Hayward Area Shoreline Planning Agency (HASPA)

The Hayward Area Shoreline Planning Agency (HASPA), established in 1970, is a joint powers agency consisting of representatives from the City of Hayward, East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD), and Hayward Area Recreation and Park District (HARD).

The primary purpose of HASPA is to coordinate agency planning activities and adopt and carry out policies for the improvement of the Hayward Shoreline for future generations. Through the efforts of HASPA and its member agencies, over 3,150 acres have been purchased for public ownership, preserved, restored, or are in the process of being returned to wetlands, marshes, and protected uplands.

The Hayward Regional Shoreline is a low-lying shoreline that is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise. Sea level rise is climate change-induced phenomenon that will inevitably cause flooding and harm to the various recreational, transportation, and ecological assets currently along the Shoreline. While the Shoreline’s eight marshes provide some level of natural flood protection for these assets, including the entrance to the SR 92 and the San Francisco Bay Trail, continually rising sea levels and stronger storm events are already overtaking these barriers two to three times a year. If no adaptation actions are taken, many of the tidal marshes and managed wetlands will be inundated by 2050 and the Bay Trail will be increasingly inaccessible to its thousands of visitors.

To prepare for the rising tides, HASPA has already conducted two vulnerability assessments for the Shoreline and completed a long-range Shoreline Master Plan that will outline adaptation measures to prepare for and mitigate against sea level rise. Measures being considered range from natural solutions, such as wetland restoration, to man-made improvements, such as levees.