Jesus Armas

By Jesús Armas, Government Affairs Liaison

Last December, the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the Sutter Medical Center Castro Valley project was released for public review and inspection, and a 45-day public comment period commenced. During this time (the comment period ended January 20, 2009), the Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council and the Alameda County Planning Commission held public hearings to present their comments and to receive comments from interested individuals and organizations.

Additionally, the County’s Planning Department made the document available for review in its offices and in the Castro Valley library, and we posted the document here on our site. The local media also helped get the word out that the report was available for public review and comment.

As one of our previous blog posts indicated, the DEIR contains relevant information documenting whether and how the project is expected to impact the environment and how the identified impacts will be lessened. Established procedures determine which issues must be addressed in an EIR, but among the most common are traffic, air quality and noise.

The Planning Department is charged with the responsibility to collect public comments, and to prepare responses to all comments submitted by interested parties. The responses to the comments, together with the Draft EIR, constitute what is called the Final EIR. It is this latter document that is presented to and considered by the governmental body with authority to act on a project.

Now that the environmental review process has been completed, it is possible for the Castro Valley MAC, Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors to consider the merits of the project and decide whether to grant approval to move forward with this important and critical project for our community.

The MAC is tentatively scheduled to consider the project on March 23rd, while the Planning Commission is expected to do so on April 6th. A meeting date for the Board of Supervisors has not yet been established.

Once meeting dates, times, and locations are confirmed, we will post that information. We invite you to return to this site to get the most current information about these important meetings.

Prior to the formal meetings, we will be hosting a community and neighborhood meeting to review the project and respond to your questions in a more informal setting. The meeting will be held at Eden Medical Center’s Conference Center, 20103 Lake Chabot Road in Castro Valley, on March 18th, at 7 p.m.  We’ll have some exciting updates for you and a chance to meet and ask questions of the members of the project team.

As always, we welcome your comments at these meetings or on this blog.