By mid-2016, Mountain View City Council will review options for the Caltrain road crossing at the downtown transit center,  include closing the intersection of Castro Street and Central Expressway to cars, and separating the Caltrain tracks from the intersection of Castro, Central, and Moffett.

The grade separation review is part of a comprehensive planning effort for the transit center, which is is handling many more passengers than it was designed for, using Caltrain, light rail, buses/shuttles. The overhaul will including planning for improved access by walking, bicycling, cars, shuttles, and new transit modes.  Part of the plan includes options to build buildings on the surface parking lots, replacing surface parking with structured parking.

The full review, including proposals for building on the parking lots, is expected to be complete by early 2017.    On Tuesday night,  Council will consider hiring a team of consultants to handle the community outreach,  land use planning, grade separations, and station access. 

Funding and High Speed Rail questions

The planning efforts will intersect with Santa Clara County’s planning for a sales tax measure in 2016 which could raise money for the project. Mountain View is seeking funding from the ballot measure; this planning will create a much clearer idea of what the money would be used for.  The planning also intersects with High Speed Rail’s renewed planning for the Peninsula corridor.  High Speed Rail will eventually need a fully grade separated corridor to run more frequent trains, and is starting to offer funding to cities for grade separations.

In the first round of High Speed Rail planning, Mountain View was not interested in having a station stop.  This is a logical topic to come up again in this round. Would having a high speed rail station help Mountain View get more commute service? And how much car parking would High Speed Rail want for a station in between Millbrae and San Jose Diridon, areas which are already set up for airport access.

The planning process will consider funding, but the team that Council is considering hiring does not yet include experts in value capture, a method of raising funding for infrastructure using the increased value of buildings.  VTA and San Jose recently hired Ernst and Young to analyze the value capture potential of adding BART stations at Downtown/Diridon, and concluded that the area could raise $650 million (though with obligations from redevelopment, the amount will be less).

Mountain View Transit Center

What do you think? Would you want to see the parking lots evolve to an extension of downtown?  Would you want to see retail, offices by the train, homes, or only parking? Should Mountain View reconsider a high speed rail station? Would it make a difference if that would provide more commute service?  Would the amount of car parking make a difference? Would the amount of funding HSR would bring make a difference?