for the street tree inventory could be used for something like that. It will also be looking at the health of the trees. So there, I think it will also include some like indication of whether there are immediate maintenance needs, like, you know, a tree is a threat to health. So it is something that the Public Works Agency can take if they choose to and use as a management tool.

And will you be working with utilities that mean that these trees are going up into there?

So we're not, as part of this program, planting any trees except for those 10 as part of the celebration. that would be sort of like plan 2.0. If the county did want to adopt an urban forest management plan, it talked about what to put in, what to remove, when to do it, the timing, et cetera. That's sort of the next stage. So if the county gets to, that could be one of the recommendations that comes out of this is now adopt an urban forest management plan so we know exactly what to do over the next five years.

Very good. Then my only comment is that streets that have large canopies on it, the street trees actually do have a positive impact on reducing speed of traffic.

I hadn't thought about that.

That concludes my comments. Thank you.

Thank you. Vice chair Moore.

Thank you, Cheryl. Um, I have some questions. I'm kind of trying to figure. Is Growing Futures a government entity or is that a private party?

So it is a project of the county.

So the people involved in it will be county employees?

Oh, no. It's open to the public. So folks are going to be at the applications open right now, folks from the public. can apply to participate.

So growing futures is, is a name of the project basically.

Yeah. It's the name of the workforce development program that we're running.

Yeah. I'm confused after working with Cal fire from time to time. Do you guys have a definition of enforced? Because is that 10 trees or a thousand trees? Because when you talk about urban forests, I am like, well, where and what does that look like?

It's a really interesting question. An oak woodland is technically a forest, and that's one of the forest types that we would see most commonly around here on our hillsides. And those are trees that are huge and very far apart as compared to a redwood forest, which is also a forest. and a forest that we would see here in our area, which is much denser where you can barely see the sky. So I don't have the exact definition before me. I'd love to bring it back to you, but I'm going to guess based on what I know about different forest types, that it is broad and it depends on the needs of the specific trees in that forest.

Yeah. It just seems like to me, you're, when you use the word forest and you call it an urban forest, it's kind of misleading of what you're really doing. I mean, I, I would much more appreciate seeing an urban growth plan for trees or something, and it would be something I would understand, but I can't understand how you could come up with a forest in that regard. Then I'm kind of confused also, in Cal Fire, do you guys have some kind of study of how many urban forest fires you've had? versus rural first fires and the risk related between the two? Because I'm trying to get my arms around how does CAL FIRE justify spending, if this is all their money, $685,000? And is that 685 the beginning of the program or the end of it? Or are we going to go back and ask for more money when because 685 is not going to get you very far.

So our portion, right, what they've funded for us over the next couple of years is essentially a study of existing conditions. So the forest, the programs, the policies, et cetera, and a set of recommendations. So that is, and then the workforce development program, that's the extent of what will happen with these $685,000. Should the county wish to pursue those recommendations? So say the county wishes to pursue an urban forest management plan, which would be a much shorter five-year, 10-year document saying like plant this now, plant this type, take this out, have this many staff, et cetera, very detailed. That would require a different funding source. So this is the foundational. I sort of, I've been thinking of it as like, we're preparing the ground so that trees can thrive.

Ask for more money later?

If...

I mean, that's what it sounds like, preparing the ground for asking for more money.

It depends on what the county, what the Board of Supervisors wishes to pursue of the recommendations.

You know, when I read things in here, like you're going to measure the heat, do you have some data to where you're going to go back and say, Oh, we planted these 10 trees and boy, the earth got cooler. I mean, I'm trying to figure out, I mean, some of these things are in here to me, I read it and I'm going, I don't understand where this is going. Is this a tree planting initiative to help the environment? And if it is, why wouldn't we go to a rural area where we could plant for $685,000 about 500 trees versus 10 trees in an urban area? I'd like to spend my money wisely, and I'm assuming this money is coming from us, taxpayers.

