Mission Boulevard transformation picks up steam with SoHay approval

The transformation of the Mission Boulevard corridor in South Hayward is building momentum with City Council approval of a new transit-oriented neighborhood to be constructed on former Caltrans right-away between Industrial Parkway and Valle Vista Avenue.

The SoHay project by William Lyon Homes approved May 8 will bring 472 mixed-income multi-family rental and for-sale townhomes plus approximately 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail to approximately 25 acres of underutilized and mostly vacant land.

A series of trails, paseos, sidewalks and bicycle paths will connect development across 21 separate parcels that have been assembled and aggregated to make possible the project—including former Caltrans, Hayward Area Recreation District, BART and Alameda County Flood Control District property.  Recreation improvements are to include relocation and expansion of one-acre Valle Vista Park to 1.89 acres fronting on Mission Boulevard and running east-west along the flood control channel to Dixon Street.

Under the project’s affordable housing plan, 20 of a total 72 rental units will be priced at below-market rates affordable to low-income households.  Twenty-eight of 400 for-sale homes will be sold at below-market prices affordable to moderate-income buyers.

Council approval of SoHay comes a little more than a year after the grand-opening celebration of Alta Mira Senior and Family Housing and Cadence Place, a jointly developed, award-winning project of below-market affordable and market-rate rental homes just up the street on Mission, adjacent to South Hayward BART station.

360° walk-thru of Sohay property