Wednesday night’s Eden Area Livability Initiative (EALI) Governance meeting was a huge win for moving the process of unincorporated governance forward and, coincidentally, for finally extracting any implementation steps from this group who’ve worked very hard for many, many years to gain more local control for all of the “Eden Area” unincorporated areas of Castro Valley, Fairview, San Lorenzo, Ashland, and Cherryland.
The EALI Governance Working Group came to consensus on two separate resolutions, as recommended by Supervisor Nate Miley to be the path with the highest likelihood of success in allowing Castro Valley the right to vote on whether it wants an elected MAC.
You can listen to the audio recording of the entire meeting by clicking here.
Resolution#1 – MAC progression for the Eden Area: A proposal for the entire Eden Area around Municipal Advisory Councils (MACs) that over time includes the following potential progression (in diagram photo attached):
Allow the areas covered by the Eden Area General Plan (San Lorenzo, Cherryland, and Ashland) and Fairview to establish their own MACs. If the Castro Valley MAC becomes elected, this does not affect whether these other MACs or the existing Sunol MAC would be elected or appointed
Next Steps: These two resolutions will now be presented from the EALI Governance Working Group first to the Unincorporated Services Committee, then to the Board of Supervisors Transportation/Planning Committee, and finally to the full Board of Supervisors (BOS), at which point they would hopefully have the support of at least three Supervisors.
Only the Supervisors can approve giving Castro Valley residents the right to vote on whether we want a elected MAC.
There is no likelihood that the BOS would make a resolution simply changing the CV MAC from appointed to elected, and that is okay. If the residents of CV want an elected MAC, they will get one by popular vote, and that would be a giant step forward in local control and increasing engagement in our community. Committee meeting dates will be posted as soon as we know them.
Let’s continue the momentum of having CV folks at these meetings to voice our support for what we want.
Your voice matters.
Castro Valley matters.
Related
Resolution #1, the “Prioritized Progression” gives every Eden community what it has been asking for without leaving anyone behind or holding anyone back. That has been THE stumbling block to enhancing local governance since the beginning of EALI Phase 1.
This basic progression will:
Streamline the application process
Reduce county costs
Give communities more local control with better representation
Maintain a local forum with direct access to our supervisors that will unify all of our communities into a force much stronger than just the sum of our parts
Ok folks. Let’s all hammer out the details of the timeline together!
Meeting and proposal sound very worthwhile. I can meet most any time.
Update – Next Steps: We need your presence at the Alameda County Unincorporated Services Committee Meeting on Wednesday, April 27, to support the EALI Governance resolution to allow CV to vote on whether to have an elected MAC. Please save the date! More details to come soon. Thank you for your support!
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors Unincorporated Services Committee meets on Wednesday, April 27 at 6:00 pm to hear from the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) about a proposed fiscal analysis of the feasibility of incorporating Castro Valley and the other Alameda County unincorporated communities.
When you consider how this location is a gateway to this community, how poorly conceived this intersection is, and the increasing traffic along 580, it is fair to question the wisdom of placing a new drive-thru restaurant here.
