196 Apartments And Retail Project Approved In San Leandro

SAN LEANDRO, CA — A five-story apartment building with ground floor retail near the BART station has been approved, denying two appeals against the project.

San Leandro City Council voted 4-2 on July 6 to approve the project on Callan and East 14th Street. Known as Centro Callan and led by project developer The Martin Group, the development would include a specialty grocery store on the bottom level and a 2,400 square foot pedestrian public plaza.

The ground floor will have 28,849 square feet of grocery and retail shopping. The apartment building will come with a two-story parking garage, with 286 spaces, including 29 electric vehicle charging stations.

The Board of Zoning Adjustments approved the project on May 6, but two union groups — East Bay Residents for Responsible Development and the Laborers Union of North America, Local 304 — filed appeals challenging the approval.

East Bay Residents for Responsible Development cited concerns about the project’s impact on housing, air quality, health risks, hazardous materials, greenhouse gas emissions, noise and traffic. The laborers union cited potential impacts on indoor air quality, specifically concerned with the emission of formaldehyde in construction materials.

Planning Manager Andrew Mogenson responded to the two union groups’ concerns at the July 6 council meeting. After Mogenson's presentation, representatives of the appellant groups also presented their concerns and arguments against the approval.

The Friday after the approval, the laborers union sent the city a notice of its intent to sue, Mogenson told the San Francisco Business Times. The suit is expected to assert that the project violates the California Environmental Quality Act and seek to overturn the approval.

Mogenson said the city had provided substantial evidence to support the project and address the groups’ concerns, more than most processes under CEQA.

“If you look at the volume of documentation we’ve had to provide to defend the project, it’s more than 1,500 pages,” Mogenson told the Business Times.

The Martin Group Managing Principal Justin Osler said the project would create $28 million in economic benefits to San Leandro, in a presentation at the council meeting.

The project was conceived in the 2007 Downtown Transit-Oriented Development Strategy, which aims to make San Leandro more pedestrian friendly. Within a half-mile of the BART station, the project is intended to reduce vehicle trips and would be the first mixed-use housing/retail development under the strategy.

Per the zoning bureau’s conditions of approval, the building will have electric HVAC and solar. It will also have two high-capacity locker rooms for bike parking and 10 affordable housing units.

The location was previously a CVS Pharmacy until its closing in November 2014. The approved proposal would demolish three existing structures, including the former CVS, a two-story commercial office building and a two-story retail shopping center.

The city’s approval means the construction could begin soon, but a lawsuit by the laborers union could delay the start for an unknown amount of time, Osler told the San Francisco Business Times last month.

Vice Mayor Victor Aguilar Jr. and Councilman Fred Simon were the two votes against the approval. Councilman Bryan Azevedo recused himself due to a potential conflict of interest. Azevedo said he had been on the executive board of one of the groups contesting the development, and that he had received union funding while on the board.