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Board adopts Environmental Justice element and general-plan amendments
Summary
The Board adopted an Environmental Justice element to the Alameda County General Plan to comply with SB 1,000, identifying priority communities and dozens of policies and actions; staff will convene a technical advisory committee to guide implementation, while the board agreed to coordinate with air-quality and airport stakeholders.
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted to adopt an Environmental Justice (EJ) element as part of the county general plan, fulfilling state requirements under Senate Bill 1,000 and identifying priority unincorporated communities for targeted policies and implementation actions.
“All local jurisdictions that have disadvantaged communities are required to incorporate environmental justice policies,” planning staff said in a presentation that summarized the draft element’s goals, policies and 162 actions. Allie Abbers of the Community Development Agency said the draft identifies Ashland, Cherryland, Hayward Acres, parts of Castro Valley and a tract along I-880 in San Lorenzo as EJ priority communities and proposes 30 ‘‘catalyzing’’ actions to drive implementation.
The presentation noted extensive outreach beginning in 2021, including public meetings, bilingual workshops and revisions influenced by hundreds of community comments. Chapter 5 of the draft prioritizes a smaller set of actions for early implementation and proposes an interagency technical advisory committee (TAC) to coordinate county agencies and ongoing community participation.
Public comment focused on airport-related air- and noise-pollution concerns near the Hayward Executive Airport. Doug McNealy, manager of the Hayward Executive Airport, requested the full mayoral letter be added to the record; planning staff confirmed the letter is in the meeting packet and said staff will continue discussions with the airport. "We would have appreciated the opportunity to respond to this change in writing," McNealy said, asking that the full letter be provided for the record.
Board members asked whether the EJ element explicitly addresses noise and what the next steps would be. Staff said the current wording addresses aircraft-related emissions and that the Planning Commission recommended rephrasing an action to explicitly include noise impacts. Staff also said the county will reach out to the Bay Area air-quality agency and the City of Hayward as part of implementation and that implementation responsibilities have been assigned to identified county agencies.
President Meili moved and Supervisor Tam seconded a resolution adopting the EJ element, approving a CEQA notice of exemption, and delegating authority to the Community Development Agency director to sign non-substantive edits. The motion passed on roll call vote.
Staff said the EJ element is a long-range vision document that will guide county policy and that many actions will require additional implementation planning and potential funding. Staff noted fiscal impacts will be determined during implementation and that the document seeks sustained community engagement through the TAC and future reporting to advisory bodies.
The element and its CEQA notice of exemption were adopted; staff will begin implementation coordination, translation of materials into Spanish and development of a community-summary document for broader translation and outreach.
