The Hayward Eden Area Shoreline Resilience Collaborative met for the second time for a community workshop on June 27 at San Lorenzo Community Center.
The group shared updates on several projects that involve the Hayward shoreline, which included making the space more recreation friendly. The event was organized by Greenbelt Alliance.
The first presentation was led by the Watershed Project. Their organization updated tribal communities about the shoreline project and asked for feedback.
Watershed Project community engagement project manager Natalie Matis said they’ve met with the Lisjan Nation and talked about co-benefit opportunities like tule harvesting and plant palette design. The organization is also working with tribal communities on ways to tell their history in relation to the shoreline.
SCAPE Architects shared updates to the Shoreline Adoption Master Plan, including an implementation strategy. Their goals include creating a resilient shoreline environment for people and ecology, including adapting to sea level rise and climate change. The company’s implementation strategy included a timeline that goes up to 2060 and beyond.
For the next 10 to 15 years the focus will be the current projects, like First Mile Levee in Ora Loma Marsh and Hayward nature-based solutions. From 2040 to 2060 there would be marsh and pond restorations and a Bay Trail realignment, making the trail more accessible to the community.
Beyond 2060 involves work in preserving the Hayward marsh, including the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse preserve.
Lindsey Yuen with Studio-MLA shared their progress with building the First Mile Horizontal Levee. Horizontal levees have a slope that allows for a trail, a water treatment area and habitats. Their project goals include improving water quality, enhancing habitats for species, protecting communities from sea level rise and creating a recreational space for communities.
‘out of the 500 people that we talked to, not a single person, no one said, “Let’s pave over the marsh and put in a water theme park.”‘
– Chabot College professor Eric Heltzel
The First Mile Horizontal Levee project team also had a youth engagement team led by Teach Earth Action program manager and Chabot College professor Eric Heltzel. He said he worked with his students to conduct over 500 interviews with community members that were visiting the Hayward Shoreline.
“The fantastic news is that out of the 500 people that we talked to, not a single person, no one said, ‘Let’s pave over the marsh and put in a water theme park,” Heltzel said as the audience laughed.
He then explained that people want to protect the First Mile Horizontal Levee once it’s built and further preserve it for future generations. Heltzel said people are interested in environmental educational opportunities, amenities, observation areas and community activities.
He pointed out that people wanted cultural representation at the shoreline, which includes translated signs and having space for cultural rituals and prayer. Interviewees also said they want to continue to be active participants of the ongoing Horizontal Levee Project.
“Community members have fond memories of this space, they care about it deeply, they spent their childhoods here, went on school field trips here and they want to protect it for future generations,” Heltzel said.
The Restore Hayward Marsh Project representative talked about public access improvements, including expanding the Bay Trail and adding ponds. The event wrapped up with a tour where attendees saw a view of what would be the First Mile Horizontal Levee. The project site is just outside the community center past the basketball courts.
Greenbelt Alliance is hosting a Hayward Eden Area Shoreline Bike Tour for the chance to learn more about the shoreline. The 10-mile trip starts at 2639 Grant Ave. in San Lorenzo on July 11 at 10am.
