Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council - Regular Meeting

All right, everybody. Good evening and welcome to the August 24th land use meeting of the Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council. Glad everybody's here in person and those online. And we will open the meeting with Pledge of Allegiance. Council Member Davis, if you would. pledge 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. Rodrigo, can we have the roll call, please?

Yes. Member Thomas is excused. Member Mota? Present. Member Fiebig?

Present.

Member Davis.

Present.

Member Devaney.

Here.

Vice Chair Moore.

Here.

Chair Mulgrew.

Present.

We have quorum.

Thank you. All right. We'll get into item A on the agenda. Public announcements are open forum. This is the chance for the community to speak on any item that is not on tonight's agenda. So if you have an announcement or a comment or Anything that is not related to anything on tonight's agenda, uh, you'll have three minutes to speak. If you would kindly fill out one of these speaker cards and take it up to, oh, you can bring it up here. Um, you'll have three minutes to speak. Do we have anybody in the room that wishes to speak on an item, not on our agenda? We have anyone online?

We have somebody online, Cheryl Uythoven. Cheryl, if you could please unmute yourself. You have three minutes.

Hi, yes, this is Cheryl Eithoven, and I want to just say how I was very disappointed to see how disrespectful people who came to Castro Valley to do Cruise Night. The sound that was added to a video of the event was not the sounds heard during the event. The revving up of the engines was not appropriate for the crowd that was so close to the non-moving cars. The foul words that came from the music of some of the vehicles were The cars that were not cruising but parking where they wish was disrespectful to businesses. How disappointing that Sal with Orbit Skateboards just opening had to deal with some of this landscaping damage. I picked up garbage that was left today. It was called Crave Train Wreck, train wreck. All up and down the boulevard, the garbage was there. um alcohol waste food waste there's already a problem on the boulevard with no u-turns that you have to travel a block or more to do a u-turn to get off the highly traveled thoroughfare and with the lights not time to reflect traffic flow issues The entities that encourage this event should have some accountability. Too bad the Rotary had an area set up because it looked like they were part of this chaos. I just hope that nothing tragic happened that I hadn't heard of. Just awful. Bad representation. And this is Castro Valley News. I think the CHP was supposed to be involved. I don't know what part they had. They should not have allowed it. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else, Rodrigo?

No one else online has raised their hand.

All right. We will close public announcements, open forum, and we'll go to approval of the minutes. I'm sure everyone's had a chance to glance at them by now. Do we have any, do we have a motion first?

Mr. Chair, you want to do these each separately?

Thank you. One at a time. Yes, June 8th. We'll start with June 8th.

I move approval of June 8th minutes. Second. Any discussion?

Chair, the June 8th meeting is the one that we had that Kieran correct for the Brown Act training. And I didn't think that the minutes adequately reflected my thoughts that I thought it was a silly, a waste of time and wholly unwarranted. Um, furthermore, I don't think the minutes reflected our request that County council district four staff and planning staff immediately inform us of any complaints from citizens rather than setting up meetings for us. So, uh, for those reasons, I don't think I can approve the, uh, the June 8th minutes.

Any other comments? I have a couple, um, there's some inconsistencies in item a, uh, where it lists the, uh, the attendance we have excused council member fee big. And then on, um, under applicant comments for on page three, um, it says down at the motion carried, uh, Phoebe excused, um, And then an item number two, it says one excused. It doesn't say who, um, also in the June 8th meetings, county council is cited, but not named. And I think if we have a staff present and speaking at a meeting, um, they should be named. So have our county council name, um, And I would ask if Council Member Devaney would be okay approving these with the changes that you have suggested and I have suggested.

I would, but I think that the direction to County Council, District 4 staff, and planning staff to immediately inform us perhaps it can be reflected in tonight's minutes because I think that's a very important initiative or direction so that we're aware of who's writing letters and complaints rather than just responding with a meeting. To answer your question, yes, I can. I can accept that if those changes can be incorporated.

And I accept those as friendly amendments.

Thank you.

Can we have a roll call, please?

Yes, the vote will be as follows. Member Mota?

Yes.

Member Fiebig?

Abstain, I was in here.

Member Davis?

Aye.

Member Devaney?

Aye.

Vice Chair Moore? Nay. Chair Mulgrew? Aye. Motion passes.

I'll move the approval of the... Meeting minutes of July 13th, 2026.

I'll second that. Thank you. We have moved and seconded. Any discussion? Changes, comments, corrections? None. I have one. I'm sorry, but when the votes are listed, go to the back page for clarification. We have the vote listed as 51001. It's just a different format than the June 8 minutes. So I would just ask that we pick a format that's consistent, stay with it. And if that's all, that's the only comment. So not suggesting any changes to the motion. May I have the roll call, please, Rodrigo?

Yes, the vote is as follows. Member Mota? Aye. Member Fiebig?

Aye.

Member Davis? Aye. Member Devaney?

Aye.

Vice Chair Moore?

Aye.

Chair Mulgrew? Aye. Motion passes.

Thank you. All right, our first item on the regular calendar is a variance for TD Home Builders property on Jensen Road and who will be presenting from staff.

So Michael.

My name is Damian Curry presenting for Amy Claros who was not able to be here this evening. This is a variance application PLN 2026-11. This is an application to allow a side yard setback of 10 feet, 6 inches, where 20 feet is the minimum required under the zoning district. The applicants are Eugene and Josephine Johnson with the TD Home Builders acting as the contact. The location is 5912 Jensen Road in Castro Valley. with an APN of 85A13-3. And the zoning is a plan development PD 1489, which allows uses allowed under the R1LBE district with a 40,000 square foot minimum parcel size. The general plan is Castor Valley Rural Residential. And this project would be, categorically exempt under the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act under class one existing facilities. Just an aerial photo outlined in blue of the parcel with the existing conditions. The property, the blue line denoting the property is skewed to the north by about 10 feet. You can also ascertain using the fence lines what the actual boundaries of the property are. And this is in plan view, the current house as it sits, it's about 900 square feet. area the proposed residence of 4,400 square feet is is shown and the so the so the current current house has has a setback of just over 10 feet and then this this proposed dwelling would have 10 foot setback for for additional areas of the building. So in effect, carrying forward the setback that exists currently. Staff, while item in finding number three, staff has not found that this would be detrimental to persons or property in the neighborhood. Finding number two, arguably that it would not constitute a grant of special privileges. However, finding number one, staff has been unable to find special circumstances for this property that would allow for a recommendation to the council of approval. Under the general plan, this project would be consistent under goal 4.3-1, which provides for a variety of housing types that will meet anticipated needs while preserving and enhancing the livability and character of Castarelli's neighborhoods and seeing the potential Seeing the proposed improvements to the house are certainly in line with that goal. The proposed addition with the reduced side yard setback continues to comply with the Castro Valley general plan by maintaining the low density residential use and And under the zoning ordinance, however, the site is again zoned PD allowing R1LBE uses. It does have a setback requirement for side yards of 20 feet. So this project does not realize that, but otherwise it would be consistent with the purpose and intent of the applicable zoning district regulations. So in conclusion, staff does not recommend approval to the council for the project. However, if the council were to make findings for approval, staff has also included conditions of approval for the project. And that concludes staff presentation. Thank you.

Thank you, Damien.

All right.

Is the applicant present? Would the applicant like to speak?

Before you speak, if you could turn the mic on. There's going to be a switch on the mic. And hopefully there's a light that's on.

Testing.

Yes. Yep.

You have to speak right into it. Yes. All right. All right, a little nervous. I speak in front of people for a living, but this is a little different for some reason. Good evening, everyone. My name is Eugene Johnson. This is my wife, Josephine, and my son, Nathaniel, and my youngest, Zachary, or soon to be youngest. I have another one on the way in the spring. We are business owners, entrepreneurs, and also pastors in the area. And we're excited to be here. We found a place here locally that we fell in love with. Just the location, the area, the atmosphere is for a great atmosphere for children growing up. So Um, here's the situation. Uh, we got a house that we loved in the neighborhood that we love. Um, and it's small, you know, 1200 square feet for the five of us soon to be plus her, my in-laws and my brother-in-law. So seven soon to be eight, um, in the 1200 square foot is not, not, not, not the Perfect situation. So we're going to be bringing the family together, building a house together as a unit. And the one thing we're asking for tonight and the only thing is just to keep the side of the house exactly where it's at today. We're not asking to move anything towards anybody or any closer. Here's what we're really asking. The house today is sitting on a lot that's already closer than the 20 foot that's being asked. And it's been there for over 20 years. The county looked at it back in 2000 and gave it the green light to sit at the place that it is today. So we're not kind of moving anything or trying to create a new variance or a new push towards the existing neighbors. My neighbors didn't change, really just the category of the paperwork from the time that the home was built till today. Um, a couple of things I wanted to say about the property itself, because, uh, I want to make sure that, you know, a lot of these pieces of the puzzle are, are heard. Um, you know, currently the lot is smaller than the zoning is written for. So the zoning is set for 40,000 square feet, uh, for this particular house, the house is only, uh, 32,000 square or the lot is only 32,000 square feet. Uh, there's 150 feet within that time that, that 40,000 zone variance. And we only have on average a hundred feet across. So our largest is a hundred and I think 15 feet, if I'm not mistaken, our smallest is 20 or 80 feet. So it's, you know, just to get a little bit tight from a narrowing perspective, which is why it's not as easy just to say, just move the house over you know, another 10 feet. So we want to be fair here because the staff, you know, we've had multiple conversations with the staff over the last, you know, six, nine months. You guys have been amazing, been great to work with. So the spot that I think where we see things different is just the technicality of just saying, you know, having enough space to move the house as it currently sits. That's where it gets a little difficult because we have to keep enough setback for the, you know, the road that comes in along the side. And some other things there. So, you know, we've said yes to, you know, and moved through all of the conditions that were asked of us. I think it was about 20 of them that were asked of us, you know, and this is really kind of the last thing. So our hope is that we're not trying to be the odd one out. We are almost every single home in the area is more as less as 10 feet or less from the fence. So we're just asking to kind of keep the house and the house line exactly where it's been for the last 20 years. That's it, thank you. Thank you very much.

Welcome to Castro Valley.

Do I sit down or?

All right, we'll open this item for public comment at this time. If there's anyone present who would like to speak on this item, please bring a speaker card to the staff table or just raise your hand. Let me know you're interested and we'll go from there. Nobody in the room? Rodrigo, anybody online?

There is nobody online who has raised their hand to speak on this item.

And neighbors have been notified of this application 500 feet, is that?

500 feet. Thank you, okay.

All right, we'll close public comment on this issue and we'll go to the council for comments and questions, questions and comments. start with Council Member Devaney.

Thank you, Chair. Staff, the applicant writes a compelling letter where he essentially states that all the properties in this area have been standing as long as this one or longer enjoy 10-foot side setbacks as the existing home currently does. Were you able to verify that? In other words, were you able to look at the other homes in the

Yes, many of the homes in the neighborhood are built to the 10-foot side yard setback.

I agree with you, Damon. I wasn't sure if you guys looked at it, so I looked at it myself. And I went to the county parcel map program, which gives you a satellite view and an overlay. And there's a significant number of homes there. that are well within 10 feet, including the house right next door, including the court just beyond that, the four homes on Hunter Knolls. If you go all the way up and down Jensen, it seems like there are a lot of homes that are within a 10-yard. So they either were granted variances or they didn't have the same side yard setback requirements. So given the consistency that the applicant is asking, I disagree with your finding number one, specifically that there are no special circumstances depriving the property of privileges available to the other properties. They're currently at 11.7%. feet from the property line. They're going to tighten it to 10.6. So they're going to get a foot closer just to keep their, their sidewall parallel with the existing house. So I think I can make all three findings to, to grant this variance again, just based on the character of the, of the neighborhood.

Thank you. Council member Moda.

Yes, I have a few questions. On staff's agenda, the address lists 5912 Jensen Road, and then on the report it's 5921. I just want to make sure on record which one is the correct one.

I can verify which address should be under discussion and then get back to you shortly.

Okay. Oh, go ahead, Rodrigo.

So the county tax assessor's parcel map says 5912 Jensen Road. 5912. Okay, not 21.

Okay. So the staff report's incorrect, right? The first page?

Just 21? Yeah, I do. It just flipped the 21. Okay.

I just wanted to make sure.

Yeah, thank you.

Yep. And I think some of my questions were already answered. That was clarification on page three where it discussed the front yard setback requirement of 30 feet. And so I think that was one thing you're looking at and was answered and Also the other question that I had was the circumstances on the land itself, justifying the variance. And I think that was another thing that was just raised. And then can you, the scope of the development, what I wanted to find out is the referral materials reference in ADU and detached garage, in addition to the house expansions, are those still part of the project or will they affect the applicant's ability to redesign the additional within the required setback?

Oh, I see, yes. So both for the garage and for the ADU, they do not have the setbacks applied. For an ADU, you can be within four feet of the property line, and there would not be setbacks applying to the detached garage. Okay.

Okay, sounds good. Thank you. That's all the questions I have.

Thank you. Council Member Feebig.

Can you hear me okay? Yes.

For the accessory dwelling unit, the state legislation provides for a four foot setback. And for the detached accessory structure garage, the zoning ordinance does not have setbacks for detached accessory structures, except in other circumstances. So this is a remodel is what I'm understanding, correct? Correct, a renovation, yes.

Where the setback is proposed?

That would be a new wall because the current setback is 11 feet, some inches, and the new wall is 10.5 feet.

Other than just the variance that would play into this.

Yes, there are. There are. Vision is only ordinance to continue a building wall for encroaching setback where. where it is two feet or less of an encroachment. So had the proposed building wall and the current building wall been located at 18 feet, then staff could have approved over-the-counter and extension staying at 18 feet.

Being less than 18 feet would then need special approvals.

Thank you. Council Member Davis.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sort of piggybacking on what previous people have asked. 20 feet is a number. Why 20 feet is necessary for a side yard setback?

20 feet is in the under the zoning ordinance for the for a B combining district for the B 40. Where, where the minimum parcel size required is 40,000 square feet. So 2020 feet for a side yard setback is is prescribed by the zoning ordinance.

So at some point, at some time, someone said, okay, we're just going to do 20 feet. What is the rationale behind 20 feet? Is it fire that's sitting there saying that you need it? Because in most residential areas, it's fairly common for a 10-foot setback, side yard setback, is it not?