So it's not a tree planting initiative to your question. Um, it is a tree planning initiative. So we're planning or doing urban forest planning if we were to, um, so we could have as part of this grant applied to plant 5,000 trees. Um, and you know, it's certainly something we could have considered the planning department where I work doesn't have expertise in tree planting. We do have some expertise in planning, however. Um, but the reality is that, uh, It would be a struggle for us to meet the criteria for a tree planting grant because we don't know, we wouldn't know where those trees would go. We don't have an existing tree inventory. We don't have a lot of information about our existing conditions. So we need this baseline data to get to the point where we could apply for that type of funding to fund a tree planting project.

Yeah, I can just tell you when the county mitigates property for widening a road or anything, you know, they'll pay $15,000 to plant 75 trees. And to me, this is 10 trees and some study on information, and I'm just being critical here, that we priority have. I mean, I just... I don't know if it's a tree planting goal here or if it's a job training, planning goal here, or is this a Cal fire deal, but Cal fire is only chipping at 85,000. So where's it?

They're the full amount, 600, 685. Oh, 685.

Cause on the screen it said 85.

Oh, I don't, yeah. I don't know what it said up there, but 685,000 from Cal fire for this entire planning project and bonus 10 trees that we're also planting.

Okay, so Cal Fire has 685,000 to measure in the urban area, whether we're getting hotter or not. And, you know, I just, there's a lot of questions about this program. And I have a hard time understanding When St. Rose Hospital is upside down, we're going to spend $685,000 to tell us how hot it is in the urban area when we already know that there's global warming going on. And I just, I'm a lot more cynical and a lot more, my expectations of taking care of people are a lot more than some urban area study of planting trees. That's just my opinion. Sorry. Thank you for your presentation, though. And I know you work very hard at things. Thanks, Chuck.

Thanks. Thank you, Ali. And thank the planning department. I really love this kind of stuff. It's the pulmonary health of the planet that is important. And I just want to comment that if anybody could convince Cal Fire to fund St. Rose Hospital, it's Chuck Moore.

I think we could work on some trees over there and we could probably get the money. Can we work on planting the trend trees over at St. Rose? Maybe we could get the, uh, some money for them. Oh, I'm sorry.

Anyway, um, So virtually, if I understood correctly, virtually all of the grant is going to be spent on the study and the workforce development. Do you have a figure handy for how much is going to the consultant?

Yes, I can do a little bit of math in my head. I think right now we're looking at about 40,000 to support our work. So staff time going back to the county. We're looking at, I want to say, 50 to 60 for the workforce development project, and that's supporting the stipends. It supports the scholarships to Merritt College, and it could support some additional activities and supports for the participants. And then the remainder, I think it's like 5%. 40 something is going to the consultant for that boots on the ground inventory work for the analysis work for helping us draft the plan, sort of being that expertise in urban forestry planning that, you know, we need to really do a good job.

Thank you. And again, if I heard correctly you, When you cited a figure of 30 odd percent canopy cover for fair view, that is, that is, uh, trees on publicly maintained street, publicly owned, publicly maintained streets.

So canopy cover, um, is a, if you sort of think about like a bird's eye view, 30,000 foot view, right? Like it is the shadows cast by the leaves and branches of trees from the air that canopy analysis is a all trees, not just, yeah, includes public trees or private trees.

Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Is there any thought to doing an inventory via Google Earth or drone or whatever of the private trees in the unincorporated area?

So there will not be an inventory as part of this project. And yeah, and I don't, I don't see that as being a recommendation that would come out of this project. I actually am not aware of other jurisdictions that have done things like that. It's not something that we've considered. But the, that canopy, that sort of the overall canopy study will include a high level information.

Yeah. Thank you. That's, that's all I have. I want to thank you for, again, for being here and I wish you good luck with the project. Thank you. Council. If there are any more thoughts. Yes.

I do. If you can clarify if the project would or could ultimately lead to new restrictions on removing trees from private property, permit requirements, replacement mandates, fines, or other homeowner obligations, residents and the MAC. We definitely would like to know that before the policy is developed and ultimately mandated at that point when we have point and overturn. I think that piece is very important to us and the residents here in Castro Valley. Definitely. Yes. Thank you.

I'm sorry. One last question. When might we see you next on this?

I anticipate that I'll be coming back here sometime in the fall because we will have the results of the street tree inventory, which I'm really excited to share. And we'll have the results of that initial study of our programs and policies.

