DATE: January 12, 2016
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: City Manager
SUBJECT
Title
Draft Purchase and Sale Agreement with the California Department of Transportation for the City of Hayward to Acquire Excess Property in the 238 Bypass Corridor
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RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
That Council adopts the attached Resolution (Attachment I) declaring a public purpose for the City's purchase of Route 238 excess property and authorizing the City Manager to complete negotiations with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) for the City to acquire specific parcels of land along the 238 Corridor, which have been declared excess by Caltrans; said purchase to be in general accord with the terms set forth below.
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SUMMARY
In the mid-1960s, Caltrans purchased over 400 parcels of property for the construction of the then-planned 238 Bypass Freeway project. In 1971, the community filed a lawsuit to stop the planned 238 Bypass Freeway: La Raza Unida of Southern Alameda County, et al v. California Department of Transportation and the City of Hayward (Alameda County Court Case No. RG 09476468.) As a result, Caltrans declared the project dead and abandoned.
Caltrans and the City have moved almost all residential parcels and a few commercial properties out of State ownership and back onto the property tax rolls through private ownership. Caltrans' normal land disposition process is to put each parcel up for auction for an "as is" purchase, which, for undeveloped property, poses several problems and creates lost opportunity for the City. As a result, over the last five years, staff worked with Caltrans on a proposal where the City would assume responsibility for disposing of the undeveloped properties in the 238 Bypass Freeway Project area. These conversations have resulted in the current terms for a Draft Purchase and Sales Agreement as presented herein for Council's consider...
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