"LinkedIn, which declined to incorporate housing directly into its project"

Maybe they should turn over a few of the parking lots to a tiny house development, or allow employees to sleep in their cars like this guy: Web Link

Good for Mr. Siegel to question this. I don't see how this development moves Mountain View towards the kind of town we want to be. Look at the problems we face: housing shortage, rapidly rising rents, rapidly escalating traffic and commute times, declining availability of leisure activities. Pick any of the problems raised by the citizens and show how this will help.

Mountain View needs to have a big picture plan and make sure each step is in the right direction.

Isn't the favored City Council traffic mitigation strategy for something like this to remove traffic lanes?

"City staff reported that Mountain View may need to exercise its eminent domain privileges."

So, on Monday, the City decides to punt on rent stabilization in parts because it didn't want to interfere with the free market.
And on the very next day, the City seems willing to meddle with that same free market by considering eminent domain in a very complex private development.

At Free market double standard.


You are correct. This is what happens when you elect council members that are ignorant of basic economic thinking. They are incoherent in their thinking and thus make poor decisions.

I was concerned when the LinkedIn plans were first discussed. Although I think our City Council does a pretty good job I believe this has the potential to make a difficult situation worse - assuming that LinkedIn remains in business throughout the build process.

Let me throw out a historical tidbit / question. What would happen in Google shut down? "That'll never happen," you might reply but if history is any indication everything eventually closes shop. The internet is such a fast moving marketplace you might see both Google and Apple change drastically in the next five years. It wasn't that long ago that real estate east of 101 was unmarketable, at any price. Apple nearly went bankrupt in the late 1990's - not that long ago.

So be careful what you wish for and what you build. Vast stands of vacant apartments are as likely as 2 hour drives from downtown Mountain View to the Google Campus or Shoreline. At least our weather remains incredibly good.

Eminent Domain - coming to your neighborhood soon.

Absolutely disgusting.

New housing could help, but only a fraction of workers are willing to move so they can live right next to work. Even single 20-something tech workers. And some people who move there will end up working for other companies (and have to drive to work, although at least it'd be reverse traffic).

The entire Bay Area has been putting off essential transit infrastructure improvements for too long; eventually someone will have to pay for it. And it takes years or decades, so if we haven't started yet we're already behind.

@James Thurber: "What would happen in Google shut down? "That'll never happen," you might reply but if history is any indication everything eventually closes shop. The internet is such a fast moving marketplace you might see both Google and Apple change drastically in the next five years."

You are correct in that every business has a lifecycle, but....Newsflash. Apple and Google are not going anywhere in 5 years.

Hmm - anyone recall Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics? Oh forgot those buildings are Google now

The affordable housing concession really are a joke. PLEASE consider moving the entire operation to Montana or Wyoming... Give some relief to the insanely inflated bay rental market... Especially in the age of Internet and cloud. LinkedIn after all is an Internet business... You don't need to burden is and your employees by cramming along the 101. Show done Stanford smarts.

How is the affordable housing lump sum different from the housing impact fees the developer will be required to pay?

What happens when the government
permits the addition of jobs to an area but prohibits additional housing in vast physically buildable areas nearby? Government creates a housing crunch that pushes up the price of housing. Absent further government intervention, homeowners and landlords profit; renters pay more or leave. The housing crunch in the Bay Area has NOT been created by an "invisible hand" in a "free market." It has been created largely by government officials (who are almost always homeowners).

I appreciate Lenny's continued focus on housing, but I've personally come to believe that most of the solution has to come from transit. How are we going to connect the Gateway of NBS to the major San Antonio and Downtown hubs? The La Avenida exit will be a great help for car commuters, but I'd love to see better rail connections throughout the city.

Relatedly, it's sad to see such a nicely redeveloped movie theater, but with no good "dinner and a movie" options without getting back in your car. Redwood City's downtown theater makes for a great night out.

"Shoreline Boulevard near Highway 101, widely considered to be the most congested spot in town."

If Google and Linkdin both have their way, this will be the most congested spot in the whole United States.

For those advocating more house, like Jason up above said, more houses does not mean the owners will be working in Mt. View or close by.

Google and the others do not have to move, they can simply make satellite buildings in places less crowded like Modesto.

I remember MV voted about Home Depot. I guess opposition to that was larger, since there is no talk about having the residents of MV vote on how to proceed about this development or if development is even desired. Or perhaps if even a limit on how many employees the city can support.

Serious question, why does a spam email company like Linkedin need 10 buildings and 8000 employees for

Bubble what bubble?

i live in santiago villa. the only 2 ways in to this area is shoreline and rengstorff. if you plan on making lavenida a 101 exit, the people in santiago villa will be trapped like rats. the people of santiago villa realize that nothing they say on any matter will be heard, just overlooked. a new on ramp and off ramp at lavenida will not help traffic, nor will a frontage road help either. people have been using the century 16 parking lot as a commuter lane to turn at the light to get on 101. nothing can be done to alleviate traffic here. the only thing that can alleviate traffic is to kick google out of town. kick them out of moffett also. the bus depot there now is causing higher speeds on base and a lot of safety issues.

Besides traffic and housing, how about public schools? Is MV school district ready for this if these 8000 employees decide to stay in MV? Or, these LinkedIn employees are NOT going to have kids at all? Or, these kids will only go to private school???

Just a tiny preview of Agenda 21...Mountain View signed onto that. Look it up and weep.

City government wants more money from development and sales tax to pay for more employees, higher salaries, benefits and pensions. It does not matter what residents want.

I hope that LinkedIn's 45% drop in company value last week doesn't impact their expansion plans...

Web Link

Ever since LinkedIn has taken over the land on Plymouth, it's trying to push out the existing restaurants by increasing their cost unnrcessarily. If those business cannot pay the expenses, LinkedIn can force them to leave. If the space is vacant, Mountain Biew council has a good excuse to accept their plans. It's not fair on the small mom and pop shops that are being forced out. So sad.

When Linkedin won their expansion plans, they promised $40 million of public benefits, is that still happening under their stock dip and purchase by Microsoft?

Google has been a good landlord to small businesses like the Pear Theater, I hope LinkedIn will follow suite.
When Google was rejected by the city, the city lost Google's offer of $200 million in public benefits.

Does anyone think this was the single biggest council mistake this year?
The city could have gotten both needed and innovative infrastructure upgrades and a world class company campus.

From what we hear, LinkedIn's management companies is harassing the existing small businesses.