Thank you. And again, thank you for being here. We are now on to Mr. William Chin and cell towers.

Good evening, everyone. And good evening, council members. This is William with the Alameda County Planning Department. And this is for a conditional use permit for a telecommunications facility located on Palomares Road. It is to allow the continued use of a T-Mobile carrier telecom facility mounted on an existing PG&E lattice tower structure. They are not proposing any modifications to the antenna or ground equipment. And it's within the Agricultural Zoning District and under the Resource Management General Plan of the Cache Valley General Plan. In terms of CEQA, it is an existing facility with no modifications. On the right-hand side are photos of the lattice tower with the antennas mounted on. On the facade of the lattice and then right below the base or on the base of the lattice tower is the equipment lease area. And again, there are no changes as part of this application. Telecom facilities are considered non-municipal utilities, and they're in place to ensure that they provide communication systems to serve the existing and future residents in both the urban and agricultural areas. The zoning is silent. The agricultural zoning district is silent on telecommunications facilities. So we look to the Alameda County Development Standards for citing of telecommunications facilities approved by the Board of Supervisors. In the middle of the page, you do see a plan sheet of the southeast elevation of the lattice tower. And then the right-hand side, it depicts the equipment plan. Just a summary of the previous application. So this did expire in October 23 of 2023. We received the application in 2025, April of 2025. We sent out an incomplete letter and then due to turnaround of applicants, this application was inactive for about a year until the most recent applicant updated the planning department and staff and wanted to move forward. Again, there are no modifications. They just simply want to continue the use with no modifications. And since their previous conditional use permit expired in 2023, we're going to set the date of expiration to 10 years from their previous expiration and not to today's date. For example, if today we were to approve it by the West BZA, it'll be 20... 26 or 2036, but we set the date to 2033 instead. Staff recommends that CVMAC recommend approval to the Board of Supervisors for the conditional use permit PLN at 2025-00054 for T-Mobile carrier facility mounted on a PG&E lattice tower. And the planning staff will convey CV Max recommendations and comments to the West County Board of Zoning adjustments during their deliberation. If the council does recommend approval to the Board of Supervisors, the conditions of approval should be considered in the staff report and staff is available for any questions you may have.

Thank you. Thank you, William. Much appreciated. We'll open public comment on this item. And Rodrigo, do we have anyone online to hand up?

So right now, nobody has raised their hand online.

And you are the public. Could we? Up to the podium.

Donald Osborne, local Castro Valley resident. So this is an existing antenna system? Correct. And you are not gonna update it at all?

Not part of this project, no.

And this is gonna be not updated for 10 years?

The expiration is set to expire in 10 years. During that process, they could apply for a 6409 minor modification with the planning department. So those are typically at ministerial. It does not require discretionary review and does not need to be presented to. I would just remind. I'll let you ask all your questions. I can answer afterwards.

I'm not familiar. We can't have a discussion between the public and staff. So if you have questions, please ask them. And when you're done asking your questions, then staff can reply.

Okay. Will it ever be camouflaged to not be an eyesore?

Any other? No. Yeah, well. Huh?

Oh, I don't get.

No, you can ask questions. We can't have public comment, and during public comment, we can't have discussion back and forth. So if you have questions, please ask them, and then when you're finished, you're complete, then staff can answer.

Yeah, I would like to see a camouflage antenna, and I guess I'm done.

Thank you much. Would staff care to address any of the questions? during public comment?

So as part of the recommendations from this body, this body, because it is expired, it's a brand new permit that this applicant is seeking. You could require that they look to camouflage the facility. If you think that there are any circumstances that merit camouflaging facilities, this one happens to be in a rural area on top of a hill. hard to view from public rights of way, but it's your discretion to consider whether or not such a facility would be better camouflaged as opposed to left un-camouflaged.

Thank you. Do we have any other public comments? All right, we'll start staff questions, staff council questions and comments with Council Member Davis.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Now, in looking at the pictures, the actual cell devices are on a high voltage power pole, is it not? That configuration?

Yes, it's mounted on the structure itself, yes.

Correct. So if one was trying to disguise it, they would have to disguise the entire structure that is out there, which would actually bring it into greater view of people than where it is now in a very isolated location, which you drive by it, not even though it's there.

