The developer spent a little time on a risky idea — hoping not to get caught — but it did succeed.

A sensible decision from the city council.

Thank goodness!!! Let's hope they hold their ground.

HOT DOG, a City Council that has the back bone to say no - no - no !!!

Geier, Please go elsewhere.

Way to go, City Council!!=) Thank you for standing up to this obscene plan. Yes, this area needed to be rebuilt, but what was being proposed for this community, I don't think so!! Thank you for keeping on top of this!

"Margaret Abe-Koga suggested the developer contribute to a new community center at Rengstorff Park."

That's the kind of dealing I can't stand. Drop a concrete mountain in our neighborhood and the quid pro quo is that another neighborhood gets a community center. How about instead we drop this thing next to Abe Koga's house or in Cuseta Park?

Inks is the only council member who appears ready to stand up to this nonsense.

I warned people about giving the keys to the city to a developer.

I'm glad SOMEBODY listened.

Some people remembered how long it took to get Dog City occupied.

MV doesn't need Dog City II.

A better place for a hotel would be to build it on Moffett Blvd. and Hwy 101 or near Google HQs.

Thank you councilors for protecting our community from an overzealous developer.

Castro is intimate because the city has spent a fortune making it so, including the million dollar(s) cost overruns on City Hall and the performing arts center. That should not be a reason to turn California into a cold expressway a la Stevens Creek & Winchester. Mr. Kasperzak, many of us live just a few blocks from San Antonio shopping center and we don't want to live like that, as if we were living in a huge shopping mall. The street facade should be stepped and attractive, not just designed for the people living in the new buildings.

Voice - you need to add a new, well really old neighborhood "California/Ortega or California/Rengstorff" at any rate your neighborhood choices don't include many of us who live within a block of all this development. We are a combination of several townhome and condo developments, single family homes, old and new apartments, single story, multistory and the tallest building in Mtn. View. We are not The Crossings and we are not Castro City.

Again, the City loves to stick density down on our end of Mtn. View without ever giving a darn about those of us who live there and drive these streets to get home and walk these streets to enjoy OUR NEIGHBORHOOD.

Many of us have been beating the drum for sensible planning for years. We have fought the developer first mantra. It looks like our message finally has been heard. Let's keep on beating that drum because we know the developers will continue to propose whatever maximizes their profits. After all, the developers don't have to live here, we do!

I'll say it again, readers. Let's not be naive.

They'll ask for 12 stories knowing full well they'll be denied, then they'll get the 7-8 stories they actually wanted and the citizens of Mountain View will be left with the feeling that their was a reasonable compromise and that the City Council did something other than roll over to developers. This has been an inside job from the start.

And I agree with Ms. Schneider above. That end of town is obviously viewed by Mr. Kasperzak as a revenue stream and not a neighborhood. Well it is a neighborhood and has all the makings to become an "intimate" one to compete with Castro Street (maybe that's what they are afraid of). But not with Merlone Geier running the show or with the current set of Council members, Inks excluded.

San Antonio road traffic is bad enough now. Wait til this monstrosity is complete. You'll see a parking lot out there.

I'm glad some of the city council members haave finally come to their senses. Hopefully this isn't some PR stunt.

Can some one tell me why the idea of a hotel and office tower (imposing on local neighborhoods) wouldn't have worked better next to the existing office tower on the retail friendly El Camino side of the lot? This seems backward. Safeway should be where the office is planned and vice versa.

This whole project is nothing but a boondoggle.

We need to run Merlone Geier out of town and it that is not possible don't change the exist city guidelines in any way.

Since the early 80's there has been talk of hotel at the following places, North Bayshore, Old Mill, El Camino at 85 and Downtown. Old Mill was a early verison of Santana Row, which at one time was a really big place to visit. Hotels in like to be around businesses othet then just office parks out in the middle of nowhere. The Charleston and Costco Centers would have made more sense for hotel and office plex or even by Moffett and 101. You also have to remember the owners have purchased these properties and found uses that best suited them. If some purchases a property for said amount, that person will not leave a single floor building.

"They'll ask for 12 stories knowing full well they'll be denied, then they'll get the 7-8 stories they actually wanted and the citizens of Mountain View will be left with the feeling that their was a reasonable compromise and that the City Council did something other than roll over to developers. This has been an inside job from the start."

I totally agree with Observer on this one. This is all a performance to make us believe that we live in a democracy. People, please help us stand up for the community. Judging by our history, I really don't think we can count on the city council to do this for us.

The goal of the General Plan is to make the whole greater San Antonio area a walkable, bikeable village. The new proposal needs to be evaluated on how well it achieves this goal. The words we want to be able to describe the proposal will be "permeable, convenient to the neighborhood, attractive, human scaled". I really don't want to see any more "tweeks" but a whole new concept brought before the council.

