Police HQ And Parking Coming Soon
In Which: The new Police HQ gets some serious attention, Street parking is coming to Mission downtown, And Commissioners argue that convenience trumps safety.
Changes Coming To Downtown
At most City Council meetings there are items that don’t get discussed, but are still worth knowing about. These are called “Consent Items” and usually get glossed over because they’re non-controversial. But just because Council won’t talk about it, doesn’t mean it isn’t important. Let’s dig into this week’s Consent Items and what they could mean for Downtown Hayward.
Street Parking Coming To Mission Downtown
Longtime residents widely regard The Loop as one of the biggest infrastructural blunders of Hayward’s history. It was intended to improve travel times through Hayward—for all those lovely commuters trying to avoid 238—and resulted in a Downtown core surrounded by 6 lane freeways. Businesses suffered, traffic increased, and almost as soon as it was done, Council started trying to plan ways to undo it.
After the pandemic derailed any conversations around a complete overhaul, the City has turned to small-scale changes that can be trialed at minimal cost. One that has been on the horizon has been adding street parking to Mission Blvd Downtown. According to the Staff Report, the project will add 33 on-street parking spots on Mission between A Street and D Street, with painted bulb-outs at 9 of the corners.
The turn lanes going West on B Street (next to the Peet’s) and East on C Street (by the security place) will be kept. The plan is to try to reduce speeds—they’re supposed to be 25 mph—and improve access to businesses along the street. Staff are going to collect data on traffic speeds and how much the spaces are used, as well as keep in conversation with the businesses to see how they’re affected.
Hopefully this makes Mission a bit nicer to walk on. The project should start in May and be done by July of this year.
New Police Building Design Incoming
The Hayward Police Department Headquarters on Winton Avenue is on its last legs, according to multiple Staff Reports, and tonight the Council will approve $500,000 of Measure C money to pay for a design, site analysis, and cost estimates. Staff is also asking for $125,000 from the General Fund to support the design of the new Public Safety Center.
According to the Staff Report, the new building should include the following:
Police Headquarter
Temporary holding facilities
Indoor shooting range
Increased services for the Youth and Family Services Bureau
Animal services relocated to new PSC
Crime Scene Technician Lab integrated to new PSC
Some satellite campuses tasks relocated to new PSC
Though it’s unclear if all of these needs can be met—for example, Public Works Director Ameri mentioned in a different meeting that it was still not certain if Animal Control would be moving from its current site. The estimated cost for the new building will depend on how many bells and whistles are added, but some on Council seemed glad to use hundreds of millions of dollars of Measure C/K1 funding to make it state-of-the-art.
The location for the new building is also still in question. The two sites that are being considered are the California Air National Guard site on the Southern edge of the Hayward Executive Airport. That site is over 8 acres and next to the new fire station. The other location being considered is the location of the old City Center building behind the Safeway on Foothill. That site is just under 6 acres at ground level, including the closed parking structure.
The new Police building will be LEED Certified Silver or better and have enough solar capacity to be effectively net-zero electricity use. There is no timeline on when the plans will be finished.
Planning Eyes Cop HQ And Traffic Calming
The Planning Commission isn’t the most exciting thing to keep an eye on, but it is where aspiring City Councilmembers go to cut their teeth on the nitty-gritty of governance. At least four of the current City Council came directly from the Planning Commission prior to being elected, so getting to know them is important for upcoming elections—especially with new districts making it easier for people to run. What they focus on and how they think about the City could have a massive impact on your life—to say nothing of the power the Commission already has.
Along with making decisions about what gets built in Hayward and how, they also get to weigh in on the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). City Staff has worked hard to make these enormous documents a little easier for the average Haywardeña to understand. Enter the CIP Story.
On this page, anyone can see what’s being spent and what it’s being spent on. If you’re interested in a specific project, I recommend checking out the list of Project Descriptions. You can search for a street or a neighborhood or an area to find out more about them. It’s still a bit clunky, but it’s a lot better than it used to be.
So after you’ve checked in on your pet project—or seen if your neighborhood has anything fun in the pipeline—let’s dig into what the Planning Commission noticed and seem to be thinking about.
New Police HQ Is On Everyone’s Mind
The new Police HQ is going to be the largest project using the Measure K1 funds—just like how the Downtown Library was the biggest use of Measure C funds. It’ll be a massive project, so naturally the Planning Commission is interested in the details. Commissioner Haman opened the subject by asking if the Corporation Yard was a potential site for the new building. Public Works Director Ameri said that, no, it wasn’t.
