The Quarry Today
College Heights is proposed for an almost 30 acre vacant quarry property owned by the City of Hayward.
Existing Conditions
Image of the potential housing development site off Overlook Avenue near Carlos Bee Boulevard, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020, in Hayward, Calif. Santiago Mejia / The San Francisco Chronicle
The site has 29.63 acres and features steeply-sloped open space perimeters around most of the developable area, giving the project strong geographical separation from adjacent land uses. The north side has a long arc of the heavily-wooded deep ravine sheltering “Crevice Creek” (our suggested name), an unnamed drainage on USGS 7.5 minute maps.
Crevice Creek starts in the Old Highlands by Dobbel Ave, is buried under a parking lot at CSUEB, then comes out into the open on the west side of Campus Drive, where it runs on the north side of the City View Apartments, through the quarry site, then down to Mission Boulevard, underground, and finally flows into Ward Creek.
On the east side of the site is a steep rock slope leftover from quarrying, a part of which will need to be recontoured. Further east (lower right of this photograph) is a PG&E utility corridor 200 feet wide and then the City View Apartments. The site narrows down to the south, stopping short of Carlos Bee Boulevard. On the west side, the site connects to Palisade Street and then drops down steeply to the single-family neighborhood on Redstone Place below the site.
The large flat rock floor of the old quarry dominates the site. The narrower south side has higher ground and a long pile of overburden left over from quarrying. On the west side is a knoll with views of the Bay and the quarry floor.
| Existing Conditions | square feet | acres | percent |
| Undevelopable Area | |||
| Crevice Creek Riparian Corridor, a ravine, north side | 230,000 | 5.28 | 17.8% |
| Steep Cut Slope on east side, existing | 176,940 | 4.06 | 13.7% |
| Steep Rock Slope on east side, proposed | 36,500 | 0.84 | 2.8% |
| West Area. steep drop off and slope over 25% | 35,930 | 0.82 | 2.8% |
| Total Undevelopable Area | 479,370 | 11.00 | 37.2% |
| Developable area | |||
| Main flat pit | 470,724 | 10.81 | 36.5% |
| Deep pit, northwest corner | 66,163 | 1.52 | 5.1% |
| Knoll | 90,290 | 2.07 | 7.0% |
| From middle high ground to south end | 183,610 | 4.22 | 14.2% |
| Total developable area | 810,787 | 18.61 | 62.8% |
| Total property | 1,290,157 | 29.62 | 100.0% |