So is Rodrigo doing with county planning? So it depends on the neighborhood. Some neighborhoods with larger parcel sizes, the neighbors, the community decided that they wanted to be more separated from each other. And so at some point, the request, this is a planned development zoning along Jensen Road. And so at some point, community consensus was to have more separation between buildings. Now, some of these buildings were developed before that consensus. And so the narrower or closer side yard setback was allowable at that time. But as Jensen got developed earlier, many, many zones have in fact down zoned such that not that much development continues to happen where sometimes minimum parcel sizes get bigger so that not that much development can happen. Case in point is on Madison Avenue specific plan where there was some development going in and Because of that specific plan, this community consists of trying to protect the creek and the setbacks, and so they develop these larger minimum lot sizes. That's common throughout the county where you end up with a requirement for larger lot sizes once some development has started, so that future development cannot develop at that same or similar intensity and be along with those larger sizes comes greater distances for future buildings to property lines.

Okay. It was mentioned that a number of the other residential properties in the area have less than a 20-foot setback. Did they all require CUPs or were they done before that was instigated?

There are staff did find a few houses that were built after that zoning ordinance or that plan development was approved under ordinance and also under site development review applications, which are required for the construction of a new house. So it does not appear from the record that everything was consistently applied over the years.

So we do have a number of exceptions that are out there. Yes. Tonight we're just considering the variance, period, correct?

Correct, yes.

Because if I had an issue with the garage, does planning look at the backup space behind a garage, before a garage door?

Yeah, for a garage door facing a side lot line, there are the requirement is that there be at least 20 feet.

Okay. Answers my questions. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Vice chair more.

Thank you. Um, just a couple of things. Um, a lot next to it. Five, nine Oh four. You know, it's really difficult when I look at that to see what the setback is on the, um, um, property next to it. Do you have any idea what that setback is?

I believe it is, it is 20. It shows that there is some, uh, some steps in some landscaping that, that, uh, um, encroaches into that area. But, um, the address for that, sorry, is, is, uh, um, can you give me the address again?

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what consistency or what other folks in the area, because the way I understand variances are given when one party is denied something that other parties have or some figuration in a neighborhood would cause someone, maybe it's elevation or something, not to have the same privilege as other folks in the neighborhood have. Rodrigo, can you comment on that? Is that how variances work?

Right. So the idea is multifold, right? Are you granting a specific property, special privileges, like you mentioned that other properties don't have? That's one finding. Are you creating a situation that's going to be detrimental to the neighborhood? That's another situation. Or are you... I forgot the third one. But the idea is that you are going to... treat all the similarly zoned properties with similar circumstances, the same so that no one property gets any special treatment without just cause thanks. And then so. The other finding is the property itself has special circumstances that would necessitate treatment differently from those other properties, right? So the classic case that is taught in planning school is if everybody else is in a single family zone neighborhood, but this one property has a creek running through it and somebody can't build within the setbacks because they're gonna be too close to the creek, and nobody else has a creek in their properties, or those that do have also been granted this special privilege to get away from the creek and therefore encroach on the setbacks, then that's a valid reason to grant the variance, right? There are special circumstances on that specific property. There's a creek. You're not being special to this one property because those that have a similar circumstance also got the benefit. And it's not going to be detrimental to the neighborhood because of whatever reason. And so those are the three circumstances that must be found.

Thank you. When I'm looking at this, so we don't know what the setback currently is on 5904 or the property further down the road from that or up the road, what that setback is. And so I'm kind of trying to get an idea what is working in the area so that one person wouldn't be denied something others have already had. And then also understand ADUs have a significantly different setback.

Correct, ADUs are allowed four feet no matter where they're located, what zoning district they're located in.

So that kind of shot down the old 20 foot rule with the ADUs being directed by the state to, by right kind of, is that correct?

Yes, they are allowed by right to build a new detached ADU up to four feet away from the side and rear property lots.

Okay. And I look at this and if you had no home on the property at all, then it would be pretty easy to say a 20-foot setback's pretty much the norm. But it already has a home, and this is a significant remodel that is changing the current setback by, what, a foot and a half?

Correct, a foot and a half-ish closer to the side property line.

Right, it's already at, what, 10 foot, I think, or 11? Right.

11 feet and change, and then the new would be 10 foot, five inches, six inches, somewhere there?

Okay. Yes, by about a foot increase.

Was there any feedback from any of the neighbors through this process?

There was no feedback at all from neighbors, no contact.

5822 didn't post any objection to this application for a variance?

No, there was no objection.

So we have no neighborhood objections. We allow ADUs to be and garages to be within four feet of the property line, I believe. And this is a significant remodel. And we don't know what the setbacks on the other properties are currently. Um, I would have a hard time not supporting, um, uh, I would have a hard time not supporting the applicant for the setback. So anyway, that's my thoughts. Thank you for the presentation.

Thank you. Thank you. Um, I think the council is pretty well adequately and stated my beliefs on this. Um, I understand and appreciate staff's recommendation, and I really do appreciate it. You're keeping an eye on the community. Net-net, I agree with Councilmember Devaney that it would be a detriment to the applicant not to be given the same benefits capabilities as the neighbors have been given in the past. So I would support the applicant in this regard and not be in favor of denying the application. So That being said, I would accept the motion.

Chair, I move that we first make the three findings required to approve the variance and then in fact, improve the variance. So make the three findings, approve the variance. That's my motion. I'll second the motion.

Second.

Do we have any discussion? Council Member Davis, did you say anything else? I just want to add, I think the remodel as pictured would be an asset to the neighborhood. It fits very well. And I think the folks on Jensen Road would be appreciative of that. So any other comments? Roll call, please, Rodrigo.

Yes, and just for staff's clarification, on the finding number one that staff was not able to make and that this MAC is recommending, there are, in fact, special circumstances applicable to the property which the private property privileges and joined by others. So this board is recommending that, in fact, there are special circumstances given the substantial remodel. Is that correct? Yes. Great. Thank you. Okay. If no further comments, the vote will be as follows. Member Mota?

Aye.

Member Fiebig? Aye. Member Davis?

Aye.

Member Devaney? Aye. Vice Chair Moore?

Aye.

Chair Mulgrew? Aye. Motion passes.

Okay. Item number two on the agenda, site development review for proposed nail store nail salon, um, at our old friend, the veterinary shop on Castro Valley Boulevard.

And Michael, are you, um, Michael Fleming with the Albany County planning department here to, uh, present item number two PLN 2026-00070 is a site and development review to allow conversion of a veterinary hospital to a nail store. Um, The site development review to determine if land use group A beauty shop slash nail salon can be found consistent with the development objective of sub area two, which is low intensity retail frontage, high density residential located within an existing commercial building. Um, The applicant is Gunman Craction and the owner is Nugent MacArthur. It's located at 2515 Castro Valley Boulevard, APN 084A0007-00400. It's 301 Class 1 existing facilities. Closer? Okay. The... Nelsor, you may recall, this is right next to Gulfland on Cache Valley Boulevard. There was a veterinary hospital there quite many years ago. It's been a closed down building for quite some time now. It's zoned sub-area two and in the regional retail entertainment in the Cache Valley general plan. The project is to repurpose the existing closed hospital in the existing 2,220 square foot building into a nail salon on 12,020 to 226 square foot lot and review. If the proposed use will fit into zoning district properly, the site would have 18 total parking spots to being ADA compliant where six are required. Um, The proposed use is compatible with the sub-area being mostly retail uses. The proposed use falls within the general plan as being hospitality in nature. Here is the site plan. The business is at the back of the lot. There are 18 spaces in front. Here is the existing floor plan when it was a vetting hospital. Here's the new floor plan, a little entryway here, reception, different nail areas to get your nails done. There's also some rooms to be waxed in and a lunchroom. They are proposing this Phoenix Nails signage, which is well under the 32 square feet allowed. And that's just as a standard allowed signage, which anyone could have for an identification sign. You're allowed 32 square feet. They're proposing, I believe, 15 square feet, which is just going to go. This is what the front of the building is going to look like. It's kind of small, but it's just going to have the little Phoenix Nails right there. They're not changing anything to do with the frontage other than they might be painting it. Staff recommends that the Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council recommend approval of site development review PLN-2026-00070 to the planning director to allow conversion of that hospital, the nail store, that language group, a beauty salon, is consistent with the development objectives of sub area two low intensity retail frontage located within existing commercial building based on drawings marked a dated march 9 2026 and draft conditions of approval and of all the draft conditions of approval which are included in the package um just a little sub note um so basically when we are looking at this um The general plan's already geared for hospitality use, and the rest of the zoning in that area, it just doesn't list this type of use in the land use group B. A nail salon is in land use group A. This area is a land use group B area. But what it does say that if you find something that is different, not listed, you can bring it to council and see if people are okay with it, if it's consistent with the district. And I think based on that, the rest of the, the, area there you have the golf land you have the pizza hardware you have the donut shop you have i think there's a bar there there's a restaurant it's all kind of hospitality uh certain you know customer serving uses there's gonna be a car shot a car wash next door i think it'll fit just fine um so that's what we think thank you uh staff's available for questions and the applicant is here in the room if you have any questions trim thank you michael

At this point, would give the applicant a chance to speak. MacArthur, when are you... Please.

I'm just here to answer any questions, but my only feedback is that I think it would be good for economic development as far as... Excuse me. as far as having a hospitality use of the building that's being non-used, right? Taking something that's not being used and turning it into something where there's some economic opportunity, giving some people some jobs, and then also just generally just being active as far as the community. Can you speak? Oh, yeah.

Could you speak right into the mic, please?

Just to kind of repeat my sentiments earlier, too, is that I think it would be a good idea to approve the use of it, basically because that is not being used right now. So obviously having an active business would help with economic development, create some jobs for the people that are willing to work there. And so I wouldn't see any negative effects. And then as Michael said too, is that it kind of would fit in with the current community and way out of the use. And I wouldn't foresee any objections, but I'm here to answer any objections that anyone might have.

Does council have any questions for the applicant?

I do. Please. Is this your first location or have you had a separate salon in the past?

I actually represent the owner, right? She actually owns several other nail salons. And so one of the reasons why she's doing that is trying to expand her business. And she can't handle the load or basically the amount of people that are going into her current store.

Okay. What other cities are you in?

I can't. I think she's in somewhere in Hayward.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you. That's all the questions I have.

Thank you. That was my question. Awesome. All righty, thank you very much, Mr. Nguyen. And at this point we will, yes, open to the public for comment. Is there anyone in the room that would like to make comment on this item? Anyone online?

Yes, we have somebody online. Cheryl, if you could please unmute yourself and you can go ahead. You have three minutes.

Yeah, it's me again. I just hope that the council can ask more questions and look into this some more. I'm just wondering when this location turned into hospitality. The general plan, I mean, how old is that? I thought the issue was at one point that the vet... moved from there next to the Chabot, which was a restaurant, which that was supposed to be for entertainment. That should have never happened. It did happen because nobody's asking any questions. I mean, who says that this is good for a good objective development? I mean, first of all, how many nail shops do we have in Castro Valley? And is the owner. So this guy talking for the owner can't even tell us where the other locations are. Everything just is all fuzzy. And then the zoning, of course, that's also a joke. So consistency. What does consistency mean? Please ask your questions first. of the map. Ask what does consistency mean to you? I don't know. If you don't live here, you don't care. You're not having to drive by the place. You're not having to walk by the place. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Rodrigo, do we have anyone else?

Nobody else has raised their hand to speak on this item?

Okay, then we will Once more for the room, anyone here wish to speak? No? All right, we'll close public comment on this item and turn to council for questions and thoughts. Council Member Davis.

Not too many questions, a lot of thoughts. We've been waiting for a specific plan for years, yet we continue to carve up little pieces of information of land that could be used for a greater good. And I'm not inclined to approve any project in this location until we have a specific plan in place. As was mentioned just recently, our general plan is older than some of the people in this room. And I definitely don't see that, just because it's vacant is not a reason to Put something in here. This property has been a blight on the community for a number of years. The proposed project is not going to improve it any. They have a little facade improvement, but nothing else. There's just going to be a bunch of asphalt out there with the building where it is now. And I definitely don't see how it's considered a hospitality use. I think that's a really far reach. And so... Those are my comments. I cannot support anything going in here until we have a more comprehensive plan as to how we're going to develop our downtown area in conjunction with what the community wants and not just filling holes here and there because it's available. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Feebig.

I agree with Ray, as far as it'd be nice to know what the downtown plan is going to be completely, and hopefully it's close. I know there's a lot of nail salons. I think there's one right across the street. So not many other questions.

Thank you. Council Member Emota.

Um, it looks like code enforcement had not responded when this report was prepared. Is there anything outstanding on the property that we should know about?

Oh, no, there was nothing.

Sorry.

There is, there's no outstanding code cases on this property. Thank you.

Okay. That was confirmed from code enforcement. Okay. Um, No further questions.

Thank you.

Council Member DeVitty. Thank you, Chair. Is hospitality defined in any of our various documents in the zoning code, in the planning code, in the building code? Is there any definition of hospitality?

Well, it was referred to in the general plan as hospitality was listed as under this general plan section, but I don't believe there's a definition in the general plan that would have that.

Yeah, therein lies the problem. I understand that hospitality is allowed in this district, but it's the definition of hospitality that I'm having trouble with. I can't stretch a nail salon to be a hospitality use, nor would I stretch a barber to be a hospitality use. When I looked up the definition of hospitality, a lot of it talked about lodging and and food and entertainment and luxury, uh, items and things like that. Um, so I think it's not compliant with the general plan. Um, you specifically say that the designation is intended to provide for and protect, uh, existing commercial recreation and entertainment uses. And I, I can't make the leap to say that a nail salon, because you're calling it hospitality falls into the general plan. And then more specifically as it relates to the, um, the specific plan, whether it's updated or not updated, I still don't think it is compliant. You do point out that this use really falls under land use A, and that we're allowed to say that it's consistent with the neighborhood and consistent with the use A. But if we can't say that it is consistent with the other uses in that area, it's supposed to be land use group B, which this one does not qualify for land use group B. So I think we have a problem with the general plan conformance. I think we have a problem with the specific plan conformance. And so to make an exception, I would say it has to be an extraordinary benefit to Castro Valley. It has to be something that we're almost willing to to go beyond our plans and we have the discretion to do that. And as much as I would like to see that building occupied and to see the economic benefit of having people use it, I can't make that reach that this is such a unique and wonderful application that we ought to break these two specific plans. So I do feel for a building that's just sitting there empty, it's a shame. one of the callers mentioned that the, that the owner, I don't know if it's still the owner, but at least the prior owner, when they moved their operation down next to the Chabot theater, that specifically took away an entertainment venue. And I'm going to be reticent to give away more entertainment. It gave away an entertainment venue because they did get a sexy new building, a three-story attractive building, uh, after JD's was, was torn down. It was a vacant lot. Um, I just don't see the benefit to Castro Valley to make exceptions to our existing plans. So I'm not going to be able to support this application. Thank you, Vice Chair Moore.