Correct. So they would either put antenna socks on them, which are typically green, which would be different from the lattice tower itself, or they would have to take off the antennas and put it on a completely different structure and construct a tree next to the lattice tower or a different location.

So again, a SOC is basically just a covering over the individual unit, not the entire structure. Correct.

And staff has shared on screen what the antennas look like today.

Yes. I have no other comments. I'm ready to vote on this.

Thank you, Ray. Council Member Devaney.

Thank you, Chair. William, no real comments or questions. I agree with your findings in the report. Just a reference, once again, we have an expired CUP, and I know that we're working on this through a finding policy or through better regulation, but I'm sure every other council member is thinking the same thing, that this is just a recurring theme. And that's all I have for you. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Mota?

Hi, thank you, Chair, and thank you for your presentation. I do have some questions regarding the no modifications, versus the proposed modifications in the report. The staff report states that the CPU, is continuing operating with no modifications, but the RF compliance report refers to T-Mobile's proposed modifications and identifies antennas one through six as proposed and says the site will only be compliant after specified

The initial application submitted in 2025 did propose modifications, and the RF report was not updated. But as part of today's application, there are no proposed modifications. They'll be existing.

And to repeat what William was saying earlier, because of federal law, a carrier can apply the update their antennas, thereby increasing the size of the antennas, increasing the number of the antennas, and modifying the cabinet equipment up to a certain percentage of the existing initial conditional use permit application. And that is all done Again, by federal law, we have to approve them as long as they're within those additional parameters. I believe it's a 20% addition on height. And in this case, they're not adding any height.

And it's 10% addition in width.

In this case, they're not adding any width. Currently, they're not adding any modifications, but the carrier does have the ability to to throughout the term of their conditional use permit being in operation to apply for these building permits to modify the site. So in many instances, the carriers during the, conditional use permit renewal process do not apply to modify the site and they stick to their allowed cumulative additions. Now, again, it's cumulative throughout the life of the conditional use permit. So if they trip that cumulative allowance, then their new conditional use permit has to reflect updated conditions and they do have to say, well, this is now a modification, this is now modified. But in the case of these antennas, because of their existing antenna number as well as the size of the antennas are within that tolerance, that allowance, they are coming in for existing conditions. And then again, throughout the life of the permit, they could come in later to increase the size of each individual antenna, which many of them do because of technology as well as the number of antennas.

The actual RF compliance today, has staff verified independently that the requirements actually were completed? And do you have that actual, or is it just, you're just taking the word for it, or do you know?

Whether or not the RF, well, let me pull up the old RF report.

Yeah, the facility isn't compliant as of today.

So, well, okay. So is the facility compliant as of today regarding the radio frequency emissions and conformance with federal communications commission's regulations on radio frequency emissions and the safety? We do not verify that independently. We take the report independently. and the engineer's signature on the report at face value. We do not at staff have the capacity or at the county to independently verify with our own in-house engineers or third-party engineers.

Okay. And then how about the restricted access or specific caution or RF guidelines, signage, things like that?

So, yeah, so that we do check. We ask for pictures showing the signage is saying that there is restricted access. We do ask for pictures showing that there's fencing and secure cabinetry. In this case, these antennas are on top of or halfway up or pretty high up PGE Tower. So there is no ready access to the facility. So that we verify with pictures from the...

Do you have those pictures today?

Well, the...

Verifying those things that you just mentioned.

Yes. So here is... I think I showed one. Let's see. Let me find the... Okay, so... Here is... Let's see. So this is private property out in the middle of nowhere. So the... We don't see anything yet. So the fencing around the cabinet structures is to keep... cattle out. So you see the fencing around the base of the PG&E tower and the cabinets underneath. The entrance to the facility itself is behind gates and fencing. Because again, it's private property and the antennas themselves are on the again, within private property, not easily reachable from the ground.

Yes. So the caution sign requirement is there because it says based on the power transmission tower, you have a picture of the caution sign requirement and the RF guideline sign requirement. That's part of the 1.3 site compliance statement. So I just want to make sure that you... That's what you're showing me. I just want to make sure that that's what I'm looking at.

