San Antonio Phase I includes housing and Phase II will include more housing thanks to the effort of Lenny Siegel and Balance Mountain View. Now we need a transportation link from San Antonio to North Bayshore at the Western end, near Intuit.
East Whisman, as Lisa Matichak has pointed out has public transportation - Light Rail, and car access from 237, Middlefield Road, 101, and Central expressway. Also, East Whisman does not have the environmental concerns that North Bayshore does. For these reasons East Whisman is a better location than North Bayshore.Let's replace the aging tilt up R&D buildings in East Whisman with modern housing!
North Bayshore has environmental concerns and it is cut off from the main part of Mountain View by highway 101, with only a few crossovers. Developers build in phases as they don’t want to flood the market and thus drive down prices. I would expect that it if City Council voted toy to build in North Bayshore a few hindered units would be built per each year. Thus, it will take several years until the 5,000 units required for a viable community are built.
El Camino Real (ECR) is state highway (CA 82) which is gridlocked for much of the day and evening. Yes, mixed use housing will allow shopkeepers and their employees to walk to work. However, I see luxury apartments (think of Madera) being constructed. They will only be affordable to hi-tech employees who work in North Bayshore, Menlo Park, Sunnyvale or San Jose. Why build high density housing along ECR to add to the gridlock? In addition, four (4) and five (5) story massive buildings impact negatively on the adjacent neighborhoods. There are better places to add housing.
Moffett Boulevard is another prime area for mixed use housing development. It already has public transportation with Caltrain and Light Rail. Automobile access is via Central Expressway and Moffett Boulevard.