Goal 4 Corridors

Goal LU-4: Create attractive commercial and mixed-use corridors that serve people traveling through the city, while creating more pedestrian-oriented developments that foster commercial and social activity for nearby residents and businesses.

The city of Hayward has a variety of arterial streets that traverse the community.  These arterial corridors are generally lined with auto-oriented commercial uses, such as gas stations, fast-food restaurants, and a variety of strip commercial developments.  The land uses and development patterns along Hayward’s corridors generally serve motorist driving through the neighborhood or city.  Most of the commercial properties do not offer convenient access and attractive amenities that encourage nearby residents and employees to walk or bike to businesses and services.  Some corridor segments are also lined with blighted properties and residential sound walls and fences.  These areas are targets for litter and graffiti, which degrade the image and perceived safety of the city.  This goal and its supporting policies are designed to reinvent Hayward’s corridors to create more attractive and economically viable uses.  Rather than creating conditions that exclusively serve motorists driving through the neighborhood or city, the policies support efforts to create more pedestrian-oriented developments that foster commercial and social activity for nearby residents and employees.

Supporting policies related to complete and multi-modal streets are provided in the Mobility Element.

The policies in this section apply to the majority of corridors within the City.  They do not apply to corridor segments within the City’s Priority Development Areas and Industrial Technology and Innovation Corridor.  Policies for the Priority Developments Areas and the Industrial Technology and Innovation Corridor are provided under Goal 2 and Goal 6, respectively.

The City shall encourage a variety of development types and uses along corridors to balance the needs of residents and employees living and working in surrounding areas with the needs of motorists driving through the community.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)

The City shall support the transformation of auto-oriented and strip commercial uses into attractive pedestrian-oriented developments that frame and enhance the visual character of the corridor.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)

The City shall allow mixed-use developments within commercially-zoned properties along corridors and ensure that these uses are located, designed, and operated in a manner that maintains compatibility with adjacent residential uses.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)

The City shall encourage corridor developments to incorporate the following design strategies:
• Widen and improve public sidewalks to accommodate street trees, pedestrian-scaled lighting, and streetscape furniture. When sidewalks cannot be widened within the public right-of-way, the City shall encourage developers to extend sidewalk improvements on private property to create room for improvements.
• Place buildings and outdoor gathering and dining spaces along or near the public sidewalk of the corridor.
• Locate parking lots to the rear or side of buildings or place parking within underground structures or above-ground structures located behind buildings.
• Design commercial and mixed-use buildings with articulated facades and transparent storefront entrances that front the corridor.
• Design residential buildings with articulated facades and entries that front the corridor.
• Enhance commercial and mixed-use building facades with awnings, shade structures, pedestrian-oriented signage, decorative lighting, and other attractive design details and features.
• Enhance residential building facades with stoops, porches, balconies, and other attractive design details and features.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)

The City shall require corridor developments to transition the massing, height, and scale of buildings when located adjacent to residential properties. New development shall transition from a higher massing and scale along the corridor to a lower massing and a more articulated scale toward the adjoining residential properties.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)

The City shall maintain, implement, and enforce sign regulations and design standards to reduce sign clutter and illegal signage along corridors.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)

The City shall promote the consolidation of small and irregular shaped parcels along corridors to improve the economic feasibility of development projects.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)

The City shall encourage adjoining properties along corridors to use shared driveways and shared parking lots to promote the efficient use of land, reduce the total land area dedicated to parking, and to create a more pedestrian-friendly environment by minimizing curb-cuts along the sidewalk.

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

The City shall encourage landscaping improvements along sound walls and fences to discourage graffiti and to enhance the visual character of corridors. Where landscaping is not feasible, the City shall encourage the painting of murals on sound walls.

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

The City shall discourage the construction of new soundwalls and fences along corridors and shall encourage new developments to front corridors whenever feasible. This policy does not apply to the reconstruction of existing soundwalls or fences that shield existing residential uses from noise.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)

The City shall strive to improve the visual character of corridors by improving streetscapes with landscaped medians, and widened sidewalks that are improved with street trees, pedestrian-scaled lighting, underground utilities, landscaping, and streetscape furniture and amenities.

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

The City shall develop, maintain, and implement a plan to create a mixed-use and pedestrian-oriented corridor along the segment of Hesperian Boulevard near Chabot College (between Winton Avenue and State Route 92). The City shall encourage a variety of student- and neighborhood-oriented uses along the corridor, including student housing, restaurants, entertainment uses, and cafes.

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

The City shall coordinate with Alameda County to prepare a coordinated corridor enhancement and land use plan for the “A” Street and Redwood Road Corridor.

City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)Inter-governmental Coordination (IGC)

The City shall pursue grant funding to prepare land use, urban design, and mobility plans for additional corridors in Hayward.

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

The City shall provide gateway monument signs or archways at major corridor entrances to the city, including:
• Mission Boulevard (at the north and south City Limits),
• Hesperian Boulevard (at the north and south City Limits),
• Foothill Boulevard (at the north City Limit),
• “A” Street and Redwood Road (at the north City Limit),
• B Street (at the northeast City Limit), and
• Industrial parkway Southwest (at the south City Limit).

City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)