Thank you. I guess... I probably should look up really what hospitality is because that seems like a pretty broad definition of this particular use. You know, I go back to looking for retail, looking for entertainment. Right next door we happen to have our peewee golf course. It would be nice to see some compatible use to that of some sort. Um, I was very, um, I was happy to see the, the, uh, veterinarian clinic moved on to somewhere else because it really opened up the door for improving that in the town. Um, I going through the drawings here, even looking at what was being presented, I didn't find anything that was real attractive to, um, When I pulled into Castro Valley and got past Burger Island, I was, you know, and I believe we have a brand new car wash going right there on that corner. That's going to be a nice looking new business in the community. I mean, I would hope that at some point in time, we'd see a hotel or something on this piece of property that's really well done, but I don't think looking at this and certainly not my interpretation that this fits into the ideal use for the property and nor what our intentions were for the area. But if you have a Webster's dictionary that can tell me exactly what hospitality is, it might help me a little bit better understand.

Oh, there we go. I looked up hospitality as a use on Google about what a nail salon would be included. As a nail salon as a standalone use, generally no. If it was part of a resort or hotel that had the nail salon inside it, then yes. so that's the gray area that I was leaning towards when I was talking about being hospitality use. So, yeah.

Thank you for that because that was exactly my feeling. If there was a hotel there and this was a compatible use for the hotel and the, and the folks stand there or some resort or something, it would be perfect. And I, I get it, but, um, I have a hard time getting my arms around this as a compatible use based on what our existing general plan is. So that's my thoughts.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. I pretty much agree with what has been said. land use group a intensive retail commercial or prohibited in the sub area, unless the specific use can be found consistent with the development objectives of this sub area and with overall plan policies. And I can't agree with that. I don't, I don't see this use, uh, meeting that, that criteria, um, for that reason. And for the reason stated that, uh, This is a developing area and it probably will look drastically different when we have our specific plan. At least we're hoping so. I have a hard time seeing a nail salon being A, accepted and utilized intensively and B, fitting into what the vision of that is. So I have a really difficult time supporting this application. Anyone care to make a motion?

Mr. Chair, I move that we recommend to the Board of Supervisors that we not approve the, let me get the rights, PLN 2026-00070.

I'll second that motion.

Thank you. Any discussion? Roll call, please.

Yes. The vote is as follows. Member Mota. Member Fiebig. Member Davis. Aye. Member Devaney. Aye. Vice chair Moore.

Aye.

Chair Mulgrew. Aye. So the motion passes.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Chair. If I could just make a recommendation, um, Applicants are always available to come on an informational item like our next agenda item. So perhaps the owner of this property, rather than spending the money on a site development review, might want to consider an informational meeting, whatever the next potential use is.

Thank you, Dan. All right, we are on to item number three, the preliminary introductory discussion of site development review, PLN 202600097. What I want to do here, since we have a lot of folks who will be speaking, is I want to hear the staff presentation, and I'd like to give the applicants no more than 10 minutes to talk about what they have in mind, open it up for public comments, then have council questions for staff, followed by council questions for the applicant, and then final council comments. And I would like to just help us manage the flow here. How many folks in the room, can I get a show of hands, wish to speak on this item? Nine, 12. Okay. It's not bad. All right. We'll go with three. Council Member Davis.

Point of clarification. It is my understanding that the purpose of us tonight is to scope out what we need to be investigated by county or the county's consultant to help us with the approval process. Correct?

Correct. If by that you mean there will be a subsequent meeting that will deal with the actual site development review, you are correct.

Okay. So when people are talking, it's just, what are the issues that we need to look at? Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. We're all. Yes.

Thank you, Chair Moore. Sorry. Good evening, everyone. This is Mara Lesmiley, and planner with Alameda County Planning Department. Tonight's staff presents an informational item regarding case number PLN 2026-000974. The address 4274 Seven Hills Road, and this is the preliminary introductory discussion for a site development review application. So the subject property is located in a neighborhood commercial CN zoning district with a general plan designation of hillside residential. The proposed request is for site development review to convert the existing commercial retail suites into a daycare center for up to 98 children. Because the proposed project involves building modification and outdoor work totaling over 1,000 square feet, a site development review is required. This project is categorically exempt from California Environmental Quality Act Class 1 for existing facilities. As you can see on the location map, the site is situated along Seven Hills Road. Sorry, I have my... You can see it, okay. So the site is situated along Seven Hills Road near Waters Drive, and the property is bounded by single-family residential homes and the Aqua Linda Swim Club directly to the northwest. The proposal is to be operated by Safari Kids Childcare Center, including interior tenant improvements for programs ranging from infants to school-age children, exterior plans proposing a two outdoor play area, one to the north side of the building and the second one converting a portion of the existing street parking to a play area. As you will see in the photos in future slides, the parcel featuring assured access is meant, along with the West Drive Base that serves the Jocelyn Aqualinda Swim Club. And then this is some pictures of the current parking area that the applicant wishing to convert it to a playground for children in the front. And these are some pictures from different directions to the subject property and the shared street, the shared easement that this parcel is sharing with Aqua, the pool. Again, more pictures from different sides of the property that's showing existing parking and the potential playground area. So under Castro Valley General Plan, childcare centers are encouraged near residential neighborhoods and commercial districts to enhance community access. Under Section 17.36.020 of the County Zoning Ordinance, daycare centers are a permitted use within the CN district neighborhood commercial However, operating requirements including sound limits, operation hours, parking capacity, drop-off space capacity, and outdoor screening must be met. And then during and these are some references to our to the comfort for the confirming with the zoning ordinance and the needs for site development review, as I mentioned earlier. So, um, Okay, and then here you can see that... Sorry, I don't know why the slides are getting... Okay, so for parking and screening, the daycare center must include one parking space per each two employees, one space per company parking... car and one for every 10 children at the facility that the applicant, I mean, they were proposing under their initial application that they provided and then need to show the drop-off area at least two off-street parking spaces should be provided. exclusively for dropping off children. And then if a driveway is designated parking, it's for the designated parking area for the daycare center, the driveway must remain closed for customers during hours of operation. And this table also is showing the proposed, sorry, let me just, yeah. This table shows the other jurisdiction that Safari Kid branches are operating as a childcare center in neighborhood commercial and commercial zoning districts. In different cities like Milpitas, Sunnyvale, Fremont, Dublin, with the addresses and all these locations are the land use classifications sourced as child care centers. So the pre-hearing recommendation is that the planning staff requested from applicant to demonstrate compliance with the parking requirements for the daycare center under section 17.52.1330 including required employee parking, customer parking, company vehicle parking, and also handicap parking for ADA access and designated child drop-off and pick-up spaces to show that the drop-off and pick-up areas function safely and efficiently and complying with the section 17.52.1330 option D. And then to provide a revised parking light layout, including restriping and update directional pavement markings to reflect the modified circulation patterns. And also to evaluate how vehicles accessing the shared driveway and access easement serving the adjacent Aqualinda pool parking that will continue to operate without obstruction. Also, they have to demonstrate that peak arrival and dismissal operations will not create vehicle queues extending onto Seven Hills Road to adverse effect of access for neighborhood properties and for neighboring properties, including Waters Drive. And to coordinate the site circulation design with Alameda County Fire Department as applicable to ensure emergency access is maintained. So as I mentioned, again, the safety is important to be showcased, shared spaces for the Safari Kids Child Care Center with a pool on the west side driveway should be maintained as it's functioning right now. And it should not increase the traffic during peak drop-off and pickup periods that were on the pre-hearing public concerns discussed on July 13th, on 2026. And the residents and representative from the Aqua Linda Swim Club shared a preliminary concern regarding a peak drop of traffic, parking capacity, pedestrian safety along Seven Hills Road and shared driveway that... I think we requested for the applicant to propose their planning to solve them. Then they also addressed some concerns for code requirements. A staff has requested that the applicant provide expanded technical detail prior to formal consideration, which includes a complete parking and restriping plan, a detailed drop-off circulation, and all the items that I read for you guys. So on the staff, this is an informational preliminary presentation. No formal action is requested, and staff recommends that the council hear the applicant's presentation, receive public inputs, and provide initial feedback to the applicant. The applicant will then use the feedback to refine their plans and return to the MAC members for a formal recommendation at a later date. Thank you, everyone, and I'm available for any questions.

Thank you, Meral. At this point, we'd like to welcome the applicant and invite you to make a presentation of what you feel is important. And if we can keep it to about 10 minutes, that would be great.

Hello. Hello. Hi, everyone. This is Venkat. Thanks a lot for giving us the opportunity to talk about what we are trying to build in Castro Valley for the kids, for the new generation. So, I'm a resident of Castro Valley since eight years. Both of my kids are Junarian. I actually go to school in Palestine, but I... Worked hard in finding a school for them in Castro Valley. I'm a huge fan of Castro Valley. Since I moved, I moved like eight families into the center. And I feel that we need to have something in Castro Valley and we should not go to other cities for things what we can actually build here. Now, my sister has two kids. And how did I get introduced to Safari Kids? My sister has two kids. Both of them go to Safari Kids. And I've heard great things about the holistic education they provide. And I felt that education is something very important for our kids, especially in this area, in this era. So I'll just give it to my sister for the presentation.

He's letting me handle the tough part. Let's put it that way. Okay, so what we hope to cover today, and I know we have 10 minutes, probably less than that. So we'll talk about our story, which my brother has actually covered a bit. We'll talk about the what. It's important for you guys to know when we say Safari Kid, what are we trying to talk about? And we'll also address the concerns, the elephant in the room, all the things that we've heard. We were here in person. for the July 13th hearing, although it was just briefly. We heard all the comments and we circled back as a team. We have the co-founder of SafariKit with us, Deepak here, and our architect, Nilu, here as well. So all of us are hands on deck. One thing which I want to bring up before I jump into the presentation is we're not a large corporate. We'll fit straight into the culture. We are a small business owner, a franchise owner of Safari Kid, which has about 28 locations in the US. And we'll talk more about it. And then, yes, and all of what we're covering is the why, the what, and the how we go about it. So based on the initial feedback we have heard, and Rachel has been instrumental, very helpful working with us. So we've taken a lot of the feedback and made a lot of revisions already to the plan. And we want to present that and get your feedback. So we can go to the next slide, Mario.

And if we can make sure to speak right into the mic, please.

Okay. I'm fast. And I'll try to be loud. Okay. So as my brother mentioned, he's a Castro Valley resident and a huge fan. And he's in the process of making me move to Castro Valley as well. So you see our four kids there. We have two six-year-olds, one potentially nine-year-old soon to be, and the other one is three-year-old. Right there. And he... his kids go to Pleasanton right now. A, the demand and the wait list for preschools here is quite significant. And to be able to find the dream preschool can be a little challenging. So we felt Castro Valley is the best place to think of a preschool. and bring early childhood education to. And my kids go to Safari Kid, and we absolutely love it. And we've tried a couple, and then we landed. And Safari Kid, it has about 28 locations, plus 18 of them under making. It's not one of those bright horizons which have about 1,000-plus units. So it's a small preschool franchise, which is actually building. And it's... It's Bay Area founded. First location was in Newark, and it organically grew. So a lot of the parents who loved the way the education, the kids were taught, said, hey, can we be a part of it? Can we start something? That's how the whole franchise concept came about. And And it's basically a combination of, you know, the research and the way the curriculum is built is inspired by Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and Waldorf philosophies. A lot of play-based and cognitive development for kids, which is focused on whole child development, right? Our programs are very much focused on infant, toddler, and preschool. And we do offer after-school and summer camp as well. And so that is kind of what we've listed here. We can go to the next slide. We want to play a small video so you can actually see it and get excited like we are excited.

Our state-of-the-art facility is comprised of 6,200 square feet of beautifully furnished indoor space. This is an expansive playground as well. Our beautifully designed standalone building allows for ample on-site parking and convenient drop-offs and pickups between 8am and 5.30pm. Natural light floods our spacious modern classrooms through huge glass windows, helping to bring in the peace of the outdoors. Our all-natural contemporary furnishings will feel welcoming to both you and your child. A large selection of natural organic toys will allow children to learn with all their senses, stimulating their creativity and imagination. Our expansive outdoor and indoor play areas will encourage your child to explore and get moving. Safari Kid knows children are full of wonder and imagination with the potential to gain passion for learning and exploration. Our balanced learning curriculum ignites natural curiosity and inspires creativity. Year-round programs include flexible full and half-day options with appealing summer camps. Your child will be excited to get here because of the wide variety of engaging activities intended to grow their love of learning, build character, and enhance their overall health and well-being. We'd love to meet you in person. Our nurturing staff invites you to come visit us at our school to discuss your child's needs and how Safari Kid will work to meet and exceed them.

All right. So that's hopefully you guys got a little bit of our story and what SafariKit is all about. And now let's go straight into addressing some of the things that we've been hearing. I think one thing that I think all of us have to visualize is what the pickup and drop off would actually look like. Right. So a car gets parked. The parent parks the car. brings a kid out and then basically scans a QR code on the phone and then basically checks the child in. And that's the way the child gets picked up as well. And that visual is very important to just understand the safety aspect of it within the way the kids are going to be handled. And it's very seamless. And it's currently, I mean, all the operation centers work like this and I currently experience it as well. And it's great. We can go to the next slide, please. Thank you. So all the, I mean, when we think about all the concerns that we've heard, a few of the, I mean, and we've bucketed it, right? One is the shared driveway, the shared easement. You know, obviously we shared with the aqualinder pool and the traffic congestion concerns, the concerns about queuing is what we've heard about. The parking spots is another one. And emergency vehicle access is the other piece. And obviously, nothing is going to get signed off if there's an issue with emergency vehicles, you know, access being impacted. So now let's look at some data points to help ease some of the concerns that we have. Right. One of the things that you guys need to know is in 2008, the only the center portion, which is about 4000 plus square footage left. There was a church which was operating. It was actually approved for 80 students in just a small space along with three other locations which were currently running. That was actually approved at that point. That was one of the primary drivers for us. We loved this location. We were like, wow, we have our own parking spot. It's amazing. And the fact that there was a school run, it eased us into being able to purchase this property to make it a safari kit, right? And we can go to the next slide, please. And I don't think you can see it very clearly, but what we try to map here is we talk about operational hours, right? So let's look at SafariKit, let's look at Aqualinda, and let's look at, you know, the schools around. The schools have narrower, you know, pick-up and drop-off times, which they're very specific. And Aqualinda also operates seasonally, but from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and their likely peak hours depend on the weather, right? For sure. And it's 3 to 6 p.m. Let's assume it's peak hour. And when you take Safari Kid, right, it's staggered. The drop-offs are staggered. It starts from 7 a.m. Parents who want to go to work might want to drop the kids early. And that happens in a lot of our daycare centers. And there are part-time pickups, part-time drop-offs, there's after school. So that's very staggered throughout because of which when we look at the operational data across our facilities, it's never been a concern in terms for queuing or having congestion. That is why operationally it works because of the staggered hours. All the kids are not there at the same time. All the parents are not dropping off the kids at the same time. We can go to the next slide. So while Rodrigo is pulling that up, what we've done is data, data, data, right? We want to look at, okay, Seven Hills Road, which is a collection or what have you. What does the traffic look like in the morning during the pickup or during the drop off? And then what does it look like for pickup? We've also looked at all the data for the... for the largest daycare centers in the Bay Area, which is kind of located in similar locations, to see what the traffic looks like. So Deepak is going to walk us through that data right now. So you guys can, yes.

