OMG! Margaret Abe-Koga must go. If there was any question that she's here to represent the mega-developers before, its completely gone now.

Reduce autos by extending Light Rail from Ellis/101 to Shoreline Amphitheater and Google.

@get her out, add to that list Ronit Bryant.

"Potentially adding space for over 17,500 new office workers."

And will all the 17,500 live in Mtn. View? Or commute from other areas? IF this goes through there will be traffic nightmares. And you thought we had it bad now.

17,000... what's a few more ?
EGADS Council... pull your head out.. There is NOTHING short of total gridlock to be done if 17,000 more folks come and go , morning and evening onto and off of 101 or 85...that's got to be at least 10,000 or so more cars, looking for parking spaces.. NO, they won't car pool, and whose stupid idea is it to restrict parts of the road to "car poolers"? Ah, more nanny state directions...
Come on Council... there is no need to jam more buildings and workplaces into MtnView...We don't need it, it will crush us. Let them build and go to the way south Bay, or to the hills of Fremont...THEN build decent transportation into the sites as they develop.

Mountain View needs a full service hotel with meeting space for a large group (like the Cabana Palo Alto). It would seem a no-brainer to develop a hotel at the corner of Shoreline and 101, across from Computer History Museum. Hopefully they will also provide space for Pear Ave Theatre which is in its 11th season.

Margaret Abe-Koga and Ronit Bryant term out next year.
We can elect Council Members who will represent the residents of Mountain View and NOT the developers!

Take Mountain View Back!

To Kathy
How does adding a convention center or hotel relieve traffic on Nth Shoreline?
What about the businesses that are existing? Dump them out for the common good?
Abe- Koga says it took 2 hrs from downtown to Shoreline Amphitheatre . If there are 22,500 people trying to get to a single venue at the same time that's what happens and has been happening for over 20 years..

Here we go again with Google. They just keep building more and more appartments but the roads are the same. On my street there are certain times of the day I can't pull out of my driveway or turn in. Margaret Abe-Koga needs to be removed from office. Mountain City council has lost the vision of this city. We used to be a small quite town no more..

It can go either way. People who live in Mountain View don't all work for Google and those who worth there don't all live here. The city years ago decided not to build any housing in the NSB shock I think the 70's come to mind.

Time to get going on other transit options other then the 1 person option I keep seeing. Also want to point out traffic was bad even before Google and if we don't do anything now. It will be bad after Google.

Since the 80's the city has tried to lure a hotel with meeting space and elsewhere in the city. We could build small, watch Google leave along with all the other companies that left for modern office space to accommodate growth in the marketplace or we could just have offices.

The Silicon Valley which we have played a giant role in creating has become a major center in the world or we could just have small offices.

All that traffic means jobs that employ thousand of hard working people who might become successful in starting a company.

Not providing housing near all of those new buildings is very short sighted. Of course people want to live near their office. And it reduces road trips. The city needs to accept the changing reality.

What's the argument against housing there? It should actually reduce traffic and thus reduce environmental impact, right?

See that little rectangle behind those huge new buildings on Shoreline? That's the existing mobile home park - 357 households. It's not just full of old folks, as you probably think, there are lots of techies in there - and pretty soon we're not going to be able to get in or out to our non-Google jobs.

Traffic has worsened steadily in the last 17 years I've lived in the park. Abe-Koga's discovery that it takes two hours to get from downtown to the amphitheatre is nothing new to us.

So a "wall of buildings" is acceptable? Andyou want bike lanes, cafes, walkways and landscaping? Wake up, people - this is California, not Amsterdam. You can't have it both ways!

Rob - I did not suggest we build a convention center. I said a 'full service hotel'. I think it is ridiculous that a City like Mountain View cannot attract a major hotel chain. I suggest we (costing the city $$ (and is a nightmare to get to and from), build a hotel with golf course views.

If it was only this neighborhood facing over development, gridlock, and big city style high density, it would be a tragedy. The majority of the city council have plans to urbanize Mtn View in the San Antonio area, down the full length of El Camino, and in North Shoreline that has the potential to double the population of Mountain View. This would be an utter disaster and completely change our way of life. When the citizens complain about potential gridlock, they shrug it off and say things about alternative transportation even though the solutions are not there yet. I believe they want to gridlock the roads to force you to choose alternative transportation although they will never openly claim this is what they are after in campaign materials. Grant road is routinely gridlocked along with El Camino, San Antonio, and Shoreline. This are the small heart attacks to the cities arteries that are the warning signs of things to come and in response the majority of city council members are doubling down on high density not ever seen in Mountain View in this size or scope.

