This development should not be rushed. Just because there has been a long period when it was anticipated, there is no reason to just let the developer who comes along do whatever is desired. To me, the biggest problem is cutting back the retail from 23,000 square feet to just 6,000 square feet. Reisdences can go anywhere, but this nice area along the South side of El Camino and Castro street should receive special care. It's a transitional area between the many residences south of El Camino and the busier more urban downtown.

So why wouldn't Rose Market and the other small retailers get a relocation fee from the city? If I recall, the city is shelling out up to 60K to move 48 tenants crammed into a few apartments over the old La Costena.

The city will collect $2Million from selling that small parking lot in the back to this developer. It could plow that money back into relocating the small businesses. This would not be a bad idea. But the issue is partly that there are no good places for these businesses to go. For example Rose Market and Sufi have nice outdoor seating areas that are a key factor to their businesses. These are not fancy, but they do expand the sidewalk or make use of the back neglected area of the business (by the Alley). This is a unique way this existing space has been utilized. Rose Market may have only 4000 sq feet in use, but it also has a dozen or more tables outside, which are frequently occupied.

The fact that Rose Market is 4,000sf (indoor space) and the proposed development calls for only 6,000sf of retail space makes it very easy to grasp just how LITTLE retail space this developer is actually proposing. The word 'token' doesn't even come close to an accurate description...how about 'insulting' to the residents of Mountain View.

Oh, and a FOUR story 200 unit apartment block with rooftop terraces, parked on top of single family homes and smaller two story apartments....certainly an encroachment on current residents. And, don't even get me started on the traffic impact...well other than to say it currently takes me 2-3 light cycles to make the left turn from North El Camino on to Castro Street every single day (heading towards Graham middle School) where THREE children have been struck by cars this year. So, yeah, adding 200 apartment units at that intersection should definitely help with congestion and pedestrian safety. (Sarcasm here)

I certainly appreciate the very wide sidewalks down Castro Street in front of Rose, Peets and all the way down to the corner. I hope this development includes more stores fronting the sidewalks and keeps them wide. This is a nice walkable place to do business and it ought to continue. There is no need to do away with this in order to add many many apartments here. All that is needed is a better more reasonable plan that gives the existing merchants a place to operate.

It's wonderful to read about this landlord, who actually seems to care about small businesses, and about the effect that this development will have on the quality of life in MV. If only we could expect the same from the developers and from the City Council!

The following comment has been moved from a duplicate thread, which has now been closed:

"The landlord denied asking Greystar to exclude the existing businesses, saying "It's not in our nature to exclude them." So either Greystar lied or one of the landlords now has cold feet about what he told the developer. Rose Market may need to move if they cant afford the higher rents .
by Political Insider May 28, 2013 at 8:27 am

I will be very sad if Le's Alterations closes. I frequent the tailorshop often and they do wonderful work at a decent price.

We need more car repair shops, body damage and repair shops as well.

"The landlord denied asking Greystar to exclude the existing businesses, saying "It's not in our nature to exclude them."

So either the landlord or Greystar is lying. Seems to me the landlord wants it both ways.

Rose market could easily locate to another site and prosper.

The developer is partnered with a proposed new owner, who will acquire the properties from the existing owners. It would logically be this partner who would have instructed the developer, Greystar, how to proceed. There are two current owners involved, one for the Rose Market/Le Alterations/Peet's property and another for the Sufi/Bill's/Laptop Repair/Avis/Rug Merchant property. The 2nd owner had been seeking a developer to do a project under a land lease where the original owner would retain ownership of the land, which has significant property tax advantages since this property is owned by John Anderson, son of the original John Anderson who owned the land along El Camino for many years.

I WANT THEM TO LEAVE ROSE MKT AS IT IS. I shop there at least once every 2 weeks and I know of no other market like it.

The market owners and staff deserve respect and protection from mindless development.

The city council needs to use careful thought on how to transform that part of Castro Street.

It frustrates me how almost every building that comes down is replaced by housing. Can't they do something else? Mountain View is already considered "boring". We need a mall, a new theater, night club, something FUN!

If more housing is being made the rent should at least go down.

What's bad about this plan is that allegedly there will be retail business space in the huge complex to be built. But it's fake, because they are only talking about 6000 square feet which isn't enough for any real examples of retail. They should at least make a plan to keep the current amount, 23,000 sq feet, which would fit right in with such a large complex.

I really think the community as a whole is not aware that these changes are being planned for the Peet's area all along Castro back to Rose Market and round the corner through the Sufi Coffee Shop on El Camino. That's one problem. Too many changes too fast and it will all continue to happen at once. No time for consideration.

Recently there have been both more and more development projects starting up all along El Camino Real and also more and more buildings being emptied out. I wonder if some of the newly emptied buildings are also the subject of a potential development project, or if their landlords are just raising the rents to the $6/ft2 per month new Mountain VIew standard in rents, triple recent practices. This shutters a business when this happens.

A real question is if such high rents are truly sustainable. We seem to be in the midst of another kind of real estate bubble.

Fight this proposal by attending the neighborhood meeting outside of Rose Market this Monday (July 15, 2013) at 6:30 PM. A Mountain View Voice reporter will be there to report on it, so come and voice your concerns. We need a large turn out, so just swing by on your way home from work. We will address the traffic and parking problems this will create for our neighborhood and our city, and the further steps you can take to head this off, like: Sign the petition we'll pass around there, E-mail our city council members, and bring a huge # of people to the Sept. 3, 2013, City Council meeting to voice our opposition to this monstrosity. If we achieve the critical mass in numbers of attendance to both the afore mentioned meetings, we can stomp this building proposal as did the cat owners objecting to cat licensing! Everyone opposing these gross over building projects that are so regularly jammed down our throats, come out and object to them in mass so we can have more effect from our strength in numbers!

I have heard that a high ranking member of our city council very recently had a conversation with a resident of the neighborhood directly behind the proposed four story 200 unit apartment complex on the corner of Castro Street and El Camino Real. When the topic turned to discussion of the negative impact this proposed development will have on this neighborhood the response was basically (paraphrasing here) -- "Get used to it. The homes in that neighborhood are old and they will be gone (replaced with high density housing) in 20 years."

So, evidently our city leaders plan to drive out the current homeowners one way or another...perhaps trying to cloak forcing out residents of single family homes under the guise of eminent domain?

If this conversation as reported to me is indeed accurate, (and I have no reason to believe differently)it tells me everything I need to know about our city leaders and what they think about current residents and homeowners -- specifically, that we mean NOTHING to the people who have been elected to represent the RESIDENTS of Mountain View's interests.

Evidently these representatives are solely focused on developing as many multi-story, high density housing units as they can possibly squeeze into the city and are more then happy to ruin the lives of current residents, homeowners and business owners in order to complete their "vision" of the future of this city.

I am currently investigating what needs to be done in order to hold a recall election election. I am deadly serious.

Bump for relevance.

There is a community meeting @6.30 this evening in front of Rose Market, to protest this development proposal. I have heard this meeting will be covered by MV Voice and perhaps others as well. Please, if you are able, come this evening and speak your mind.