They usually have these pretty standard in their applications. William and I are both looking for it. Let me see if we can find it real quick. I'll stop sharing while I look. 2554.

Yeah, I only ask that because the FCC rules and regulations, right, as you described it in this site safe report.

So we do also have an FCC license with their expiration in 2029. So the FCC did give them approval and licensing. So they would, whatever signs that need to include for these sites physically, they provided it. To the FCC? Correct.

Okay, so let me see if we have that. Yeah, if you could share.

So this is the actual license from the FCC. So the current date is 2019 effective date 2022 and then expiration is 2029.

Okay, and this is where it would show the...

Correct. So all the signage, et cetera, basically this license is telling the public and the operators that this site is in compliance with FCC regulations regarding signage, safety, et cetera.

What were the dates again? You said they took the pictures how many years from... That picture that Rodrigo showed was in 2023. No, this is telling the public, yes, you're saying that this is good for an overall period of time. So I just want to say.

2029 is when it expires.

So it was given in 2019?

Effective date is 2022, and the grant date is September 20th, 2019.

Okay. So between that date and 2029, 2022 and 2029, you guys don't, they don't, they're not required to check for the signage, maybe it fell off or anything like that?

We also ask for follow-up videos and photos as well.

Okay.

So, yeah, so I don't have any picture of their sign as taken right now, so that could be something we could ask for. The sign on site. Normally these signs are more appropriate where it's more ready access in more urbanized areas where there's nothing but fencing between either a sidewalk or an urbanized private property and the cabinet equipment. But we can ask for it in this as well. And I can show you a sample if I can find one of what others look like.

Let me see.

So if the MAC so wishes we could request as part of those conditions of approval for that signage here as well.

Well, I just ask because I want to know who's accountable, right? I understand there's a report that says from 2022 through 2029. Yes, there is, you know, it's covering that period of time, but is someone actually going out there? I mean, anybody can go up there and knock stuff down or something and it not be you know, in compliance. So that's, that's the only thing I'm asking is like, is there some sort of checks besides, Hey, you're covered for this period of time. So that's all.

Okay. Yeah. So, so we would, we would not routinely go inspect the, the sites during operations. Correct.

So, so right.

These are the notices. It's very blurry, but that's what they post on the base of the equipment.

Okay. I don't have any further questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Fiebig.

How far out Palomares is this?

It's at the very southern tip of Palo Maris where it meets Niles Canyon Road.

So I think I heard you reference no public passage or no views from the public and people won't be wandering up there as well? Correct.

The boundaries of the property is fenced off. Okay.

No further questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair Moore.

Thank you, Chair. A couple of questions. You know, when these come before us, often the pictures that we see are taken from the road, and which I understand is kind of a, I only think about it because I'm on the road. But if you live in the community or up on the hill and you're looking at these, we often don't consider the view of the farmers and ranchers in the area that are looking at this monstrosity. And so that's a concern of mine when we look at it. And my next concern is it looks like to me we're going to add something on the fourth picture I see here. It says proposed T-Mobile installation. And the one above it says existing T-Mobile installation. Is there something different there?

So it's the existing and proposed, proposed as in there's no proposed changes. They're comparing what was existing today and what they're proposing as part of this application, which is no modifications.

So they're not adding anything to it? Correct.

There are no modifications, no adjustments, no equipment changes, no antenna swaps or increases.

Well, when I look at the map and see the location of these... Do we ever ask the cell tower folks, since we're using and abusing ag land with these big ugly things, what's your coverage area for the ag folks? Because I can tell you Palomares Canyon, which is where this ends up at, has horrible reception down there. Is there any way that we can go back to the applicant and say, listen, If you want to continue to put these things in or renew your licenses, you need to support the ag community. And we talked about Cal Fire a few minutes ago and some things. Emergency services have no way of reaching these folks. And we've heard time after time in Palomares Canyon, particularly, and up in the end of Cull, there was no reception. but yet we continue to allow these cell towers to go on ag property. So can't we put some pressure on them?

