Goal 2 Priority Development Areas

Goal LU-2: Revitalize and enhance Hayward’s Priority Development Areas to accommodate and encourage growth within compact, mixed-use, and walkable neighborhoods and districts that are located near the city’s job centers and regional transit facilities.

The Bay Area’s Regional Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy directs housing and employment growth toward Priority Development Areas located throughout the region.  These areas include downtowns, employment centers, corridors, neighborhoods, and districts that are served by regional transit. Hayward has five Priority Development Areas:

  • The Downtown City Center
  • The Cannery Transit Neighborhood
  • The Mission Boulevard Mixed-Use Corridor
  • The South Hayward BART Mixed-Use Corridor
  • The South Hayward BART Urban  Neighborhood

This goal and its supporting policies encourage development within Hayward’s Priority Development Areas.  Development within Hayward’s Priority Development Areas will decrease dependency on the automobile and allow more people to walk, bike, or take transit for commute and daily trips. This will help reduce automobile use, local and regional traffic congestion, and related greenhouse gas emissions.

The City of Hayward has adopted specific plans, area plans, or form-based codes for all of the Priority Development Areas.  These plans and codes contain specific land use policies and design regulations for new development.  With the exception of the Downtown City Center, the policies within this section support the implementation of these plans and codes to guide future development and infrastructure improvements within the Priority Development Areas.  The adopted plan for the Downtown City Center is relatively dated and new policies, strategies, and regulations are needed to support Downtown investment and revitalization.  As a result, this section provides more policies for the Downtown City Center than the other Priority Development Areas. A policy is also provided to support the development of an updated Specific Plan for the Downtown City Center.

The City shall encourage private-sector investment in Downtown to transform it into a safe, vibrant, and prosperous arts and entertainment district that offers enhanced shopping, dining, recreational, and cultural experiences and events for residents, families, college students, and visitors.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall maintain the Downtown as a center for shopping and commerce, social and cultural activities, and political and civic functions.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)City Services and Operations (CSO)Joint Partnerships with the Private Sector (JP)

The City shall strive to create a safe, comfortable, and enjoyable pedestrian environment in the Downtown to encourage walking, sidewalk dining, window shopping, and social interaction.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall require retail frontages and storefront entrances on new and renovated buildings within the “retail core” of Downtown Hayward, which includes properties along:

• “A” Street between Mission Boulevard and Foothill Boulevard
• “B” Street between Watkins Street and Foothill Boulevard
• “C” Street between Mission Boulevard and Foothill Boulevard
• Main Street between “A” Street and “C” Street
• Mission Boulevard between “A” Street and “C” Street
• Foothill Boulevard between “C” Street and City Center Drive

This policy does not apply to historic buildings that were originally designed without a retail frontage or storefronts.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall encourage the development of a variety of urban housing opportunities, including housing units above ground floor retail and office uses, in the Downtown to:

• Increase market support for businesses,
• Extend the hours of activity,
• Encourage workforce housing for a diverse range of families and households,
• Create housing opportunities for college students and faculty, and
• Promote lifestyles that are less dependent on automobiles.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall encourage a mix of commercial, office, high-density residential, and mixed-use development in the area surrounding the Downtown BART Station.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall develop, maintain, and implement a to establish a vision for Downtown Hayward and to guide and regulate future development and infrastructure improvements.

City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)Planning Studies and Reports (PSR)

The City shall encourage the development of vibrant, compact, mixed-use, and walkable urban neighborhoods within the South Hayward BART Neighborhood and the South Hayward BART Mixed-Use Corridor.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall maintain and implement the South Hayward BART to guide and regulate future development and infrastructure improvements within the South Hayward BART Neighborhood and the South Hayward BART Mixed-Use Corridor.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall encourage redevelopment of the remaining industrial parcels in the former Hunt’s Cannery Area to complete the urban neighborhood with a variety of residential uses, a network of parks, a school, and supporting commercial, office, and live-work uses.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall maintain and implement the Cannery Area Design Plan to guide and regulate future development and infrastructure improvements within The Cannery Transit Neighborhood.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall encourage the redevelopment of the Mission Boulevard corridor to create an attractive mixed-use boulevard with a variety of commercial functions and residential densities that support walking and transit.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall maintain and implement the Mission Boulevard to guide and regulate development within the Mission Boulevard Mixed-Use Corridor.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall support the development of university-oriented uses, including student and faculty housing, satellite campuses, and university-oriented retail and service uses, within the City’s s (excluding the Cannery Transit Neighborhood).

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)Inter-governmental Coordination (IGC)

The City shall encourage the establishment of professional office and employment uses within the s. Major office and employment uses should include amenities for employees, such as courtyards and plazas, outdoor seating areas, fitness facilities, bicycle storage areas, and showers.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall encourage the development of uses and amenities to attract creative-class professionals and businesses to Hayward’s s, including:
• Restaurants and cafes;
• Art studios and galleries;
• Entertainment and cultural venues;
• housing and live-work units;
• Exercise and physical fitness facilities;
• Office space and business incubators; and
• Community-operated workspaces where people with common interests can meet, collaborate, and develop their business ideas and products (e.g. hacklabs, hackerspaces, or makerspaces).

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall encourage the establishment of youth and family entertainment uses within the Downtown and/or the Mission Boulevard Corridor. Appropriate uses include ice skating, climbing walls, bowling alleys, trampoline gyms, indoor miniature golf, arcades, billiards, climbing and play structures, water play or “spray parks”, and family-friendly dining.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall work with the Alameda County Transportation Commission and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to consider establishing new Priority Development Areas during future updates to the Regional Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy.\

City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)Inter-governmental Coordination (IGC)Planning Studies and Reports (PSR)

The City shall coordinate with Alameda County to pursue joint planning efforts and to review future plans for County s that are located within the City’s (i.e., Hesperian Boulevard Transit Neighborhood, the Meekland Avenue Mixed-Use Corridor, and the East 14th Street and Mission Boulevard Mixed-Use Corridor).

Inter-governmental Coordination (IGC)Planning Studies and Reports (PSR)