Some of the headlines in the news were misleading – Mountain View City Council has not decided (yet) to  “slash” housing in North Bayshore where Google is headquartered.   But they could – Tuesday’s City Council meeting is important.  If you have opinions, come Tuesday or email Council. Read on for more.

The big question for Mountain View City Council is how to plan the growth of office space and housing  around planned improvements in transportation.

City Council has several choices:

* to create a “first phase” with 1,500 to 3,000 units of housing, out of a total of 9,850 allowed in total. If transportation is functional once that first phase is in place, Council can then authorize another phase of housing. This is the staff recommendation.  Unfortunately, experts have told Mountain View that this amount of housing is unlikely enough to support robust services which help reduce driving and car ownership among residents. And, it creates more of an barrier to creating housing than offices.

* to use a Master Plan process to review proposals for development that include both office and housing, along with services and transportation improvements.  This approach is favored by the Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning and by Google itself, which is by far the biggest landowner in the area.  Because Google wants to develop the area in phases with mixes of offices, housing, and transportation improvements, this Master Plan give Council the ability to review the performance of the system and the plausibility of plans, but doesn’t put an extra obstacle before housing.

* to actually slash housing, and allow a maximum of much less housing than the 9,850 units that were studied by the environmental review. This would result in more in-commuting, and make it less likely that the housing would foster a vibrant, carlight neighborhood where fewer residents owned cars.  The relevant example in our area is Redwood Shores, where housing was built in an area near the office park with Oracle’s Headquarters, which has a population of about 4,900 people (below the recommended threshold), took many years to attract services, and is car-dependent.

As regular readers know, Mountain View is planning and exploring major transportation improvements, ranging from a dedicated bus lane on Shoreline which is moving forward, to an automated guideway system (think airport people mover) which is being studied, to potential new bridge and onramp connections to the North Bayshore area which has only a few entrances and exits.

The city has a goal of 20% or more below market rate housing, to support community diversity and provide housing for workers including those with lower incomes.

Another important issue is to find locations for schools to serve children in the area. Fortunately, thanks to active organizing, the city council and school district have started to work together to find sites for schools for the new neighborhoods.

What do you think? This is a big deal…

This is one of the most important decisions that will be made in the region about housing and transportation. Studies in the area continue to show that adding housing near jobs will reduce driving per person. This is one of the larger opportunities in our region to address the deep housing shortage that makes the region the least affordable in the nation, puts the area’s economic future at risk, and is motivating up to 40% of residents to consider leaving the area.

If you live or work in Mountain View and have time to take just a few actions this year, this should be one of them! Come, share the word, and bring friends, family members, and colleagues.

The meeting starts at 6:30pm and there are a couple of agenda discussions beforehand.   Come at 7:30, or watch the city council meeting online and come over when council is reaching a conclusion on the previous item.

If you can’t come to the meetings, send your thoughts by email to:

Mountain View City Council

Ken Rosenberg <Ken.Rosenberg@mountainview.gov>,
Pat Showalter <pat.showalter@mountainview.gov>,
Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>,
John McAlister <john.mcalister@mountainview.gov>,
Margaret Abe-Koga <margaret.abe-koga@mountainview.gov>,
Chris Clark <chris.clark@mountainview.gov>,
Lisa Matichak <lisa.matichak@mountainview.gov>