This is strange -- I was driving from Sunnyvale to Mountain View on Evelyn last weekend, and seeing all the small businesses along the route, I was wondering how much longer they would be allowed to stay.

great idea, no parking would be required either since you know, anyone staying at the hotel would take the train. :-)

There will be a need for way more parking.

Someone missed your sarcasm Marc.

I got it. :-)

Wouldn't parking wind up on the site under the hotel like most other hotels I the area?

Isn't Council also having a study session on the Housing Element tonight? And doesn't the Housing Element suggest using public land for accelerating affordable housing development? Will the Virgin hotel be really that affordable?

If we didn't have greedy landlords, we would have affordable housing. We need rent control, not public housing built on public land.
We've always lived in an expensive area and the fact is not every resident who wants a house will be able to buy one. Up until 4 yrs ago or so, I heard people doing the natural complaining about the normally high rents, but it wasn't until recently that I hear about $1K rent increases per year and THAT is what the real problem is about. It as always been normal for this area to have pricey houses, but only recently have landlords gone rent crazy with greed.

I can only thank my landlord for jacking up prices in 2010. It forced me to buy a house after 10 years of renting. And 3+ years later I understand that it happened to be a very good financial decision.

Ok ... everything about this process sounds waaay wrong. The first red flag is the "closed meeting" venue... why not use a more transparent and inclusive approach like announcing a town meeting invite to a council meeting to get public reactions.
Well, because that's not what they want to do.

Then comes the thought of all that parking disappearing across from the train station. The parking that serves businesses and their customers on Castro, Hope, Villa, and Evelyn? Where will people park?

I wonder what the negative impact on those businesses will be? How much will that cost MV coffers and MV quality of life for residents?

The whole picture seems very wrong and actually nauseates me. Seldom do I have such a strong visceral response to an issue like this. Go figure?

Hotel that will replace outdated office building which in most cases the hotel can be build underground parking for their guests. If needed they can build a parking structure over at Caltrain.

Tell you the truth have you seen how much rooms are over the week, it seem most of the people coming here are staying from M to Th not Fri to Sun. So while most residents will use downtown mostly on the weekends, don't see parking much of problem.

Is Mountain View ever going to grow up and build a tram system? Sure the young can bike, but how about the old folks? We are all going to be old at some point.
And if there was a tram system, wouldn't we need a central tram location at the train station to connect all the runs? If we do not save a place for a tram system, we will do without a tram system until an underground system is cost effective. So do we need to be as dense as New York?

If we can the naysayers out of the way, we just can't built a transit system on passengers who will only ride it twice a day. It is easier to drive then to deal with 4 transfer and still have to make the last mile on foot.

Behind closed doors??
What do they have to hide this time??
How to divy up the candy??
There is not enough room for yet another elephant in our room.
Stop, E N O U G H!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VOTE

Parking garages will take care of guest parking and downtown visitors, but how will the traffic flow from shuttle buses and cabs be handled on Hope or Evelyn? How can this hotel be reached easily from any freeway/expressway? As it is, the area around the post office is to be avoided certain times of the day.If this City Council needs to add another development to our City, look at El Camino, it can handle the hotel related traffic better than our immediate downtown area. It is no coincidence Palo Alto put their hotels along El Camino, it also goes well with the "Boulevard" vision of ECR. I really question these "in fill" discussions/decisions of our current City Council, where is the big picture? As it is, we do not have enough water for the current residents, but we are creating more water using developments on a daily basis. Where is the balanced growth? Hopefully the candidates running for the new council have a better understanding of what people in MV are frustrated about.

Unfortunately, Mountain View city staff and council takes a passive role. They do not take initiative, but rather wait for developers to apply for building permits. Only then, does the City speak and let it's wishes known. They may turn down a permission temporarily, but the developer (and landowner) say "Fine! Then we won't develop it and will just continue to pay a very tiny amount of tax. We'll wait you out!" City council caves and in comes the neighborhood destroying development. Those of us who pay attention at council meetings will remember certain quotes from Koga and Bryant where they indicate that it's better to have the lot re-developed with *something*, then to refuse the application and have nothing done.

If our council/staff stood their ground and called their bluff, maybe eventually developers will submit proposals that may not be as profitable, but will preserve this great city of ours.

Let's get a little cosmopolitan action up in this place, build it, build it NOW!! Then build a shuttle from the hotel to the upcoming Virgin Galactic space launch site at Moffett field.

Why would anyone want to build a less profitable money losing business, you could just build a simple motel.

