I thought Mountain View was a wholly-owned leisure service of Google, but it seems that Prometheus calls the shots in this town, or Google would've been allowed to realize their excellent dormitory housing idea, reducing traffic woes.

Are we changing the population total on the city limits signs? No way we can add all this housing and expect to stay at 75K.

Good spot to build housing, close to rail and bus network, close to major employers.

Got news for, those signs are out of date.

That's a great place for housing, walking distance from downtown and Caltrain and easy access to Central Expressway. Far better use of that patch land than what's there now.

Madera appartments are awfull (made cheap, cramped & overpriced)

Great, more housing that the majority of (long term) residents of this town won't be able to afford.

Awesome. More traffic at an already hellish intersection. Thank you, Peter for pointing out the problem of having to wait for two light cycles to get across Central. Bring a book, it will be three or more if this goes thru... Maybe Prometheus could pay for a traffic overpass like at Shoreline?

Will our infrastructure handle all these newcomers? Our Schools, Roads, water, sewage, police? No one really cares, just bring them and if something suffers, oh well.

Who will do the research? The Environmental Planning Commission, ha, they are appointed by the counsel, a bunch of YES men to whatever the counsel wants.

I hate to be the one to break this to the curmudgeons, but Mountain View is pretty much the geographical center of Silicon Valley, and pretending that you all live in a backwater suburb of San Francisco is as much old thinking as believing that Lockheed Martin is the major tech employer in the area.

Communities evolve and change. The alternative is to hang on stubbornly to a bygone (and not necessarily golden) era, until one day one wakes up in Detroit.

If we are the jewel of Silicon Valley, shouldn't our traffic infrastructure reflect that? And why does a 15 minute commute from Mountain View to Palo Alto (at off-peak times) take 45 minutes at peak times? Seems like if we're going to be thrust into the 21st century our council should get it together infrastructure-wise and figure out a general plan. What we're ending up with is a mish-mash of multiple general contractors' desires for prime real estate and no attention given to the resulting traffic nightmares. Bring on progress & growth - yay - but look at the big picture & don't just cave to the money-men.

To me, we either keep the Stierlin entrance to Central, or add a long, dedicated right turn lane on Moffett to bypass the traffic not turning right. As Peter pointed out, otherwise we are going to have massive delays on Moffett.

The debate about brand new buildings that look cheaply built, yes they are new, yes they look ugly. Almost any built new looks like ugly, guess one thing it is new.

I know many buildings that were ugly. 444 Castro, 100 View, you get the idea as I call it UBS, ugly building syndrome. I think some buildings start off ugly, landscaping and time will change peoples view. Not all buildings get better, others are built nice but time won't be kind.

As for telling developers/builders how they should build their projects, but up to a point. The cost of building is high, cost of land, labour, and materials.

Is that intersection going to stay at grade with the coming of electric Cal Train
(more an faster trains)& High Speed Rail)more trains)?
If it does not change, It will be a total plug.

"Prometheus could also pay to have the free right turn lane removed..."
They can probably pay to get any number of things they want. Isn't Rebecca Shapiro even a little ashamed about her admission?

Traffic is a huge issue. The city and it's traffic engineering department seem to be in denial. Their solution to everything is to add another expensive traffic light. I drive 4 miles to Palo Alto at 8:00AM and on a good day (catching half of the lights) it takes 25 minutes. More times than not I get a red at almost every intersection. My most direct route would be 101 but it is a parking lot. I used to take Middlefield but they have put so many lights on this road that it takes an unacceptable amount of time. All of the traffic lights have left turn lights which are triggered by anybody in the intersection so the entire flow of Middlefield is stopped so 1 person can turn. None of the lights are synchronized. Shoreline is even worse. The lights seem to actually be timed backwards. Going east in the morning they lights favor the western direction! The center of silicon valley and we can't even coordinate a few traffic signals. So now I use residential streets almost the entire commute. I don't like to do this but there is no choice. I make better time stopping at the occasional stop sign than trying to get through the gauntlet of unnecessary and expensive signals. They should not allow one more signal unless it is engineered properly to ensure smooth flow instead of impeding traffic.

I agree with Gary. I think a lot of the traffic issues on El Camino & Central & Middlefield & Shoreline could be (at least somewhat) alleviated by coordinating the traffic lights. It would be a step in the right direction anyway...

This is distressing news. The traffic is already bad enough in this area during the evening commute. Now they want to add housing which will increase the number of cars in the area and on top of that close off an artery that helps alleviate the back up to downtown and Central Expressway? I suggest city leaders, the planning dept and traffic dept camp out between Central Expressway and Central Ave during the evening commute so they can get an idea of how bad things already are without 190 additional apartments in the area.

Mountain View is required to provide new housing and the site does provide close access to mass transit. It would be great if the project could be designed to actually help reduce traffic on Moffett by add a dedicated right turn lane on Moffett all the way back to Jackson to bypass the traffic not turning right.

I do feel sorry for the neighborhoods off Stierlin Rd that will feel the biggest impact form the increased traffic.

A controlled right turn lane does sound good, if you want increased traffic, keep building offices and keep having out of area workers. One Tuesday had to drive to Napa, took me 3 1/2 hours, no accidents lots and lots of cars.

Promo wants a zoning change AND a city street!
Promo is taking up city streets in its excessive desire for more rental apartments. It really shows that it has no limits when it comes to the city council. Do not give up streets! It can build its "high end" apartments without taking a street.
Comments about Google housing are true, Why turn down Google and allow Promo whatever it wants?
And the comment about cutting through neighborhoods to get to Palo Alto are so true!
The center of Silicon Valley is turning into a disaster area!

Some people seem to be under the delusion that by building housing by transit centers that will somehow reduce traffic. Not so. The majority of people who move into the proposed apartments will have cars and they'll be using those cars to go to work, taking kids to schools, running errands etc. Imagine what's going to happen to that area with a minimum of 190 new cars to the area with limited access to Moffett, Central Expressway or Shoreline. It's going to be a nightmare. With all of the new housing in MV the traffic is going to get even worse. Just watch what happens when people move into the new housing on Evelyn or better yet San Antonio shopping center.

When we going to say no to Promo!

Reality is Silicon Valley is growing, yes they will be traffic, can't have growth without traffic, or would you like no growth and little traffic. Yes I hate traffic too, but I understand the more of it means more jobs are being created, more taxes being produced by the number or workers.

Promo is in the business of building apartments its what they do, they build, people come and rent. Home builders do the same thing, they build, people buy. Most homeowner in Mountain View and the area live in a developer build home. We live in a world where most people don't want to build a home, takes too much time, they would rather work for Google and be productive.

Traffic, transit and roadway improvements are a must, we are getting to point where public transit needs to be up graded and ridership improve at a steady pace.

Promo is taking advantage of a lax city government that if it had anything going for it would demand mitigation instead of the "gee whiz what can we do about it the valley is growing" or the "public transit will improve". Nonsense.

And regular citizend are in the business of being unrepresented, sitting in traffic, suffering cut throug speeders and the general decline of lifr that outfits like Promo bring

New housing on Evelyn, new housing at San Antonio Shopping Center, new housing at the old HP, new housing on Calderon between Velarde and Loreto...

I'm sure I'm missing more.

They have to fix the area for the rush hour traffic and residents. Nothing worse than getting stuck by the fake Cal Train light cycle. You can't cross Central due to a train that will stop. (for safety the gates must close?) Then 5 min later you reach the intersection and you might pass unless there is a train from the other direction. 15 min for 3 blocks!