Hi, my name is Deepak. It's kind of hard to read this slide, but this data we pulled from, we indirectly subscribed to a data source in RICS. They provide traffic data. That's what they do for a living. And so what this shows is we basically were looking at the peak hours from 7 to 9 a.m., and how many cars on Seven Hills Road are going westbound and eastbound. And I'm sorry, I can't read that from your book. It's all westbound. Yeah, it's less than, I have my notes for you, but it's 7 or 9 a.m. westbound, there are 379 cars, and then eastbound, 432 cars. And that data is an average of number of cars over the year. So that's that number over there. We can go to the next slide. And then this one is basically showing the 4 to 6 p.m. This slide I prepared. I worked hard on the... We can go to the next one, Rodrigo, if you don't mind. On this data, because based on the comments that we received from the community, they were basically saying, hey, we're not interested in your assumptions and what you're going to provide. So what I did is I looked at three centers that are close by to this location, Newark, Hayward, and Union City. And then we looked, we have, we use a childcare application. So we have sign in and sign out data. So in California state, by law, every license center parents have to sign in the kids and sign out the kids. So we have the data for that. So what I did is I took the data for in one particular month. They said, give me the peak day. So, for example, in the month of May in Hayward, there was 121 children. That's the peak day. So I said, OK, I got this data now. Now let me break this up into five minute intervals to try to figure out, OK, how many parking spots will were ever used on that peak day in Hayward, in Newark and in New Jersey. And what you can see, the peak over there is actually for Hayward. And it's around 4.45 PM when there were 10 parents that signed out their kids. This is during pickup time. A couple of data points there. Hayward has a large after-school program. In Castro Valley, we are limiting the number of children that will be attending after school program. So the pickups won't all be so many at once. The second part is Hayward has, as you can see, 121 and our application is for 98. So the number is lower. And then on the next slide, Rodrigo, if you go, what I did is I said, okay, let's take all these three centers and let's assume that they were running in Castro Valley at this particular site, given the number of parking stalls that we have. And you can see, even if we had 121 children operating with a peak capacity of 10 children, 10 pickups at 4.45 p.m., we would still be okay from a parking perspective. So that's the analysis on a five-minute interval period that I've done. And now I'll let our architect speak.

My name is Nilu. Okay, I'm shorter. My name is Nilu. I'm the architect. We heard the community's concerns. We got a lot of feedback from them. And before we came to this meeting, we made revisions to the plan we had submitted earlier. So if you can see, the first thing that was brought to our attention was that access to Agua Linda is through a shared easement, which is shared by us. So we are proposing to widen the existing driveway on the west side to create a 20-foot exit separate from the shared easement with Agua Linda so that the easement is left open at all time. We heard the concerns about water drive getting clogged up with people. So we are proposing to move the east side driveway over from the intersection. So there is a little bit backup space. and it will address the comment regarding the conflict with Waters Drive. We are also proposing to add a new sidewalk along Waters Drive. The new pedestrian sidewalk will also be added along Seven Hills Road. This, we believe all the people who are walking their kids would be very beneficial to them. The sidewalks will connect all the way to the entry addressing the concern of separation of vehicular and pedestrian. We also added two more parking spots to account for maximum capacity. The front playground is decreased in size and the rear playground is increased a little to meet the requirements. We are proposing these changes at a significant cost addition from our original proposal. And I hope the committee will consider this in lieu of us doing a formal traffic study, which would cost us an additional 15 to 20,000. I'm available for questions.

One last thing before we open up the room for questions. Yeah, one last few things that we would want to call out. When we think about 98 capacity, there are siblings involved. So there are parents who are probably dropping off two kids, potentially even three, which happens. And now we're thinking of sidewalks because we are taking into account data suggests 10% to 15% folks walking and dropping. So that could potentially help. So all of those things should alleviate any potential congestion. Along with the fact that we have staggered drop off and pickups and we have early a.m. and late p.m. schedules as well. So just wanted to call that out because the data does show that across all our centers, we have 28 which are operating right now, out of which 22 are in the Bay Area and Bay Area real estate. I'm sure all of us know, which kind of deal with similar situations in many cases. So we've actually taken a look at every single comment and we are literally part of the community and take everything seriously. So just wanted to make sure we've heard each one of you very loud and clear.

Thank you.

We're open for questions.

All right. Anything else from the applicants team at this point? Okay. Okay. Um, might as well have a seat because we're going to go into public comment right now and then, uh, may invite you back up when the council, uh, has time for questions. So, um, we'll start with, uh, folks online this time, Rodrigo.

If anybody wishes to speak on this item, please raise your hand. If you're on a computer, you can press the raise hand button at the bottom of your screen. If you're on the phone, you can press star nine, and that will let us know you wish to speak. So online, we have Jenny. Jenny, if you could please unmute yourself. You have three minutes.

All right. Thank you. Good evening, members of the council. My name is Jenny, and I live on Moreland Drive. When evaluating a site development review, the county is required to assess whether the operating characteristics of a project are compatible with the neighborhood. To understand how this facility will truly operate under pressure, we must look at the applicant's established track record at their other regional locations. I reviewed the official California Community Care Licensing public records for the local franchises run by these owners. The state's findings are deeply concerning. While the newest Hayward location is too new to have an established inspection history, multiple regional sites show clear operational deficiencies. The Newark facility has substantiated citations for improper garbage storage directly adjacent to children's active play spaces. Worse, their Union City location has multiple substantiated state violations, including a critical Type A deficiency for inadequate supervision. This means the state officially stepped in because children were left unsupervised, presenting an immediate safety risk. That same site was cited for obstructing emergency exit pathways and failing basic hygiene standards. And when I say children, I'm talking about these dear infants and toddlers. The applicant promises us that their 10-person staff model will perfectly manage nearly 100 children. and a chaotic shared driver bottleneck. But their public record proves that they struggle to maintain safe staffing to child ratios, even on standard low complexity properties. If this business cannot maintain adequate supervision in standard facilities, how can they safely operate on a constrained lot choked by a shared easement and limited maneuverability? We request that the county refuse any compatibility findings until these documented operational risks are independently analyzed. Thank you.

Thank you. And I'll come back to the room. And our first speaker is Rachel Nisbet. And again, we're going to try to focus our comments on information that's needed and explanations that need to be made.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Rachel Nisbeth, and I'm a resident of the Seven Hills neighborhood. So I'd like to point out that the county staff report mentions a single mandate from the Castro Valley general plan, the call for expanded daycare. However, the general plan was designed to balance multiple public interests simultaneously, including neighborhood compatibility, pedestrian safety, traffic calming, and residential quality of life. The general plan does not state that childcare facilities should be approved blindly, regardless of location or operational impact. In fact, it establishes clear goals to protect residential neighborhoods from non-residential parking and to implement proactive traffic calming. I want to stress that again, proactive traffic calming. This is the opposite of traffic calming here. The general plan officially recognizes Seven Hills Road as an east-west residential collector roadway, a street that absorbs heavy cut-through overflow traffic when 580 and Castro Valley Boulevard are backed up. So additionally, it documented that Seven Hills Road severely lacks basic sidewalks, safe pedestrian crossings, and structural transit facilities. It states that Alameda County shall pursue specific engineering fixes to address these safety issues. Seven Hills Road is already identified as a safety issue to the county. Adding more traffic will increase this issue. Furthermore, the general plan specifically mandates that new developments are required to address pedestrian safety, access, and circulation. But I ask, how can these items be addressed without complete information? It is impossible to assess the true impact on this neighborhood without objective, site-specific analysis from licensed professional engineers to assess traffic, noise, safety, access, circulation, and construction. Making any decision without this kind of data and only relying on operational assumptions would be negligent. Thank you so much.

Thank you. No. Hold our applause, please. This is not a popularity contest here. Rodrigo.

Sure. Dorothy Berenger, if you could please unmute yourself. You have three minutes.

Good evening.

Yes, hi.

The Seven Hills Road was built many decades ago as a narrow road for just a few houses and not for today's traffic. Today there is infill housing, side streets, stop signs, far too many, and all the through traffic, all the spillover traffic, especially also during commute times. Yet it's still the same narrow street that it was 50, 70 years ago, with neither sidewalks, nor left turn lanes, nor parking lanes. The Safari Daycare Centre will add another busy drop-off and pick-up location, one with a very small parking lot. Therefore, I ask for a formal professional traffic impact analysis. And it has to be one which is based on facts and realistic assumptions, not on wishful thinking. Such a professional traffic impact analysis will show how the daycare traffic will affect the neighbourhood and will help the county to make an informed decision. The traffic impact analysis would help answer some pretty basic questions. What happens if several parents arrive at once? Is it guaranteed that the drop-off and pickup queue will never, ever spill over into Seven Hills Road and block traffic there? What happens if cars waiting on Seven Hills block cars from exiting the daycare parking lot or to access Waters Drive, which actually would lead to a complete blockage? And how is it during commute hours and how will it affect the neighbors? We have read through the exhibit B that was distributed It has been distributed before this meeting, actually before the original planned meeting. And there the applicant has explained that traffic will be managed through staggered arrival times, extremely short parent visits, intense supervision by the staff of the parking lot and of the Seven Hill Roads and parent education. Their assurances are based on assumptions that I find very strange. For example, the table in Exhibit B, which shows a staggering of arrival times, does not include kids being dropped off for after-school care. They also mentioned there will be less kids in summer, which would assume no summer camps. They assume that many parents actually only have two minutes for the whole parking, driving in, parking, buckling in, driving off process. They also mentioned enough staff for monitoring the traffic and for intervention. I also say the staff will park in the very few staff parking spots. I don't get that together. And there are other things. So I ask that all assumptions will be first verified before they are used in a traffic impact analysis. So, yes, I really hope that we will get this traffic impact analysis.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay, next in the room is Steve Leifer.

Good evening. My name is Steve Leifer. I've been a long time resident, my whole life basically of the Seven Hills neighborhood. The applicant, oh, I'm gonna give a few comments on basic traffic again. The applicant is attempting to place a high density, high volume commercial footprint into a tight, physically constrained space. By wiping out a massive portion of the parking lot to construct an outdoor playground, the applicant has stripped away vital vehicle maneuverability lanes. They are transforming what should be a fluid continuous circulation loop into a dangerous bottleneck. This creates immediate high risk operational liabilities. A licensed child care center serving nearly 100 children requires heavy commercial servicing, such as child delivery vans and facility maintenance vehicles. Simultaneously, Agua Linda requires routine access for multi-ton pool maintenance and hazardous chemical delivery vehicles. Because the playground footprint chokes the lot's turning radius, these large commercial vehicles will have no physical space to turn around. They will be forced to execute blind, high hazard backup maneuvers across a shared driveway easement, cutting directly through an active parent drop-off zone and backing out into a busy Seven Hills Road corridor where local children walk to school. We cannot approve this project based on abstract layout diagrams. The community would request that the county mandate a formal shared circulation assessment using certified auto-turn computer modeling. The applicant must play subjective engineering simulations into the public record, proving that commercial and emergency vehicles can safely navigate this pinch layout without triggering catastrophic gridlock or endangering public safety. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone online, Rodrigo?

Yes, we have Will Smith. Will, if you could please unmute yourself. You have three minutes.

Thank you. Thanks for letting me speak. I'm sorry I wasn't able to attend in person tonight. I'm out of town on business. Just to, I guess I'm going to add a little bit more to what was stated already on the concern of the neighborhood. Again, this is not a street in Hayward, which is very commercial, very busy, can handle traffic. I live in this neighborhood, and every day I see kids walk to school along Seven Hills Road. I see families walking. I see dogs walking, bikes riding, and people navigating what's already become a busy street, over busy than what it was originally specced for. And I do. We see vehicles speeding, running stop signs, and all that kind of stuff. and this is not a commercial area this is a neighborhood where people live if we had a project of this intensity to our neighborhood it's going to turn into a mess it's going to become more like center street and how many incidents have happened with kids and cars crossing center street and i'll tell you i don't want to have to be the one to answer that question about seven hills road because we added a project here that was poorly planned and did not fit within the restrictions of the neighborhood and then what do you think will happen when a high school kid or a smaller child gets hit crossing the street because this project brought 100 children, their families, employees, and made a complete mess, let's be frank, of Seven Hills. I say when, it's not if, it's when. Because when you make a mess on the road, what happens is cars start doing maneuvers, like the previous gentleman was speaking to. Anyone familiar with child drop-off or pickup knows what I mean. And that's when the things happen. So I'll tell you what will happen at that point. The community will be in an uproar because we saw it coming. We voiced it. We saw the writing on the wall and we pleaded to the county to play the tape through before allowing something like this in our neighborhood. So let's avoid that mistake and not become another Center Street type of road. Thank you.

Thank you. Coming back to the room. Dave. Imani. Dave Imani. There you are.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Dave Yamani, and I live in the Seven Hills neighborhood.

And we're being asked... Could you speak right into the mic, please?