The Old Mill was nothing like Santana Row. Not even close. The Old Mill was just a retail mall with a very limited number of offices in the back.

Santana Row has retail, commerical, apartments, condos, and a hotel.

I actually liked the Old Mill. I was sad to see it's demise.

I really don't understand what the issue is with building in this area. It is already solidly commercial.

Good point Nancy. As it looks now, the project looks like an impenetrable concrete bunker complex. And I'm guessing it won't be open to pedestrian traffic to cruise through. Like a luxury hotel is going to want me cruising through their property in my flip flops.

Is this the same developer who put up that chain fence next to Milk Pail and some other local businesses and cut off access to their customers? Well folks, it looks like we got mixed up with some shady, back-stabbing, double-dealing, snake oil selling, con artists!

Everything in this city is getting expensive each year. The public service bargaining groups are in negotiations as we speak and from what I understand both police and fire department are looking at cost of living raises in the next couple of years (something they have gone without for the last 4 years). The city needs revenue! If the revenue isn't generated through new and enovative business it will be generated through tax's and fees which we all pay! The council have been very creative in keeping the budget reasonable but as the cost of doing business in the city go up so should revenues. Several years ago the "communities" were successful in blocking Home Depot from the east side of town in a commercial zoned area. A cost of 5 million annually in revenue tax's! We have the worlds most successful and profitable company in MV. This city is growing and we all should embrace it or become Los Altos where the majority of the cities revenues come on the backs of the residents. If we are going to compete with cities like Palo Alto and Santa Clara we need to be open to new ideas and development. I'm not advocating giving the keys to the city away to these profit motivated developers, but we should be considering new business and revenue especially in areas that are zoned for these type of innovated projects.

I'm all for lots of revenue for the city, but if the design isn't right, it will decline and then it will just be a larger scale "dilapidated center". Who will want to stay in a hotel with Safeway carts discarded where the walkway meets California Street? I don't know if Merlone Geier is up to this challenge, but what I'd like to see is a re-created downtown (like Disney does with Epcot Center or Main Street, USA) with tons of retail, with offices and apartments above, and lots of restaurants with sidewalk seating. Parking garages can have retail wrapped around it, like the Walgreens (I think thats it) with the parking near Castro and California.

"our city is not for sale"...that's a good one...kudos to the members of the council that said "no"...to that developer. What about all the other inappropriate actiivities and installations of residential projects that did get through or didn't even require council approval. It won't be long before mountain view is comprised of apartments, condos, townhouses and the like..and don't forget the exponential increased water demand...the drought created by greed...

Mtn. View has grown so much since 1960, we added jobs and helped create a whole new industry. RStuck in a 1960 car centered retail center, look around malls in places are dying either by internet or by big box stores. What would you think if Home Depot opened next door to Barron Park, or another large food warehouse next to Milk Pail.

We need a community visioning process, so the city, current businesses and residents can arrive at a common perspective of what the San Antonio area should be like. Then we can work with developers to make OUR vision happen. The general plan is a good start, but we need many more specifics. Let's have a "big conversation" now rather than fight each development on a case by case basis just to get some benefits and mitigate the negatives each time. I'm exhausted just thinking about needing to do that.

The Gatekeeper Development Proposal process for the draft General Plan has been a real eye opener. The proposals made using this process have really shown how dangerous a poorly written General Plan can be exploited by big developers. Prometheus is proposing to cram 300+ apartments on the current Safeway site across from this hotel/office proposal. Both proposals are intended to be in line with the new General Plan. Wow!

If these proposals are the result of the new General Plan, I think we need to slow down the final adoption and do some careful revisions. Alternately, a halt to further development approvals should be considered until new Precise Plans can be drafted for these areas. Piecemeal revisions for proposals like this one will result in a hodgepodge disjointed mix that is no better than the way it was with the old Sears and Rite-Aid. I agree with Nancy. We can do much better.

Re: Nancy's comment above: "...what I'd like to see is a re-created downtown (like Disney does with Epcot Center or Main Street, USA) with tons of retail, with offices and apartments above, and lots of restaurants with sidewalk seating. Parking garages can have retail wrapped around it..."

Between the current Merlone Geier project that's under construction now and the Phase 2 proposal, pretty much all of the points above are covered. This entire side of the Center WILL have tons of retail, offices above retail on one side and apartments of retail in the middle, and plenty of restaurants with sidewalk seating. The only parking garages are in Phase 2, and they are partially wrapped by retail (facing the Hetch Hetchy area). So the main thing we need to meet this vision is to make sure the rest of the parking garages are wrapped with retail or made more friendly to walk by.

I don't understand you would say we would need a whole community visioning process when we're getting pretty much everything you're looking for in the Center. If it's mainly the height you're concerned about, that's fine, but just say so... and realize that if you take away too much height, you also take away a lot of the customers (workers or hotel visitors) who will keep those sidewalk cafes and retail in business.