Do any of you watch the life of a building that is planned, starts out life even before it hits the EPC and last stop city council.

By the time it hits the council studies, redesigns and hearings have been done.

I love all this talk about greedy landlords and rent control. The landlords charge what the market will bear. It's simple supply & demand economics. You can no more suspend those laws than you could gravity. If you put rent control in place you get into the situation where "greedy tenants" sublease at market prices and pocket the difference. (Yes even if <gasp> subleasing is against the lease contract) . It's a common problem in cities like NY. Aside from that: landlords shouldn't be punished for maximising their investment do that you can live in a town you couldn't otherwise afford. What a bunch of socialist self-absorbed whiners

This is exactly the kind of thing I have been talking about. Why the Council has to keep having these closed door meetings with developers is beyond me! If this is going to be such a great deal for the City, why can't the public be involved?

Also, the idea of putting a hotel on Hope between Villa and Evelyn is stupid. This will lead to guaranteed gridlock (which may be the actual reason for considering that location). If a hotel goes anywhere, I think the "Moffett Gateway" location would be more ideal since an entrance can be created near the freeway for easy access. If I accurately recall the previous Council meeting discussing this location, there were some potential right of way issues but they did not seem to be very problematic.

If a hotel was to be built at the Moffett Gateway location, it would also be very close to the employers in North Bayshore and they might consider temporarily housing some of their incoming workers there, rather than paying well above market rate rents that have driven up rents for residents more than 20% in the past two years!

Just a thought.


Jim Neal
Candidate, Mountain View City Council
http://electneal.org
info@electneal.org

Putting a small upscale hotel downtown, right in front of the transit center makes sense.

The hotel guest has the option of taking public transit (Caltrain, VTA) to the hotel, or taxi/airport shuttle/Uber-like ride services; they also have access to the bikeshare service as well as Zipcars and can easily walk to downtown eateries. Many of the local companies have shuttle buses from the MV transit center during commute hours.

None of those options are really available to a hotel guest staying at Moffett Gateway. Basically, a Moffett Gateway hotel guest is forced to rent a car and drive everywhere.

Also, the Moffett Gateway property is less attractive as a location for a nice restaurant, something a downtown hotel can feature.

@Jay Park - Well said. This actually an excellent location for a hotel, given the number of transportation options so close by.

If we choose to pursue this, my hope is that our Council drives a hard bargain with the developer, to provide public parking underneath (to balance out the loss of the surface parking spaces), make sure there's retail facing the street, and create a signature/gateway design. I think this is an area where we should look for some real height, given that there are no immediately adjacent residential neighbors. Land with such excellent transportation options is scarce, so we should make the most of this opportunity.

Nice feature about downtown hotels, one can eat and drink without having to drive, plus a fairly good night life.

Concert venvue, Center for the Performing Arts, street festivals, and coming soon new 49er studium.

I am already a customer and I will tell others.

It's worth noting that a downtown hotel provides more opportunities in terms of weekend room occupancy (more hotel taxes collected). Many Silicon Valley hotels are nearly deserted on the weekend (and slash their rack rates) because they aren't conveniently located for leisure activities. The transient tax rate is 10% of the room charge, so the city makes more money if the room rates don't drop precipitously during the weekend.

During the college football season, a downtown hotel would be an attractive option for Stanford game attendees because of Caltrain, more so than some motel on El Camino Real. Likewise, when the 49ers start playing at the new Santa Clara stadium, there will likely be shuttle buses from Mountain View Caltrain to the stadium.

Again, a hotel at Moffett Gateway or on El Camino Real would not have convenient access to such transportation options.

Supply and Demand rules over everything. There is no hotel in downtown mountain view so supply is low and that makes demand high. So we need it because demand is high. Supply and Demand. Can't get away from it.

Hotel = more traffic in that tight space. And most hotel users will have there own cars. The ideal is nice, that they would all use caltrains, but that wont fly with the wealthy that will stay at that hotel.

So better plan for better roads and lights in/near that area.

Most business travelers prefer to stay near restaurants and other evening activities, unless by the airport.

We have a very pleasant downtown areas instead of remote office park.

Folks

Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson does little without there being $$$ at the end.

It's not about the money.
It's about the money.

Hotels do nicely in beautiful, reasonably quiet, semi-residential areas like downtown mountain view. Of course, having a commercial ugly structure like a hotel will reduce the city's livability, but who cares? Must squeeze out every last dollar. Downtown SJ has lots of hotels and look how nice it is to live and walk around there?

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