Sure, no problem. We're being asked to evaluate the neighborhood's compatibility for a facility licensed to serve up to 98 children spanning infancy to 12 years of age. However, the operational program submitted by the applicant seems incomplete. The application states the facility will operate with a maximum of just 10 staff members and but let's look at the actual reality of childcare operations. The center proposes seven separate classrooms running simultaneously, two infant rooms, two toddler rooms, three preschool rooms, and before and after school programming. California state licensing mandates strict staff to child ratios, safety ratios. When you factor in those mandatory ratios, center directors, administrative staff, shift overload, teacher breaks, and floaters, It's difficult to run the diverse program with only total 10 people. The true maximum simultaneous occupancy of employees will be significantly higher because the site cannot physically hold those extra vehicles. The applicants and staff members will be forced to park directly on residential streets, consuming the neighborhood parking our residents rely on. We request the county mandate a formal independent staffing and operation program analysis. The public record must reflect real world operating numbers to assess the project true impact on the parking, traffic, and safety. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

Online?

Nobody has raised their hand online for this item.

Thank you. Karen Kennedy, please.

All right, good evening, everyone. Karen Kennedy and my husband, Adam Kennedy, moved into Kester Valley in 2010, and it didn't take long before we knew this is actually where we wanted to raise our family, and we have done so. Adam and I did not have... natural built in family support systems when we were raising younger ones, and therefore had to actually look and research what daycare resources were in Castro Valley. For a family without any family support, We were thrilled to see that there was a wealth of child care options here in in Castro Valley. And surely we were able to locate a child care, a home child care provider for our son, one to which we made such a strong bond that when we had David, we also continue to send David there. So what I'm going to be speaking of today is about the Eastment, which you brought up in your presentation. So my family, Agua Linda, your property, and I believe it should be another neighbor of ours within Seven Hills, we all share a driveway. You saw it in the picture that you all presented on. Our shared driveway is the legally recorded access easement for Agua Linda, my family's residence and our other neighbor as well. Under California law, an applicant cannot diminish, restrict, or obstruct an estate's right to uninterrupted passage. The applicant is proposing compact parking stalls to handle a multi-car parent wave for nearly 100 children. When those tight spaces get filled with cars, it will surely block and obstruct our shared easement. It is a part of reality. Recent Alameda County planning precedents, including condition of approval number six for rental local permits explicitly mandates that all vehicles should not obstruct a roadway easement or entry access into a neighboring property. The County Planning Department cannot suggest that Agua Linda sacrificed its own zoning mandate parking stalls to absorb the applicant's traffic overflow. The legal burden rests entirely on the applicant to prove their site design works within their own property lines. we request that the applicant supply for public record all legal title documents addressing this easement as well as a formal shared easement access and title analysis to prove that this project will not create an illegal systemic obstruction of our communities recorded right away. Thank you.

Thank you. Online?

Nobody online has raised their hand.

Thank you. Steve Lubensky? Josh, I'm sorry. Where did I get Steve?

Yeah, right. Hey, everybody. Hello. Welcome. Good evening. My name is Joshua Lubinsky, proud dad of two kids in the neighborhood. I live in the Seven Heroes neighborhood. I'm concerned about how the changes of the site will affect first responder access. Delaying critical care to infants or pool members in need could be the difference between life and death. Before approval of this project, we need to ensure that the plan has adequate emergency vehicle access. Right now, that finding cannot be supported by objective data. The applicant is proposing to concentrate nearly 100 kids and their families and their staff to a single commercial parcel. Under the California Fire Code, designated emergency access routes must remain entirely unobstructed at all times. What happens during this peak morning or afternoon drop-off waves when tight parent parking spaces overflow and cars are actively idling or stacking into the drive aisles? If a kid has a medical emergency or an alarm triggers, a standard type one fire engine cannot physically pass through that area. It will be trapped behind a bottleneck of parent vehicles and absolutely have no room to turn or do anything. We cannot treat emergency response as an operational afterthought managed by parent handbooks. The community explicitly requests that the county mandate a formal independent emergency access and fire code analysis. We need certified engineering data to guarantee that first responders can safely reach both properties and their properties under real world peak traffic conditions. Thank you, have a good night.

Thank you. Anyone online, Rodrigo?

Nobody has raised their hand.

Matthew Kayser?

Thank you very much. My name is Matthew Kayser. I'm on the board of the Agua Belinda Pool. One thing I keep thinking about the proposed site development review is safety. This project is proposed is going to bring more children up to 98, more parents and more activity to a site that's already surrounded by homes, schools, a community pool, our community pool, as well as neighborhood traffic. As neighbors, although most of us are not engineers, we do know what this area of Castro Valley looks like every day. We know that families walk here. People ride bikes around here. And Seven Hills Road is currently designated as a two-way, full-lane bike route, as posted and marked on the roadway. The high school cross-country team runs here. We know people are coming and going to the pool, to nearby schools, and within the surrounding neighborhood. So I think it's reasonable to ask a few questions. So one, in the proposed traffic plan, who would have priority when entering or exiting the West driveway, i.e. the shared driveway that is being proposed? How will more traffic in this area affect people walking along parts of Seven Hills Road where sidewalks are incomplete or don't exist? How will pedestrians safely reach the daycare or the Aqualinda when they share the same parking lot or driveways? Aqualinda swimmers begin to arrive at 8 a.m. How will bicyclists, especially children, safely travel through this narrow section of Seven Hills Road as vehicles enter or leave the site? Will drivers have enough visibility to see children, pedestrians, and cyclists as they move through the parking lot and the shared driveway? As you may be aware, there is a row of several heavily canopied trees along the southern perimeter of the property. Are there opportunities to improve pedestrian crossings, bicycle safety or traffic calming before the project is completed? I believe that a pedestrian safety assessment and bicycle safety audit, California BSA, would help answer these questions. It will give the county objective information about visibility, pedestrian routes, bicycle conflicts, and overall safety for everyone using the area in the vicinity of the said site for development for review. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Online?

Nobody online has raised their hand.

Thank you. Next, please, is Natalia Plasanova.

Good evening, my name is Natalia and I am living in Seven Hills neighborhood. We all agree that children are safe, they need safe place to play, learn and grow. However, good planning required evaluating the precise physical capability of placing a high density commercial play zone directly against a quiet establishment residential neighborhood. The applicant is proposing an intense operational shift by transforming a parking lot into a concentrated outdoor playground servicing up to 98 children. Yet, the public record contains absolutely no data evaluating the acoustic impact of this retrofit. Under the Alameda County noise element and local ordinance, our neighborhood is protected by strict exterior noise standards. The ambient place of our backyards where residents rest, relax, some of them working from home, cannot be legally degraded by noise. unmuted commercials noise spikes. This application completely fails to explain how outdoor play will be managed. Will multiple large groups be outside simultaneously? What structural sounds barrier are being engineered to shield the immediate property lines? We cannot manage public health and neighborhood peace through casual verbal promises and hope. The community explicitly request that the county mandate a formal independent noise and neighborhood capability analysis. The applicant must submit clear outdoor play schedules, included numbers of children and duration outside along the certified acoustic modeling providing Their outdoor configuration can strictly comply with county decibel limits before any site development review decisions can be made. Thank you.

Thank you.

Going online?

Nobody has raised their hand.

Rachel Sanders, please.

Good evening, my name is Rachel Sanders. I live in the Seven Hills neighborhood. The applicant is asking the county to approve an extreme physical modification of the parking lot that will strip away a neighborhood serving commercial lot. and permanently replace it with a hyper-specific retrofitted daycare compound. Under the Alameda County zoning ordinance, when a commercial retail building sits in a neighborhood, it is designed to be a flexible asset. A retail space can cleanly cycle through being a local market, a toy store, or a quiet barbershop. By carving an outdoor playground directly into the parking lot footprint, the applicant is permanently stripping away the multi-use utility of that commercial parcel. If Safari Kid leaves, the site cannot legally return to a neighborhood serving retail function without further significant modifications to the parking lot. The applicants are effectively rendering the rest of the commercial building unmarketable for future tenants, leaving the neighborhood with a permanently broken, blighted lot. Childcare is an allowed use of this commercial zone, but there is a massive legal distinction between converting the interior of a building and permanently destroying the exterior infrastructure of the lot. This is a long-term permanent structural risk for our community. It is fundamentally changing the backbone of our neighborhood. Why must the Seven Hills neighborhood endure an irreversible physical retrofit that leaves our community with a scarred, unmarketable commercial lot? We ask the county to protect the land use integrity of our corridor and find this extreme physical transformation of the parking lot incompatible with our neighborhood's fabric. Thank you.

Thank you. Nobody online has raised their hand.

Is there anyone else in the room that wishes to speak on this? Please come up and yeah.

Oh, no. I'm just short. I'll stand up. All right, hi, I'm Wendy Franklin Willis. Thank you all for being here tonight. I too am a resident of Seven Hills Road for 25 years, and I agree with everything everybody has said up to this point, and that we need a professional assessment of the analysis of the traffic impact to our community. And that's just a small part of it. But I just wanted a couple of things. I'm not mistaken, and this falls under 4.43 in the plan site distance analysis. And if I'm not mistaken, there are 16 current space or 16 car spaces that will be available. If 10 of those are taken by employees and one's disabled, that leaves you five spaces for drop off. How many spaces are there? There's not on the plan, there's not.

We can't have conversation.

Okay. I'm so sorry. I apologize. Then I'm mistaken on a number still. Okay. Let's move forward. I'm a teacher. I go to work early. I was late this morning. I left my house at 730. And this is common because I used to go at that time. There are three other side streets that enter onto Seven Hills. And there are six to seven cars backed up at the entry and exit of where you're talking about. There's two stop signs right there at the entry and the exit. And there's three side streets that all filter in, not to mention the traffic already on Seven Hills Road. This morning and yesterday, I counted alone, there were six to seven cars backed up in all directions with no proposed daycare center in the operation. So how does that work when somebody's, there's nowhere for anybody to go when you're trying to drop your kids off and get out? If they're backed up, how far back did the cars get backed up? What about, and all the other safety issues people brought up. I also think it's very, a distance analysis that not only are the two stop signs right at the entry and exit points, but on both ends there's hills, it's Seven Hills Road. You can't see long-term, you can't see, going east or west, it prohibits good, safe viewing. And my last point is that when we do do a professional analysis of the impact of the change that will happen on the road and to the shared access driveways, that the data is collected during school peak hours, not at some other random time that that's when you collect your data because you'll get a much truer account. And that's all I have. Thank you very much for hearing. Thanks.

Thank you. Is there anyone else online?

Nobody else online is willing to speak.

Anyone here in the room wish to speak? Please come up and introduce yourself.

Hello, my name is Jennifer. I am also a resident of the Seven Hills neighborhood. I haven't heard anybody address In particular, the stop sign at Waters and Seven Hills. Anyone who stands at that stop sign for five minutes or maybe 30 seconds will see cars run that stop sign regularly every day. Ask the CHP, they post a car there regularly to ticket people. Not just there, but the next stop sign at Santa Maria. One after the other after the other. Cars run that stop sign. They come up the hill from Redwood going 30, 35 miles an hour and run that stop sign regularly. And that's where your cars are going to be stopping, getting ready to pull into the lot. And there just isn't any way around that. People at seven stop signs, but for a lot of people at seven, there's nobody here. I'm just going to go anyway. So that's my concern.

Thank you. Do we have anyone else that wishes to speak? All right. I will close public. Oh, I'm sorry. There you are.

He just wants to show off his beard.

I grew my own. So I live right there where you're talking about where the stop signs are. I could count 50 or more people run that stop sign a day. Now there's a new thing I've been watching lately. Somebody stopped at the stop sign. People pass them on the oncoming traffic all the time. And I like to see how many tickets are written there in a year. You could do that through the highway patrol. And then one other thing I want to say, when I was in Washington, D.C., There's a guy named Don Parker who was the battalion fire chief for the Oakland Hills. And we were asking why, how'd this fire start? It was the roads were too narrow, over a thousand cars trying to get out of there at one time in the eucalyptus tree. So the governor at the time was supposed to eradicate all the eucalyptus trees in California and reclassify them as a weed. And he never did that. And yeah, eucalyptus trees all over the place still. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Anybody else? Please. And if you could, folks who have spoken without filling out a speaker card, if you could do so after the fact and bring it up to staff that helps us with our minutes.

I'll tiptoe. Sorry, it's really short. Hi, my name is Yan Yan. I am a resident of Casher Valley. I live on Moreland Drive, right behind Seven Hills. And I want to echo what everyone said tonight. But I think one thing that we didn't really touch base on is that, you know, I want to first by saying that

I'm an expecting mother.

So a daycare is like, wow, I work from home. I will need that. So I don't want to make it seem like I'm not pro daycare. But one thing that I want to address is that the data that they provided with the time intervals and the lovely chart and graphics all show that That it only indicates when the parents sign in and sign out. It doesn't demonstrate how many minutes it takes for a parent to park their car, get in the backseat, unbuckle the newborn, make sure they're not crying, grab the lunch bag, grab the snacks, walk to the front, pull up the phone, pull up the QR code. And, you know, get back to the car and then back out slowly. You know, so I just want to like demonstrate that that takes between two to five minutes. And even though I'm an expectant mother, I also have a 14 year old. So even him as a 14 year old, it takes him a long time to get out the damn car. Like. you know, oh, mom, I forgot my water bottle. Oh, I forgot this. I forgot that. Like, oh, mom, don't forget to pick me up today. Like, okay, just get out the car. So it's not a, you know, five minute or 30 second kind of thing. So that's just what I wanted to emphasize. And then another point is you advertise yourself as a safari kid, as a child care center, but it's contradicting to what the proposal states. It says up to five to 12 year old. So just want to be mindful of that. You know, there's a lot of discrepancies and contradicting things in the proposal to what is shown in the video earlier. So that's all. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? All right.

No one else is online wanting to talk.

We'll close public comment. invite the council to ask any questions of staff, any clarifying questions. Council Member Davis? And we'll bring up the applicants later for the council.

Yes, thank you. There does happen to be a registered traffic engineer in the room. I happen to know him very well. First off, I'd like to commend the applicant for trying to address some of the issues that the residents raised in regards to creating that new driveway and the sidewalks and trying to improve some other things in the community. And it shows that you are listening, but apparently we need some more information to help us. The other thing to remember is that we can't hold the applicant responsible for enforcement of traffic on Seven Hills. Seven Hills, by definition, is a major collector street. And as the county designates, it's expected to carry four to 6,000 vehicles per day. The existing right-of-way is 60 feet. And that's from Chabot to Redwood. One of my first questions is what is the required number of parking spaces for this project? We talk about for each use how many spaces, but what is the actual number?

Do you want us to answer that right now? I think it's in the staff report, actually.

I didn't see it in the staff report. That's why I'm asking. You gave how to figure it out as to...

So if we can get a list of questions that we can answer if we have to reach it, but we believe it's 10.

