Chris Bazar, Director for the Alameda County Community Development Agency (CDA), presented on the goals and accomplishments of his agency at last night’s Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) meeting.

According to CDA’s Financial Statement in the 2014-2015 Alameda County budget, CDA’s appropriation for the 2014-2015 fiscal year is $69,264,745. CDA includes the Planning Department as well as other departments that seek to “enhance the quality-of-life of County residents and plan for the future well-being of the County’s diverse communities; to balance the physical, economic, and social needs of County residents through land use planning, environmental management, neighborhood improvement, and community development; and to promote and protect agriculture, the environment, economic vitality and human health,” according to CDA’s mission statement on its website.

The Housing and Community Development Department has been instrumental lately in constructing new restrooms at Adobe Park, and the Lorenzo Creek Affordable Housing Complex on upper Center St.

The CDA’s Economic Development Department/Redevelopment Successor Agency has been finalizing plans for the new shared parking lot behind the Daughtrey’s building.  Both redevelopment projects have been affected by the “redevelopment dissolution” process.  Work should commence on the shared parking lot in 2015, according to Bazar.

The closing of the Redevelopment Agency because of “redevelopment dissolution” has affected code enforcement in the unincorporated areas. The former Redevelopment Agency funded a full-time Code Enforcement Officer specifically for the West County unincorporated areas.  With the loss of that funding, the County has been forced to reallocate Code Enforcement resources, limiting coverage and creating delays in response times to blight complaints throughout the Castro Valley, according to Bazar.

In the 2014-15 CDA budget, the Economic Development Department has committed over $15 Million to “Tier 1” projects in the Unincorporated Areas, but nothing specifically to Castro Valley. The Department has also been tasked with development and implementation of a long-awaited Billboard Reduction and Relocation Program in the Unincorporated Areas.

The Castro Valley Central Business District Specific Plan, published in 1993 and envisioned as valid “until approximately the year 2012,” is “next up in the queue” for revision, but completion of the Ashland Cherryland Business District Plan, and the Fairview Specific Plan will come first, according to Bazar.

Check out  CDA’s budget presentation for 2014-15 to learn more about what the Alameda County agency is doing in our community.