The Corporation Yard on Soto is where Public Works stores their trucks and does various public works stuff—water maintenance, sewer maintenance, and street maintenance all operate out of the facility. The Corp Yard is hopefully going to be refurbished, but it’s been pushed to the wayside by the Police HQ. Director Ameri said that the City tried to partner with HARD and HUSD on the project, potentially expanding the Corp Yard footprint to unused fields behind Winton Middle School. “But that did not bear fruit,” Director Ameri said.
Commissioner Haman then asked if a daycare center was included in the plan for the Corp Yard, but Director Ameri insisted it was just a Corp Yard. He hinted that Animal Control may be included in the design—the building touches the Corp Yard—but they may get moved to the Police HQ building.
Commissioner Goodbody asked if the primary factor for the two sites for the new Police HQ was the fact that the sites are City-owned. Director Ameri said the airport site’s proximity to the fire station brought “some synergies” and that the City Center site has close proximity to Downtown.
Commissioner Goodbody then asked if the City had considered the Sears site at Southland Mall, given it’s proximity to the current site and easier to access South Hayward—though it is, in truth, on the same street as the Airport site. Director Ameri said that the ownership structure of that site is complicated and could take years to sort out before even breaking ground. “Otherwise it would have been a place to consider,” he said.
Charging Stations And Solar Power
Commissioner Meyers has been a vocal advocate for increased electric vehicle adoption and charging stations—possibly influenced by prior connections with Tesla. He asked about the solar field at the Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF) and whether or not the full amount was being used. Director Ameri said that the WRRF itself doesn’t currently need the solar power—it’s powered using reclaimed methane from waste processing—but the solar power is being used by City Hall and other City buildings.
However, Director Ameri said that when the new WRRF upgrades are finished, the facility will need to supplement its power with solar, and there are plans to expand the solar field by 1.4 Megawatts when needed.
Commissioner Meyers later asked if the City had a plan for building out charging stations—specifically citing the Tesla Chargers in the Safeway parking lot on Jackson. Director Ameri said that the City does have a plan to add charging stations to municipal lots, starting with the lot behind the AT&T building Downtown. However, chargers on private property are outside of their control.
Commissioner Meyers pressed on, asking if the City had a plan for private lots, perhaps even providing incentives for property owners. Director Ameri said that the chargers on private lots charge money and are a revenue choice by the owner, but the City would play a part if the chargers involved public parking spaces.
Joining The War On Traffic On The Side Of Traffic
Commissioner Stevens took time to support the changes coming to Downtown, specifically the Main Street and Mission Blvd projects. However, he then pivoted to arguing against traffic calming projects. “I can say that just because somebody in one neighborhood is angry that somebody’s speeding,” he said, “that doesn’t mean that we, as a City, need to go in there and try to ‘engineer’ a solution to calm traffic.”
Commissioner Stevens has taken public issue with traffic calming measures proposed in his neighborhood along Hayward Boulevard. Those plans were suggested after multiple fatal vehicle collisions happened along that stretch of road. However, he, along with other members of the public, have argued that the potential of slightly slower traffic isn’t worth the safety provided.
“When we do these things,” he said, “we’re really penalizing the 95% or 99% of people that are actually following the rules.” His primary concern appeared to be the cost associated with the street changes. “Let’s look at other strategies beyond just trying to engineer ourselves out of traffic calming,” he said, “because I just think it’s a fool’s errand. It’s going to waste a lot of taxpayer dollars.” Advocates for traffic calming projects have argued that engineering solutions are necessary to solve an engineering problem.
Chair Hardy sided with Commissioner Stevens in decrying traffic calming and bicycle safety measures. “One of the things I’ve noticed where I live,” she said, “there were some ‘street improvements’ done for bike lanes, but it’s led to many many cars being hit because the cars park away from the curb now.” She appeared to blame the bike lanes for the crashes rather than the people speeding.
It’s likely Chair Hardy was referencing improvements to Huntwood Ave, which swapped the traditional positions of bike lanes and car parking. Safety advocates have argued that placing parked cars between bike lanes and traffic reduces the risk of being hit by traffic, reduces the risk of being hit by a door, and eliminates the conflict of cars driving through a bike lane to park.
Chair Hardy then alleged that the crashes had driven up her car insurance rates, before admitting that it may have been normal rate increases instead. “It’s actually caused my car insurance rates to go up quite a bit,” she said, “although everything’s going up anyway.” Director Ameri has, in other meetings, insisted that many of the traffic calming measures are pilots and will be evaluated based on their efficacy.
The City of Hayward has suffered multiple fatal collisions this year, with two happening on the same day in March. Mayor Salinas has also pushed a program to provide bicycles to students at Hayward schools, who would likely benefit from traffic calming measures. Surveys have shown that women and children are less likely to use their bicycles because of the risks involved with riding near car traffic.