So quite frankly, if... If the use meets the parking requirements, the issue of parking spaces is moot. They are meeting the obligations of the county. When we conduct a study, we definitely need to do trip generation rates for both the proposed, and we have to remember there were existing uses there. And so they have to net out what the difference is. to truly reflect what is happening.

When they're collecting the traffic data,

We're talking about not only average daily traffic, but the peak hour period traffic volumes. And traditionally, that's collected over a three-day time period. So it reflects what's going on over more than just a particular site. Speed data. I mean, we collect speed data. They have traffic classifiers. You can go out there and not only classify the type of vehicles, but also the speed that all the vehicles are traveling, as well as the volumes. I'd like to see the collision history. Have we had a problem with collisions? The staff was correct is that the volume of traffic that this project generates does not warrant a traffic assessment from an environmental perspective. The existing California environmental law says that if you generate, it only comes into play if you're generating more than 100 vehicles per hour, that that requirement would kick in, but apparently we're trying to be a good neighbor and ferret out some of these other issues. The 20-foot wide west side driveway, quite frankly, I think that's too wide because it might encourage wrong-way traffic. The easement... It is admitted that the existing easement is inadequate to Agua Linda and that, in fact, trucks are backing and using the applicant's parking lot to turn around to get out of their facility. Again, this project should not be required to fix all the existing ills that may be associated with existing uses other than their particular project. Let's see now. I think those are most of the data that I would need to see to be able to do a complete assessment of this project. So thank you. Thank you, Ray. Council Member Devaney.

Staff, if this were to be approved, would you expect it to be subject to either a CUP or an SDR with operating conditions that are reviewable? And normally the language that we have in that, if the operating conditions aren't being followed, then it's a revocable type of an application. So are there going to be a set of operating rules and a periodic review of those?

So given that the site improvements, so this is a site development review, not a use review. The use review is whether or not as a concept childcare centers would be allowable in a neighborhood commercial zone, which is in a residential neighborhood. Per the zoning ordinance, yes, childcare centers are allowable in neighborhood commercial zones in residential neighborhoods. The issue is whether this specific operation ingress, egress, parking, respecting of any easements, if this specific operation as it relates to the site improvements would maintain the neighborhood character or would be impactful to the neighborhood. So given that any concerns about traffic, any concerns about onsite parking, any concerns about potential blockage of any easements, those are reviewable. any concerns about noise, those are reviewable. Whether or not childcare is gonna be a detriment to other potential commercial activities, that's not the question here. So the answer to your question is yes, those aspects are reviewable periodically to make sure that those physical improvements are not impacting the neighborhood.

Okay, so thank you for that. Let me rephrase that. That was a long answer. There is going to be a specific set of operating rules that the applicant will be subject to.

Correct.

And if there's noncompliance with that, it's potentially a code enforcement issue. It's potentially additional public hearings, so on and so forth. Just like as if it was a CUP. And I know that it's not.

Correct.

Yeah, very good. Thank you for that. Member Davis said that we don't necessarily need the full traffic study from an environment or from a sequence standpoint. I found that the package that we have and I understand this is very cursory right now. But what kind of additional traffic analysis and circulation plans would you expect? I think the application is presented right now is woefully inadequate for us to address those issues.

Well, so any queuing that may be necessary to access or leave the site, and its potential effect on any traffic that's located in, especially along Seven Hills Road and the intersection with Waters, that would be important to know that there is not gonna be any resulting queuing or blocking of traffic flow from people dropping off or picking up kids.

I understand what they're going to be looking at, Rodrigo. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but how are we going to do that? The applicants have stated that they'd prefer not to spend $15,000 to $20,000 doing a full traffic analysis. So how are we going to answer some of the questions that you were just discussing?

So county staff, planning department staff is not an expert on it. So we would request, if recommended by this body, for a traffic engineer to come up with that analysis.

Okay. Okay. Okay. I get that. Um, again, if, if, if approved it, the, I'm not going to look up the exact language, but, uh, there's a, there's a requirement that the outdoor playground have a site screen around it. I don't believe that site screen is going to be a noise barrier at all. Um, there's also a prohibition that it be in the front yard. So I think we're going to have to get beyond that and almost make a variance type of a decision. But, um, And again, it's going to be up to the applicant. I would find that a screened-in playground is uglier than an open playground. I don't know what the neighbors would think. Perhaps at the next meeting, they could opine on something like that. But that's something that I hope that we can keep an open mind on. I'm assuming you're going to check in. You talked about Title 22, making sure that there's adequate outdoor space. I'm assuming you're going to check with adequate indoor space as well. 98 students seems like a lot. It is close to 6,000 square feet. So I'm assuming that'll be part of the analysis. I agree with Member Davis. Parking actual requirements are not included, and they should be. The... I'm going to save my other questions for the applicant. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Mota.

Hello, thank you for your presentation. I am in full support of having child care options in Castro Valley. I told my kids I needed to find, you know, I've been here a long time and both of my small kids went through several child care facilities and a wait list and so I commend you for coming and presenting and, um, giving us the option. Um, there's a few things that I do want to, um, get clarification on. Um, The data that supports the assumptions that the arrivals will actually be staggered enough to avoid, you know, cues and things like that. And what I want to know is what happens operationally when multiple parents arrive, you know, at the same time and all the designated spaces are occupied. That's something I want to understand. Also, can you also talk about or include in your next presentation a staff schedule by program and shift so that the parking and circulation analysis is based on actual maximum staffs rather than just a cap of 10? That's one thing. And then I also feel like the, um, a site specific traffic or circulation parking analysis, I think should be, um, covered given that I think, um, I'm not really clear on what the final parking count after, um, parking spaces are converted to the playground spaces. And, you know, how does that number satisfy the daycare parking requirements for 98 children up to 10 employees, um, in any company vehicles or in any dedicated drop-off spaces. So, um, that would be the additional, um, And then the final, like I said, the final post parking numbers and then documented maximum staffing, daily operating assumptions and emergency access vehicle turning analysis possibly that includes the shared easement. Pedestrian safety, I think that's huge because if kids, get out or take walks or anything like that, I definitely would want that evaluated along Seven Hills frontage. And then any analysis of peak concurrent use of AquaLindas and proposed enforcement conditions if the studies identify conflicts. So I think those were the main things that I documented on what I would like to see during your next presentation. So I think that's all I have. Thank you.

Council Member Feebig.

Yes. Thank you. Great presentation. I had a couple of questions for staff. This is a complicated property with the easement and the restrictions and the traffic and that sort of thing. Do you take into consideration all those things when you're evaluating the project?

So yeah, so the idea is to take into consideration all the potential impacts to the area, so yes.

What was this before? I heard during the presentation, was it a daycare at one time? I know it was a toy store.

It was a historical church, but the use before their proposal, it's a retail store. One side is a barber shop, and the other side was a toy store that I think they moved out.

And it was a church with students or just with the congregation?

I think it was listed on the history of the parcel. It's not classified as if it was for children. It was just for the neighborhood.

Okay. Okay. We're not supposed to.

So

So just some of the history. In 1998, there was a conditional use permit granted, initial conditional use permit to allow a church youth program to use the existing commercial building as a church, and there were conditions. In 2001, a separate conditional use permit was approved for continued operation of the church youth program at this site. In 2003, a separate conditional use permit allowed expansion of the church use at this site with conditions expiration in 2008. 2007, a conditional use permit application permit for First Baptist Church. and Rigetti Partners at the West County Board of Zoning Adjustments to allow continued operation of the church facility. So yeah, those are some of the prior uses.

That satisfies. I was just wondering if there was students or some sort of school or... Well, there was a youth program there, yes. Okay, thank you. What is... This easement seems to me like it's a big deal, the easement. I mean, in grassy grass, you can't block it. You can't, you know, that has to maintain its... ability to have people come and go that have the right to that easement. And if it does end up getting blocked or the people who should have the transportation back and forth, what rights do they have? What would the county refer them to do or how would they protect themselves?

So easements are a private agreement between two parties. And so any encroachment onto that easement is a civil matter between the two parties.

So call the police?

Hire an attorney.

Sue them, is what you're saying?

Right.

Okay. Wow. Okay, so then they could be blocked for days or hours, and I'll see you in court in two years. Okay. That's not good. I had a question regarding the fire and emergency vehicles. Do you look into that and make sure that perhaps there's like emergency exits, children in the back playground can get out safely, the emergency fire vehicle can put out a fire in time during peak hours, an ambulance can arrive for either the pool or for the residents in the back or for the school?

So this is referred to the County Fire Department and their recommendations for any sort of physical improvements are taken into account onto the site as well as onto access onto the site.

Okay. That's all the questions I have for staff. Thank you. Thanks, Tim. Vice Chair Moore.

Yeah. A couple of questions. were there any alternatives provided for size? 98 seems like a fairly large number.

Right. So that is part of the consideration is that if the impact, again, we're looking at physical improvements and how those may impact the neighborhood. If the impact is such that there is too much of a load on the neighborhood, then an alternative would be to consider fewer students. So for example, we have finally the answer to the required number of on-site parking spaces. So it's one parking spot for every two employees. So if there's evidence or a statement from the applicant that there's 10 total employees, and that would be five on-site parking spaces. Plus, One parking space for every 10 children. So rounding up to 100 children, that's 10 parking spots. Plus a company car, at least one on site. So that's an additional. Plus exclusively two drop-off parking spots, at least two. And so that brings us to 18 on-site parking spots required at minimum. And they're providing 20.

When I counted the parking spaces, maybe I missed something, but I counted 18.

So the slide that they just put up showing a reduced on-site play area, they're showing 20.

The reason that you didn't receive it through your packet was that the applicant provided the presentation today morning for the new revised plans. That's why you don't have it on your packets. That one is the previous design. They revised it already. So we're going to share the screen with you. Can you show me the revised one then?

Yes.

And so this is what the applicant presented today that they look to respond to some of the comments. So you will notice that there's the handicap spot, the two reserved pickup and drop off. So that's three. Again, we're looking for 18, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. And then away from the access easement, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

So there was 20, so they picked up two from what they... From they reduced the layer, yes. Okay, and that includes the drop-off spots?

I'm sorry, could you repeat the question?

That includes the drop-off spots also?

Yes, two drop-off spots.

Okay, and so regularly you're anticipating 10 for parking for the employees and then 10 available for...

Five for 10 employees, 10 for 98, like round of 10, 10 parking spots for 98 students. Two, the exclusive ones for drop-off and one for car company.

Okay, I'm kind of confused here because I thought you needed one person for every 10 children. So you'd have 10 employees there all the time? Well, I'm just trying to figure out if you have one employee for every 10 children on site, then you only need five parking spots for those. Everybody rides together or half the crew.

So the requirement in these zoning orders, I'm just reading what it says. You've got, you've got, sorry. Thank you. You've got one, Daycare centers must include one parking space per each two employees, one space per company vehicle, and one space for every 10 children at the facility. Parking and drop-off area requires at least two off-street parking spaces provided exclusively for dropping off and picking up children. Alternative parking and drop-off arrangements may be required by the planning director, based on recommendations from the MAC, based on the traffic and pedestrian safety considerations.

When I look at this, at 98 children on hand, so you would think that you drop them off and you pick them up. So is that 196 transitions? So you know what I mean? I mean, nobody leaves their kids overnight, so... you're dropping them off, and then you're coming back and picking them up?

Well, there would never be a one-to-one ratio, as was explained. Some are anticipated to walk. Some have multiple kids per vehicle. During the afternoon after school, there are some school-age children, and so some come after school, and those would be vanned over. So it's not a one-child-per-car ratio.

Okay, well, even if it was two or three, it's still a lot of cars. And I also, driving past school zones on a pretty regular basis, when it rains, I mean, people are parked up and down the road because nobody is in a hurry to get out of their car and run in and grab their child, or the child's not in a hurry to get out to the car. And this is, when I look at this, I go, this looks like a perfect scenario when somebody studies numbers, but they really don't, it doesn't seem like real reality of what's going to, what would happen in an environment like that with this many children. And that's the reason why I was wondering if there was any alternatives to the size of the facility, because it just seems like 98 is a fairly large group of children. And then also, um, I guess I just go back and I'm trying to figure out how this works with 19 kids, 20 kids picking up, 10 kids. You know, if someone moves next to an airport and then they complain about the noise, I have a real problem with that. But when somebody builds an airport right next to where you live, I have a real problem with that. And it seems like to me we're putting something in a neighborhood here that is somewhat concerning with the size of it. I mean, childcare facilities are certainly needed, but man, I don't see enough information of accuracy and for information in this report to make me feel comfortable with the parking, with the traffic flow and with the impact it would have on the neighborhood. Those are my concerns. I'd like to hear from the applicant at some point in time whether is this 98 number a number that's done to meet the financial objectives or is this a number that is consistent with everything else and whether what makes it a school or what makes it a child care facility is it like pitching or catching whatever you feel like you want to call it

So it's based on state. If it meets the state compulsory education laws, then it's a school, right? You graduate from elementary school and you move on to middle school. That's not the case here.

They're taking care of children.

Could it be like a preschool or something like that?

So it could be a preschool, but it also includes school-age children. And the care that they're given, even though there may be whatever lessons there, it's not like the state recognizes that, yes, they passed first grade based on attending this preschool.

When I saw the slides in the show, it looked like to me it was a really cool educational program for things, which made me wonder, is this a school or what? And are the requirements from the county or what we would be looking at different from a school versus a child care facility?

So they would be similar land use impacts for a school versus a preschool, right? Everybody's concerned about traffic. Everybody's concerned about parking. Everybody's concerned about noise. Okay.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Moore. Okay. I want to thank the council for great questions for staff and we'll add a couple. Helco Fire will be responding to the formal site development review?

Yeah, they've given preliminary boilerplate responses, make sure you comply with code XYZ, sure. So they've given preliminary, but with further detail will come further more detailed comments from fire department.

Thank you. So I have concerns just like everybody else has mentioned about both the Safari kids and Agua Linda. You know, accidents happen around pools. People slip. People struggle. I need to make sure that emergency access is free and fluid and unrestricted. Yeah. And I do also, let me just ask, the easement is, I need to see a lot more on the easement. The title document that the applicant kindly furnished showed that there is a third party on this easement. Dennis and Sharon Gilbert were added August 7th, 1987, and I haven't gotten any kind of sense of whether or not they are represented here, whether they're still a party to that, whether their needs are being accounted for. Would like to hear more on that. How many parking spaces are at the end of the easement adjacent to Agua Linda? Thank you.

So I can share the screen so you can see the.

Is it for proposed?

Is it for proposed? You're asking for proposed number of parking or the current situation?

Both. For Agua Linda.