So it could be, it's more complicated than saying, can you do coverage for ag properties? They're looking to maximize coverage for, uh, without making a lot of the, um, investments in, uh, having to lease out land. And so what many of them have started doing because of, again, not only because of the coverage requirements, uh, in general, but also because of the increased demands in technology with faster speeds and more, uh, streaming, et cetera, is going along, um, The public utility poles, the electrical poles along streets, those they lease from whoever owns the pole. In many instances, in an incorporated county, that's the county in the various cities, etc. Sometimes it's AT&T itself that owns the poles if they're on phone lines. So those are being added without conditional use permits because at least in the county power poles, those are lease areas with the county and on public right-of-way and those don't need conditional use permits because there's public property. It's public right away. So that is happening. The planning department is tangentially made aware that these are happening with conversations with our colleagues at the County Public Works Agency. But for additional coverage, we have not... There is no historic, definitely no historic instances of the county saying, well, we would not approve Site A unless you provide more coverage in nearby areas. We've done research online, but it's only been research online about how that could work from other jurisdictions, and it's been... I haven't, I've done the research and I haven't found instances where that's been the case. So, so I don't know that that answers the question, your question sentence factorally, but But we do, as far as I've been able to research, we do not have the capacity to say, well, we will not approve site A, even though it provides you coverage that you are requesting, unless you do more coverage in these other areas. But I can continue to try and work with the industry representatives. There's usually... attorneys for the applicants is whom we end up talking with, and that's how the conversation is going so far.

So just out of curiosity, does the county have an identified map of areas in these unincorporated canyon lands that are not covered by cell reception?

We do not.

So if we don't have a map of where we don't have coverage, how do we ask for coverage?

We would rely on them to tell us where there is no coverage.

So is there any way that since these are for-profit companies and they're maximizing their profit, that's one of the reasons why I'm sure that they're not going to put these in some of the areas that are hard to get to, we can ask them to do a study prior to this telling us where they're lacking coverage so we can have some input on helping the rural folks in the Canyonlands.

So they provide us those coverage maps for their immediate surrounding areas. What I'm understanding is you want them to zoom out and provide us coverage maps for perhaps all of Castro Valley Canyonlands per carrier. Is that correct?

Okay. So I just had a couple of things that I'm concerned about. We always take pictures from the road, not from local ranchers and farmers that are looking at these. I would like to see something going forward that we do things a little different. When we look at areas lacking coverage, when these come before us, it would be nice to know whether this company is stepping up to the plate and fixing it. And then when I look at the pictures here, This is clearly a summertime picture, not a wintertime picture, because all the grass is brown and dry. And I know that these things take energy to run. So there's either a generator or battery pack or something there that's providing power for these to run. Is that correct?

Yes, they provide emergency generators based on propane or some other liquid.

So as one of our requirements, can we ask this thing where the fenced-in area is, or maybe 10 feet outside the fenced-in area, they be graveled so that a problem that may happen in their area doesn't cause a fire?

Yes, that's a condition we can add.

And as far as camo, I don't think there's much they can do with making it look any better other than if they were to do some grooming to the area and give us a safe area that they would operate in for fire.

Also, William with Albany County Planning staff. Typically these photos are provided by the applicants. So the applicants would need permission from neighboring property owners to take photos from their properties onto the view of this specific cell site. So it's either staff, county would need permission from neighboring property owners to go onto their property and take photos or the applicants themselves.

Well, I think most of the neighbors that are concerned would say, yes, we'll go on, And they have things called drones now. They take pictures of everything. So an applicant could certainly fly a drone around and take a picture of the surrounding, because it's very deceptive when you look at it from the road, because, you know. But either way it goes, I don't think there's a whole lot we could do for a camel out there, but we could certainly clean up the surrounding area and maybe Cal fire should get involved in that one. You know, I've just, I see this. I'm just concerned about it. I think it's all my questions. Thank you. I would be okay with it if they were to put a gravel pad around the outside of that fence and, gravel the inside of it and so it's fireproof and have some sort of a maintenance program to where they go out there and and Make sure that we don't have weeds growing up for fire hazard.

Thank you. Mr. Vice chair Thank You William And I I have no I have actually one question On the pictures in the staff report it shows a cell antenna of the PG&E tower. Are those both part of this application or is one T-Mobile and one somebody else?