All those workers will need to live somewhere.

Either they live here, or they commute in.

Realistically, they will commute in. You would need about 11,000 homes to house that many workers. That's about 20 times as big as Mayfield, and that died. We will build a few infill projects that, if combined, cover perhaps 5% of demand. A few people will ride the train or work shuttle.

So, expect about 16,000 more cars on 101 and 85.

One doesn't have to rely on corp. promises for traffic mitigation, just lock in the number of new parking spaces to match their pledges, or better yet, drastically reduce the number of parking spaces new projects may have, and ask those companies to innovate to fit those new extreme restraints.

Could someone explain to me why mixed use was nixed North of the 101 when there's little traffic after business hours and retail is seeking more customers, and yet mixed used was approved for El Camino where there is existing high traffic after business hours? I would welcome mixed use corporate housing along the lines of micro-apartments North of Shoreline that is developed with Zipcars and no parking, zero. There's no meaningful street parking, so micro-apartments in North Bayshore would slow the rising cost housing by addressing demand, and have a smaller traffic impact on the rest of Mountain View.

Watch out for big deals being pushed by these Terming Out council members. They have nothing to lose and campaign $ to gain by bending over and letting the developers do whatever they want. Well, since we're now watching, lets keep them in check so they don't ruin the city on their way out.

So it took Abe-Koga 2 hour to get to the Amphitheatre, how about being concerned for all the resident who live on her route. I shutter to think, how long it take to get emergency services into the area during that time. Gridlock for hours makes you feel like a prisoner in your own home. And that has been going on for too long, plus all the polution from all those cars. You might as well pave over whole neighborhoods to move all the people who would work in those new high rise office buildings.
And watch out Abe-Koga might be your next state representitive, for years it has bee said that she is the darling of the unions....

Special interest groups control the country and increasingly the world. Developers are among them. Bart workers. Bus drivers. Career politicians. Oil companys. Real estate brokers. Homeland Security. Cameras everywhere. Drones. New phones. Banks. Non-profits. The list of cons goes on and on.

You would think North Bayshore in particular would be a golden opportunity for the City Council to advance their walkability, bikeability, sustainability and mixed use agenda and yet they don't? Could it be because this is not in an ABAG PDA area? Taxes from this area are all bottled up for some reason and aren't accessed the same as taxes in other parts of MV. Does anybody know why? I remember that the school district always wanted to gain access to this pot of money but couldn't for some reason as it was in a separate bucket for some reason.

Ok, I found answer to my own question at MV voice article "parents-seek-larger-slice-of-shoreline-taxes"
Web Link

I like the idea of housing but time over time housing in the NBS hasn't been well received and.popular. The Moblie Home park is grandfathered in years ago.

A mixed.use project using land on both sides of 101 will help. See nothing with having a office building with a condo building with retail on ground floor.

Build from 85 and 101 interchange lanes for Bus both public and private with Van transit right into NBS into a transfer stations. Bikes, transfer shuttles or walking trails. Not everything out there is Google.

I have a wild idea but would like it serioiusly considered by MV CC and Google and all. How about building a pier around Shoreline for ferries and running ferries between MV and Alameda, Jack London, SF Ferry Building, somewhere in hayward/fremont area. Why not consider having Google fund the building of this and the cost of the ferries as part of their dues for expanding their impact upon the community they are part of? Such a path would probably be much faster than caltrain or the freeway.
Also, wouldn't it be good to require Google to make their shuttles open to the public like Stanford is with their Margurite Shuttles.

We have got to stop this madness, this is not New York City. Be sure to only vote for candidates who promise to limit density to well below what is currently being discussed

How is it that Shani Kleinhaus is so thrilled about development in the egret breeding area, because last I knew she was vehemently opposed. She blames the decrease in burrowing ground owls on feral cats, when in two instances, Google made a large donation to the Audubon society (think "fitness center) to relocate these birds, when anyone with any knowledge of this bird knows they don't relocate well.

Google has the city of MV in its pocket, period. Anyone who has lived and purchased a home here in the last 20 years and is NOT employed by Google ought not to say a thing. They are here to stay, destroy, and pay out large sums of money to get what they want. It's rather disgusting, to me.

I see the word "sustainability" in several of these communications, as well as having the word shoved down my throat on a daily basis by other media sources.

In the context of what the city and Google want to do, what PRECISELY does sustainability mean? Anyone? Please educate me...it feels like a new buzzword that accompanies organic and local...