Oh, for Agua Linda.

At the end of the easement, yeah.

Let me pull up the aerial so we can all see. Am I showing the aerial? Yes, I am. So this is current conditions according to Google as of 2026 at some point. So you've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12-ish. Thank you. And then just the additional parties on that easement are access to this garage up here. This garage has a garage door and potentially a gate with access to a recreational vehicle. And that's all accessed through, boy, big brother Google, through this easement. And you can see the garage door there.

Chair, the owners of that Eastman are in the room and have testified.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So we need to see more on that, and I would love to see that parking included as part of... traffic and parking study in circulation. Do we know what happens when school overflow takes the Agua Linda lot parking and conversely, what happens when Agua Linda members find their parking lot full and park in the applicant's parking lot.

So we don't know that yet. There does not seem to be any reciprocal parking easement, only an access easement. So that may be an informal agreement if that used to happen or continues to happen. It's not part of the access easement.

It needs to be addressed. Thank you. And How many residents on Moreland have been notified about this application?

So folks within a 500 foot radius plus folks who wanted to be on an email notification were notified. So Moreland is within 500 feet. So some of those folks would have been notified as well.

Thank you. The proposed changes to the sidewalks, which thank you to the applicants for thinking and being willing to do that. Will that impact on street? How will that impact on street parking?

So the travel lanes would not be The travel lanes would not be reduced. There is, and I can try and share a screen here, but there are inklings, if you will, of the curb at the edge of the travel lanes. And I will show you as soon as I can. So staff does not anticipate that the curb width would be narrowed. So, for example, here is further west along... along Seven Hills Road right at the intersection with Santa Maria, there's an indication of a curb edge. And so this is the edge of the curb gutter sidewalk. And should a curb gutter sidewalk be installed along this property frontage, it would follow the same curb length. There are some indicators of a curb there that it would be in a similar area. So if parking is currently allowable, on street parking is currently allowable, staff does not anticipate that the curb location would change and therefore it would continue to be allowable.

Thank you. Thank you. I also need to be more comfortable that the commercial traffic has been identified, quantified, dealt with, deliveries to to Agua Linda, deliveries to the school, timing, quantity, frequency, all that good stuff. Yes, yes.

Because it can't be delivered during operating hours. Ask staff. Are there any restrictions for noise for delivery trucks? Because I see the school operates from seven in the morning. I would imagine deliveries for supporting the school would have to be prior to that or after 530 in the evening. because there doesn't seem to be a loading zone identified. So is that something acceptable in this neighborhood?

Right. So the operation would have to... being in compliance with a noise ordinance as measured and they're measured in different ways depending on the receiving properties zoning. So a residentially zoned property has more restrictive noise that's allowable to reach it than a commercially zoned property and that would continue to be the case for the operation of this facility. And so that would be part of a study that could be requested depending on the delivery hours, what kind of noise generation that would impact, and those numbers could be presented to this MAC.

Thank you. Thank you, John. I have no more questions for staff, so we'll now ask the council if they have any questions for the applicants. If you folks would, please. We'll start with Council Member Devaney.

Thank you, Chair. How many other facilities do you operate right now?

In the Bay Area, we have 22 locations operating here.

Your group or there's 22 total franchises?

How many does your group? 22 total Safari Kid centers, not multi.

You're first, you're first, you're first. Okay, thank you for that, thank you for that. I agree with one of the comments, the curb and gutter out on Seven Hills Road, good. moving the driveway to try to accommodate the shared Eastman good and just basic traffic flow, not interfering with waters as much. I think those are good developments. I thought I heard you say that, and please tell me if I'm wrong, that you anticipate that the Eastman is going to be open at all times and that you folks aren't even going to use the Eastman, even though you would have, right? Did I hear that correctly? Because you're moving the driveway?

Because we are moving the driveway and our movement is supposed to happen in one direction. So we are only going to use the west entrance as an exit. So we are proposing that we... don't use the easement at all. That said, it is not, since it's an easement, it is a shared access. So we don't want to say that it is exclusive for the use of Agua Linda, but we are also aware that Agua Linda has only 12 parking spots. They are backed up. quite a bit. They serve 135 families.

Got it. Got it. Your information suggested there's going to be four different age brackets, infant, toddler, preschool, and school age. Do you have an approximation of how many students per age group? I know that you don't know now because they haven't enrolled yet, but based on perhaps other franchises?

I can answer that. So we have two infant classrooms with eight children max. So that's 16 infants, 24 toddlers. That goes up to age three. And then we have two preschool rooms, one which is a part time of 22 children. And that will go up to age six. When those part-timers leave, just for reference, they leave at 12.30, then those 22 spots will be filled by school-age children. So that's how that part will work, the preschool program. And then in terms of the full-time, we have 34 full-time preschoolers.

I got a 34, so I got 50, 60, 70. So that's going to put school-age kids at roughly 20. And again, I know you don't know your enrollment now. I'm just trying to figure out what you're... which are 20 to 22 at school age. How are you going to accommodate the different recreational and care needs of that wide of a group of kids, particularly the recreation? I'm thinking about the school kids, the 12-year-olds. How is that going to work with your operations?

A school-age program, like you said, is going to be restricted between about 20 children. They usually come, they have their lunch, their snacks, and they go in. We do homework help with those children. Then there's a little bit of playtime in the playground that will be at the back because the front playground that we're proposing, the reduced one, is for the little ones, for the infants and toddlers only. So school-age children will sit outside in the back and have their lunch there, come back in, a little bit of homework, a little bit of playtime for them. And then they have other programs that we have, like chess classes, robotics, and so on, that is inside the classroom. And then they're usually picked up. You know, our goal always is to have that run till 6 p.m., but the nature of reality is that most parents are coming back from work, and as soon as they're back, before they go home, they pick up the children. So... A lot of them are picked up by 5 p.m. We're running pretty lean on those numbers.

Thank you for that. Have you done specific outreach to the entire Aqualinda community and anybody else in the neighborhood and invited them to a talking session to specifically go over your plans? Sure.

We were just in communication with Rachel for the most part, and we briefly spoke to the neighbors who actually shared our easement. We're hoping to actually meet with the ACWL and the board members to just get their feedback as well as we work through changes. As of right now, that's why we were here in the hearing on July 13th to actually hear the community and speak to folks. We tried to connect with people who actually had comments here to just get their insight. That was more informal, and we hope to have more formal conversations as well.

Well, I'm glad to hear that that avenue is open, and I think it's really, really important. We've seen... Other applications where the applicant is not interested in talking to the community at all and they come across as very heavy handed and there's ongoing disputes and problems. And we've seen other ones where we just had a big charter school that we've approved where they actually incorporated it into their use restrictions that they had to meet with the community. They had to attend some of their meetings. They had to have contact periods and so on and so forth. So sometimes those meetings are uncomfortable because it might seem like a zero sum game, but a lot can be accomplished. And I did ask staff earlier if this is going to be subject to some kind of a reviewable use conditions. And it sounds like it is. And believe me, one of the triggering events on that is the complaints from the neighborhood. So if you're up and running. and you're still having a lot of complaints where you haven't been able to work out some of these issues, it makes it a lot more difficult to operate. So I would really encourage, even though some of those, and I would encourage the community to be very reasonable, understanding that they have property rights. And so go there with an open mind. and see where you can reach a consensus.

Yes. Please, we are very open to feedback, and we are very open to working with everyone. So we really appreciate any feedback.

That concludes my questions. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Romota?

Hi, yes. I think there was mention of some sort of previous violations that you might have had in the past or someone looked up. I just want to hear from you firsthand, like how do you handle violations that might come about or if you can explain some of those use cases of any type of violations that you've, you know, experienced and handled and what was your process around that?

Sure, so just to, I think this may answer some of the other council members' questions too. So we are categorized as a, we call ourselves a preschool, but we're categorized as a childcare center, which is licensed by the state of California. Without a license, technically, we would be operating illegally, so we cannot do that. As far as the requirement of being licensed, California state is extremely, we operate in other states too, and California is like a gold standard. They're extremely stringent. So one of the violations I think that one of the members mentioned was, for example, the trash cans have to have a lid on them. So if that lid is cracked, that is a violation. That's how particular they are about this, and we take that very seriously too. So we ourselves do those checks, but sometimes in that particular case, and I don't particularly know about that one, but I'm guessing that's something what happened with the trash can. In terms of... supervision. For example, every child has to be supervised even if they go to the restroom for the for the school-age children, so from infants to age six. So if you have sometimes a kindergartner is age six, is not under the licensed program, they're running a different program. But if they go to the restroom unsupervised, that is a serious violation. That's a type A violation. So those are some of the violations that I think were mentioned. How do we handle that? We make sure that we do our own internal quality checks to make sure the more serious ones are handled and don't happen. And other than that, so we do about a quarterly quality check within our own system. And then licensing can visit at any time unannounced and make a check as well.

Thank you. I have another question.

Council Member Feebig.

Thank you. Let's see. What is your plan if people are taking too long or in dropping off their kids? I heard two to five minutes, I think. But what if it's rainy or if there's a backup and now there's cars out into... seven hills and waters and there is this heavy traffic. How would you manage that?

Sure. We haven't experienced that, but if that were to happen, we do have a staff member. So our director is usually sitting. So the way we design the facilities is when you enter the lobby, there's a director's office. So she's usually there to welcome the kids and the parents. And we have another staff member over there as well. If it ever happens where we're seeing a backup because of not enough parking or what the case may be, we've never had to implement this, but we have the The write-ups of how to do it, of basically walking to the car, a staff member walking to the car. We'll have to employ a few more staff members for those peak hours only, where they'll actually have to walk to the car. The app that they use to sign in the kids can be done through their car itself. They don't actually have to get down. and then unbuckle the child and take the child inside. So that will help speed things up. But in reality, we've never had to do that. We have those write-ups, but we've never actually had to implement that because we've never experienced that. For perspective, Union City is a similar center. It used to be a church before. It's a standalone building. It has exactly 20 parking spots. We also work from Union City, so I do see, you know, what the peak grids look like. And we've never seen all of the parking spots occupied ever, even with all the staff members.

Okay, good to know. Also, you have 19 parking spots, I believe? 20. 20, okay. So, and then how many are closer to the building? And then are the other spots used for drop-off too? Because then they would have to walk through traffic.

True. That's a good point. So what we've what we're trying to do is all the all the parking spots that are towards the entrance of the building will all be parent parking. In addition to that, we also have two other spots on the other side, just in case those are taken up. Because this this 10 we're, and I believe this 10 on this side, and then on each side. Yeah.

But then as people are driving through, they're walking through the traffic. If they parked on those other two?

If they park on the other two, then yes, they would have to walk through the traffic to get in there.

Okay. Do you have any people out there watching the traffic and watching the cars and making sure the kids are safe?

So it's our director and the staff member that's in the lobby. That's them. They have visibility into the parking lot. And if that ever happens...

So mostly they're in the lobby, though?

Correct, yeah, in the lobby, yes.

And then we talked about trucks and deliveries and things like that, the noise. Where do they park? Where do they go? And it seems like you'd be busy all day with drop-offs. How do they not get in the easement or not block traffic, that sort of thing?

So most of our deliveries, for example, honestly are either Costco or Amazon. They are not done before hours and they don't usually deliver before 7 a.m. So during the hours, usually we have them in the afternoons when there's not too many cars parked anyways. We also, if you provide a food in an external food vendor, we'll have usually a van that comes in with all the food. and they'll drop it. It's just one of those commercial vans. It's not like a big truck or that's something that enters into it. And they'll be coming in through our driveway and not blocking the easement in any which way.

Okay, and they take up one parking spot?

Yeah, they take up one parking spot, yeah.

Have you accounted for emergency evacuation for the kids in the back parking lot?

Yeah, that's going to be part of the review by the city's fire department. They will make sure that there is an evacuation plan and a number of exits are appropriate. Without that, they won't permit us. So I heard a lot of concerns about emergency vehicles, but they make sure that that part is met. There's not a lot of input that we provide our architect works with the city and only the five departments.

We will have an exiting plan which will follow all the state and county requirements.

Okay, good. Thank you. That concludes my questions. Thanks very much. Thank you.

Vice Chair Moore, do you have any questions for applicants?

How was the 98 number arrived at? Is that just a number to beat the financial goal of operating a facility? Or was that based on some sort of capacity number that you looked at? And did you think about any numbers or would it operate on a smaller number like 50?

Yeah. Unfortunately, because of the way the dynamics of the financially, the costs are 50 just wouldn't work. It wouldn't make sense to run the center with only 50 children, just honestly. How we arrived to 98 was the state, like I mentioned earlier, the state licensing governs every aspect of this business, including how much square foot we need at a minimum per child for indoor and outdoor space. um so when you and they have specific requirements it has to be usable space so they they dictate that every child needs 35 square feet of indoor usable space so for example a restroom is not a usable space so they'll deduct that they'll deduct anything um like a teacher's desk is actually deducted from usable space because that's not a child's so they have a very um uh They have a very systematic way of defining these standards for number of children. And that's how we came up with, based on the square footage that we have available, that's how we came up with that number.

Right. I just look at this traffic pattern and possible delays, and I'm wondering that... Would your model work if your permit or use was allowed for 50 or 60, or would you have to walk from the project?

We would have to walk from the project. Okay. That's it.

Thank you. How many company vehicles or vans do you anticipate being based at this location?

Currently, because our after-school program at this site is pretty minimal, 20 children, 22 children, we don't anticipate any company vehicles to be parked over there.

But that could change in the future?

I don't think so because space is a real limitation for us. Our main business is the younger ones, the infant-toddler and preschool. After school is just a complementary business, and that's what a company vehicle would be used for to pick up those children. In this instance, either teachers or parents will be dropping off kids in vans or van pools. Gotcha. Thank you.

Sure. Go ahead.

One that keeps coming back to me is deliveries. I mean, with the 98 children, I'm sure you go through a lot of diapers and a lot of food and snacks and things like that. What are your anticipated delivery times today?

Anticipated delivery times. Honestly, like I said, we order from Costco and Amazon. We don't actually control what time those things are delivered to us. But usually operationally what we see is it's any time after 9 a.m. before 5 p.m. usually is what we see.

So where would you anticipate in your map? of a delivery truck showing up in parking? Because I didn't see a loading zone or a yellow area or anything like that.

Because the orders come from Amazon, it is not a delivery truck. They would park in a regular parking spot. Diapers are typically brought by the parents. They are not supplied by the daycare. So it would primarily be the supplies for the daycare center, not personal supplies.