So this specific lattice tower only contains T-Mobile equipment and antennas.

All right. And who's, to what Vice Chair Moore was talking about, that also concerned me. Okay. Whose responsibility? I mean, no, stop. There are no conditions of approval to deal with vegetation that I could see.

Correct. That's currently. And so we could add those conditions of approval to make sure that prior to X number of days with staff inspection, there would be added gravel in the perimeter of the lease area.

Very good. That would be my condition for approving the CEP.

Any other council comments? Chair, I have one more question, if I may. Sure. William or Rodrigo, do we know if there is a backup energy source on this? This is on a PG&E tower. I'm assuming that's their primary source. Do we know that there is any fuel-based backup system available Um, I see that there's a structure underneath. I don't know what that is. I don't know if that has electricity running through it. I mean, clearly if there's any flammable stuff, then I think, uh, the vice chair more has an excellent point, but I'm wondering if we know the configuration of the backup energy source, or is it all contained on that tower?

On the site plan sheet, a two, um, A distance from the lattice tower is a transformer.

Okay, so that structure that we're seeing below the tower is a transformer. I would assume that that would have a fire risk associated with it. It could fail, it could overheat. So I think that Vice Chair Moore has a good point that that should be a non-flammable structure surface, at least within the perimeter of the fence.

So we could, yeah, we can have that condition approved for gravel installation on that.

Thank you.

That's all I have. All right. Seems like we have some unanimity on that point. Would anyone care to make a motion on how we recommend to our board of supervisors?

I move that we recommend approval to the Board of Supervisors to allow the continued operation of telecommunications facility with the expired conditional use permit PLN 2013-0018 T-Mobile. Do we have a second? Hearing none. Okay.

Do we have... I would make an amendment to that, please.

We need a second before you can make an amendment to the motion.

To that end, I'll second it.

Okay. I would make an amendment to that motion that one of the conditions of approval is that there is a minimum of a 10-foot barrier around the fence area and inside completely, that it's a... either a gravel or some sort of maintained pad where it could be fire. I won't say, I guess nothing's fireproof, but...

I assume that was already part of the motion, but I accept your friendly amendment.

Okay. As do I. I said, as do I, as the seconder of the motion. I would agree with that amendment. Any discussion?

Roll call, please. Sure. The vote is as follows. Member Mota?

No.

Member Fiebig? Yes. Member Davis?

Aye.

Member Devaney?

Aye.

Vice Chair Moore?

Could I ask you to read the amendment to the motion so I understand?

So a condition of approval is added that a minimum of 10 foot... beyond the barrier and inside the lease area to be for gravel or other paved surface. Okay, aye. Aye. Okay, so that is five ayes, one no, and one excused?

Correct. All right. Okay, we are moving on to the comments. Do we have any comments from staff?

None at this time.

We have any, well, I would just like to say that as the chair comments, we lost a very Town of Castro Valley, Mark Crawford passed away on July 8th. And I would like to ask for a moment of silence in his honor and in gratitude for the work he's done over 20 years here. Thank you. And when we adjourn the meeting, we will adjourn it in the memory and honor of Mark Crawford. But right now we will hear from the rest of the council. Is there any announcements or comments?

I would just say that Mark's going to be missed dearly in this community. I can't think of anybody that I've worked with in the last 12 years on one of these councils that cared more or worked harder. And thank you for taking that moment of silence on his behalf. You're welcome. Anyone else?

All right. We now have, is there any report from the Economic Development Ad Hoc Subcommittee?

Yeah.

After the report. Yeah.

So do you want, oh, I wasn't quite prepared to report out on it. I thought the committee and subcommittee members would report out. But I know we had a meeting to go over the draft strategic plan. with members of the ad hoc subcommittee, with the economic and civic development department, planning department staff myself, as well as members of the economic development ad hoc subcommittee.

Thank you. Concise. All right, at this point, In honor of Mark Crawford and his immense contributions to the town of Castro Valley, I will adjourn this meeting in his honor. Oh, I'm sorry. Before we adjourn, we have to have public comment on our comments.

So nobody online has raised their hand?

Any little mice in the room? No? Okay. We are adjourned. in the honor of Mark Crawford.