Okay, thank you. You mentioned, I think, in your community response that... If there's an emergency or a jam in the easement area, that staff will help clear the way and manage traffic. If you have 10 staff, a ratio of 10 to 1 students to staff, who's going to watch the kids when the staff is out managing traffic?

If we see that to become, if there's a consistent pattern that we see of any cars backing up on Seven Hills Road, we'll have to hire additional staff, not necessarily teachers that are qualified because the teachers have to be with the children. They cannot be left unsupervised at any times. So for those particular hours, we would envision... if, for example, the peak hours are 8.30 to 9 a.m. or 8.30 to 9.30 a.m. and 4 to 6 or something like that, then we would have to hire additional staff just to address that need.

Okay. Thank you. Talk to me a little bit about your plans for waste management. Will you have A trash enclosure area? Will you have dumpsters, recycle bins?

We have a trash area in the back. It is shown on the plan. Okay. And it would be carts which would be wheeled out on the day of pickup.

Okay. And do we know what pickup day and time AC or CVSAN uses? Yes. Yeah, right. Well, Stevie, Sam.

I at least got it. No, I don't know the pickup day, but whichever pickup day it is, we would work with them. It would be during the week.

Thank you. Do you anticipate the new law free TK for all students? Is that going to impact your enrollment? How's that going to affect you?

Yes, it already has affected us. And that's why we are doing infants and toddlers. A few years ago, we didn't have infant programs, but we had to introduce them because we are losing a lot of the four-year-olds to the free TK programs that are being offered. Also, I know we can't go with this, but generally speaking, we never see 100% capacity in our centers because they're little ones. Sometimes they're sick. When we do our calculations, we account for about 85% utilization, and for us, that's a win. We rarely ever see 100% utilization. We've lost a lot of the four-year-olds to the free TK program. And that's why we introduce the infants, but infants have stricter guidelines. We need more room for them. So then we have less number of infants. So.

Thank you. What do you anticipate? What percentage of your enrollment do you anticipate will be Castro Valley families?

A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Yeah. That's how most of our centers work. Unless we have, Some parent driving from, I don't know, Oakland and wants to stop by on Seven Hills Road and drop their child off. But usually that's an exception. And it's usually just community children that attend our centers.

And that is our goal as well.

As a parent, I don't think any parent wants to put their kid in a daycare, which is in another city. You always want to be as close to home as possible. So that's our goal.

Thank you. Special events. Talk to me about special events. How many, when, size, etc. ?

Um, so special events, we have our, um, annual day where children get to perform and, and, and, you know, the parents come to visit, but those, most of, most of our sites have a restricted, uh, amount of parking spaces. So we don't do them in the school. We'll, we'll go and hire, uh, maybe work with the city to get a, some sort of space or, uh, maybe in a public school. Sometimes you rented, uh, sites over there. So those are where we'll do the special events. We don't really have any other special events. Sometimes we do have a Mother's Day, but they sign in their kids and then we have a little brown bag of goodies for the moms to take home, but that's not really that impactful of parking. So we don't have any other special events on this site.

No Christmas parties or Halloween or...

Anything for Halloween? We do, uh, we do a field trip. So parents are responsible to get the little ones, um, to the pumpkin patch if there's one nearby. So we don't know anything in school, really. Uh, Christmas, unfortunately we are shut down for that, for that whole week. Okay.

Thank you. Um, I don't have any more questions for you folks. I want to thank you for being here and being open to questions. Um, And I think at this point, you're welcome to sit down if you wish. And we'll come to council for final comments. Start with Council Member Fiebig.

I think this is a complicated issue. We have the easement taken into consideration, the neighborhood, the neighbors, the traffic. And I think we need more information. So, and thank you for coming today and looking for that. I look forward to seeing you in the future with what you've gathered here today. I like what council member Davini talked about. It probably would be helpful for everyone to have, you know, you guys to have a group meeting maybe with the people of the neighborhood and hear directly from them. So everyone understands each other as well. So yeah, That's it. Thanks for being here today. Thank you. Council member Mota.

Yeah, I can second that. I think, thank you for coming in presenting and I'm feel that, yeah, partnerships, you know, communication and community is important. I know Cache Valley is huge on community. So we, you know, getting involved and like speaking to neighbors and like keeping them, you know, updated and things like that. I think working together is, is important. Um, and, um, I look forward to you guys coming back and kind of sharing some of these very important issues. As you can tell, our community is very passionate about, you know, making sure everyone is safe, traffic, and also the other issues tenants that are around your space, right? They also have their own concerns. And so that's where we have to make sure that those concerns are heard and there's options for them to also look at as well. But yeah, thank you. And I look forward to hearing from you guys later.

Thank you. Council Member Devaney, what you got?

Thanks, Chair. Just a couple of observations. First of all, thanks to everybody in the community for coming out. We had both the Aqualinda Group and just general neighbors of the Seven Hills area, and it was nice to hear from everybody. One thing in our decision process on this, we're not going to be able to correct Aqualinda's pretty poor Eastman. It's an Eastman that probably wouldn't be granted today. Uh, they're under parked there. Um, uh, some of the constraints that they have is kind of on them, the backing up of delivery trucks. They're going to have to figure out a way to, to deal with that. Cause that's part of their operations, the backing up of, uh, of, uh, you know, users of the, of the property. Cause there's too many, uh, places in there. Um, they're going to have to deal with that. So, um, I do appreciate all the concerns, and I think that we have to evaluate this from a safety standpoint because it does exist there. So there are a lot of people that are going through that parking lot and using it. It's just that we're not going to be able to perfect what is a pretty poor easement. All right, so with all that being said, somehow the scale of this project just seems a little bit too big. It just is feeling... Far more commercial and far less neighborhood commercial. Daycare centers in neighborhood commercial zone properties make a lot of sense. But this just feels like the scale with the number of students and the amount of activity that inevitably is going to be there. And I can't point to any single... default because I don't have the information, meaning I can't point to parking. I can't point to traffic. I can't point to noise because we just don't have that data at this point. Just my overall feeling is 98 students in that neighborhood is really impactful. And it is a neighborhood. It is a residential area. there is a small list of neighborhood commercial applications that can get approved. And this just feels more like it belongs in a more retail-oriented type of a setting. Again, my mind is not made up. I'm struggling with this. But that's kind of where I'm sitting on this.

Thank you.

Council member Davis. Having been in the public sector for over 30 years, dealing with a lot of projects that are similar to this, I don't have the same concerns that the rest of my council does. I think we're making, obviously we need more information and where everyone is going by gut feeling. We don't have numbers to verify one side or the other. So until such time that we have that, I think we're dangerous when we're saying 98 is wrong number or 50 it should be or something like that. We have nothing to base that on. And so we shouldn't be making a decision on a particular project. And a daycare center in this location is an ideal location for that. People seem to forget we had one that applied for Rudy's Donuts. And we outright said that is a wrong place for it. It should be in another location where it's more in a residential area that services the people in the community. So let us wait until we get the data before we start casting dispersions on whether this project is going to work or not.

Vice Chair Moore. And thank you, Council Member Davis.

We clearly have differences of opinion on things. You know, I drive by the school zone on a regular basis, and particularly when the weather is rough and there's no stop sign on the corner and cars are lined up in the road. waiting to pick up their children, particularly when it's raining. And at best in that parking lot, you're probably going to get maybe eight cars going across. And those eight cars are going to block the parking for anybody that wants to get in and out of the parking spots. I just, I look at it and I'm thinking, I love the idea of the school. I love the location. If it was a much smaller project, But if it came before me, I would have a hard time supporting the size of this project in relationship to the traffic on Seven Hills Road. I just think that it's going to significantly impact traffic. I mean, God, I think when I drive by an In-N-Out Burger, you can't even get around the corner because there's so doggone many cars lined up. And, uh, and it takes four minutes to get a burger. I mean, think about picking up your child, how long you're going to be sitting there. So, um, you know, I'm looking at this and thinking, you know, it's just, um, the wrong corner. I'm looking at parking and traffic and I just looking at, you know, getting your kid in and out of a car and, um, and the people behind you, and some of them are not going to be in as big a hurry as you are. We all know nobody, everybody doesn't move at the same speed. And so I just think the project's much too large for this particular location. And that's just my input. Thank you, Vice Chair.

I first want to say I'm really proud of this community. This meeting has been has been peopled and delivered with respect to dignity, a will toward finding a way.

And I'm, I'm really grateful to all who are here tonight.

The applicant for listening, the community for respecting time and for being open It's just very nice. Good to be a part of that. I thank you.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

It's good to be the chair. You can just listen to everybody else. This is a great, great spot for a daycare. It's a great spot for it. That being said, we have a community asset called Agua Linda that's been an asset to this community for, what, 60, 70 years, something like that. They need to be respected. They need to function and provide an environment that allows their membership to grow, that allows their families to enjoy and not give up anything as part of that process. That's, that's a big concern of mine. Um, the neighborhood, um, I'm, I'm, I'm hearing council member Davis saying, don't jump to conclusions without data. And that, that being said, um, I got to see a traffic study. I have to see a traffic study, traffic parking, circulation, um, and failing that that's the information I need to support this failing, failing that I'm going to have to say, agree with the folks who say it needs to be smaller. You know, if, if, if what I have to go on is my gut feel, then my gut says 35 kids is a great number for that location. Um, So I know it's a burden. I know it's a burden. $15,000, $20,000 is nothing to sneeze at. But I think it's required in this case. I need to know that all parties to the easement are satisfied and considered. Really, I need to see the emergency response plan that has been mentioned and that Alameda County Fire to weigh in as part of things. Again, I commend everybody for being here and for working to make this something that Castro Valley can be proud of. Please, Council Member Moda.

Not for you to comment because that's over with, but I think because I've been in the community and I've experienced on a daily basis driving in a residential area that has infant daycare, and I'm driving my kid to school every morning. And I see, and you probably should try, like, look them up. They're in neighborhoods around Castro Valley. And during the peak time that people are taking their kids to school, 8 to 8.30-ish, In those neighborhoods, parents will stop in the middle of the street, take their baby out of the thing. And I'm stopped literally behind them, waiting for them to move and take in traffic. And so that's what we're concerned about. And that's what we deal with on a daily basis. I deal with that every day. And this is in a residential area. I dropped my elementary child off to school. And these parents are doing this right in the streets. so you'll see it firsthand if you go through there and you'll see like you'll have to stop and they're just but they have a parking area in you know for the daycare center but they don't pull in because they're in a rush they want to hurry up grab a kid and then you know they don't want to pull in and have to go through the traffic because this is a very busy street we're dropping kids off in the morning at elementary school so I can talk firsthand and I would recommend that you drive through those neighborhoods to experience during those peak hours and you'll see exactly what we experience daily. That's all I wanted to add.

Thank you very much. If there's nothing else, we'll thank everyone for being here and we'll continue on with our agenda. And if you're going to stay, you're welcome. If not, please exit quietly so we can continue on with the rest of the agenda. And that brings us to chair, council, staff. We'll start with staff. Any staff? Thank you very much. Start with staff announcements.

No announcements at this time.

Council. Do we have any council announcements, thoughts, ideas?

Chair, I have two comments I'd like to make, and they're both requests of you. I wonder if you would consider a future agenda item. We had a meeting recently where we all introduced ourselves to the community, and I'm wondering if it makes sense to have our community and fraternal organizations come in and give a chance to introduce themselves to us and to the community. It would be open to public comment And I'm thinking of the Kiwanis and the Rotary, Moose Lodge, Chamber Commerce, Sports Foundation, Women's Club, Masonic Lodge, a veterans organization. I'm not sure who, maybe Forrester, stuff like that. If that's something that you're interested in contemplating and putting on a future agenda item, I'm happy to volunteer to help make the invitations. Or if anybody else wants to do it, if you want to do it yourself, that's fine. So I would ask that you consider that for future agenda item. I will chat with district four staff and see when we could consider that for a general purpose meeting. And then my second request is to ask if you will consider writing a letter and if you'll consider writing a letter to County council district four staff and a planning staff reminding them that all communications from constituents, particularly complaint oriented should be forwarded to the Mac members. Um, we've had two silly meetings because of five letters by Rory Taylor, and we didn't get to see any of those meetings, any of those letters until after the meeting, it would be nice if we could address some of these issues beforehand. And I, and I think that perhaps, uh, the people that are receiving those should be reminded of their obligation to communicate to us. So if you'd consider writing that letter, I'd appreciate it. I would very much consider it. It would have to be agendized and voted on to, the council would have to approve the chair sending that letter.

So I'll work to get it agendized.

Anybody else? Go ahead.

Council Member Davis. Yeah.

Two things. One, we received a public comment regarding cruise night, and it seemed like this year was out of hand. And in the future, I mean, there are a couple of quick things that could be done as to like prohibiting eastbound left U-turns at Redwood, you know, because that just shut down that intersection for I did participate in the cruise night, so I know where I was parked. My fault, yes. But then also, I know they had tremendous problems with trash. And it's the county's responsibility to pick up the trash for those containers along the boulevard, not ACI or CVSAN, so that should be clear. The other one I'd like, I've been voluntold to share a... an invite to the Light of the Adobe project. It's a shining example of the Castro Valley Rotary Club's commitment to preserving local history, strengthening community connections, and investing in Castro Valley. And when's the date? That is on Friday, September 18th, starts at six o'clock in the evening at the Adobe Arts Center. That concludes my comments.

Thank you very much. And I'll just jump on those with a couple of other community announcements. The Chamber of Commerce is having its August mixer at the Sana'a Cafe on the 27th, 530 to 730, 20885 Mission Boulevard. There are new members. New business should be interesting. And then September 12th and 13th is the 54th. annual Castro Valley Fall Festival. And the MAC will have a booth, not... but our, uh, our supervisor will.

So in relation to that last comment, the, um, I hope that we have code enforcement out there because our, our buddies at the corner of, uh, Redwood and Castro Valley are back again. And it'd be nice that they'd have a vehicle that could collect all their equipment instead of just cite them. Um,

Perhaps you could follow up on that. Thank you. Any other announcements, comments? Okay. Close that and we'll have public. Does anyone wish to comment on public comment?

I had a question for staff. The presentation that They didn't provide it to us?

They provided it to us today so we can forward it on to you and put it on our website.

Oh, you put it in the, you emailed it?

No, we can. We received it and uploaded it.

Oh, in real time, like now. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, if I can get a copy of that, that'd be great. Thank you.

Yep, thank you. All right. Is there anyone in the room that wishes to comment on the chair, council, or staff comments? nobody online meetings adjourned at 9 31. thank you very much staff for your good work tonight