Someone should compute and present the ratio of new jobs to new housing under this proposed development. That is one concern. Another concern is that new development can also create more traffic and traffic congestion during and after construction.
So, while it is tempting to authorize new developments in the current regional boom, existing residents may pay a price in the quality of living here.

I wish this graphic actually showed something. What are all the "blocks" anyway? What's in them? How tall are they? The article says "massive buildout" but how can you tell? Are they shops or apartments? No idea.

I wish the Voice could be a bit more helpful in their reporting and give some detail, rather than just providing a link to a 20-page document that you have to have an advanced degree in urban planning to understand.

For those wanting more information on the proposed development, you may want to click on the "staff report" link at the bottom of the article. There's much more there to view.

Laine, agree with your comment. I just opened the 20 page file myself and can't seem to understand what the true intention is here. What ever happened to the notion of developing the area like Santana Row? It all seems very "hodgepodge" to me with multiple developers. It is a shame because this is a nice view, (used to be a "mountain view") when you came down the overpass on San Antonio. It would be nice to have an area that is easy to access and can offer retail shopping (other than a Safeway and Jared),restaurants, housing. Santana Row is a well put together area...would be nice to see this here since we are already headed down the path of redevelopment.

Amen to the above messages. The map does not give any answers as to what is going to be built there, but does show that the proposed section will have the same narrow traffic lanes that Phase I gave us. Imagine trying to maneuver through that during the holidays. Walmart is bad enough now with its massive lot. More cars, less driving space must be the Mountain View Mantra.

Yes, lets keep cramming more people and buildings in the same area. In 5 years with all the insane housing developments and even more insane VTA traffic proposals walking will be faster than driving anywhere in Mountain View. There is no city where everyone who works there lives there. Stop developing housing, keep the height limits to 5 stories, keep the views of the mountains... Current mantra of 'Housing Housing Housing' is just stupid. In 5 years going to change to 'Traffic Traffic Traffic' and 10 years to 'Pollution Pollution Pollution' Stop developing, work on restoring and preserving natural areas. Keep Mountain View as a nice place to be. Incompetence and greed abounds.

Yes, lets keep cramming more people and buildings in the same area. In 5 years with all the insane housing developments and even more insane VTA traffic proposals walking will be faster than driving anywhere in Mountain View. There is no city where everyone who works there lives there. Stop developing housing, keep the height limits to 5 stories, keep the views of the mountains... Current mantra of 'Housing Housing Housing' is just stupid. In 5 years going to change to 'Traffic Traffic Traffic' and 10 years to 'Pollution Pollution Pollution' Stop developing, work on restoring and preserving natural areas. Keep Mountain View as a nice place to be. Incompetence and greed abounds.

The existing shopping center is such a dangerous mess that we refuse to go there. With most shopping centers, you can easily walk from store to store without risking death. At San Antonio, we can barely walk 10 yards before the sidewalk ends and cars start buzzing by you. The crosswalks are convoluted and full of blind corners that cars come flying around. Trying to peek around the corners and watch your kids behind you at the same time is too difficult. The mediocre selection of stores is not worth the risk for our family.

Page six of the staff report:

In summary, the master plan includes:

• Realigned east-west and north-south main entry roads, each bordered by
substantial greenways;

• Approximately 4.5 acres of open space (excluding the SFPUC/Hetch Hetchy
ROW) comprised of a central open space, linear greenways, and a pocket
park;

• Several potential buildings across 10 blocks, with a range of new connections
and heights up to eight stories;

• Approximately 2,750,000 gross square feet of development at full build-out,
including:

— Approximately 365,000 square feet of retail-commercial uses;
— Up to 500,000 to 525,000 square feet of commercial-office uses; and
— Between 1,840 and 2,650 residential units

Enough already. Most of these stores have been around as long as I can remember and they hold special memories for me. How about just leaving things alone!

I rent at the Crossings and parking is already impossible. The juggernaut they are planning now will be the kiss of death. Eight story building along California Avenue. Some one said it already above, good bye to any views of the mountains in Mountain View. Here in the Crossing we will be living in the shadow of developer greed and city council star gazing.

Nice and brief! summary, steve.goldberger.

Yes, more people, more cars. And I think this is a good place for it.

At 250 sq ft per person, 525,000 sq ft of office space would mean 2,100 employees; compare that to the proposed 1840-2650 residential units (estimated 2450-3530 adults at 1 1/3 adult per unit). I wold not object to more housing, but this is already a pretty good balance of residents/employees, keeping in mind that the 365,000 sq ft of retail-commercial also means employees. (I do not have any rule-of-thumb for how many.)

Mountain View is a mess, I remember that comment that this would be the next Santana Row...hardly. And why is it that all the high density housing is built in Mountain View, what about Los Altos?

I've probably lived in Mountain View longer than many who live there now, as
a renter and an owner. I loved Mountain View, especially when they really got
on with improving the City, because in the 70's it was really no so hot. Re-doing
downtown, putting in Shoreline Park and Amphitheater, and the Steven's Creek
trail development ... you guys really have little to complain about. I am in Palo
Alto now and I wish I had never moved honestly.

The only thing I think I miss is having a theater downtown ... who needs a nightclub
bar? That's just me.

I think this area of Mountain View is a good area for development. It's always been
disorganized and hapharzard, now it is starting to really look nice. Of course I
would really prefer a Co-op Market to the giant Safeway too, but you cannot have
everything.

They are lots more weirder things about MV than this area. The area just south
or downtown with its narrow twisty streets and all the houses built up by the
train tracks. The weird area around Mayfield Mall, or what used to be ...

Lots of room for nice houses, lots of room by El Camino. You have the light
rail.

To complain about WalMart seems capricious to me. I don't normally shop at
WalMart, but the other month I bought a blood pressure monitor there for under
$30 what was rated as a best buy by Consumer reports when other ones in
other places were not as good and cost up to 6-7 times as much. WalMart
is an assett.

I am sorry to hear about the Book Buyer's bookstore moving away.

Just do not look a gift horse in the mouth MV-ers.

As someone who still misses Sears, Burger King, Shoe Pavilion (DSW) and the sports authority, I can truthfully say that the new development has been a big disappointment. Useful shopping has not been replaced, Sears was the place to go for a new washer/dryer, lawnmower, family photographer and jewelry repair. The nearest place for these is a long drive and to get the same selection for shoes and sports equipment is even further. Burger King was fast food, but it was fast and it did have a unique feel which made it different from all the others.

If we are getting retail, I hope we will continue to have useful retail and not once in a decade jewelry and mattress stores.

Can they allocate land to build an elementary school instead of open space? This area is desperately in need of a neighborhood elementary school.

This is just the first stage and nothing is set in stone yet and plenty of time to write the city or attend a meeting. Right now this is just a idea and nothing more but in a few more years you will start seeing better idea of what is going to get built.

They should try to get Target built into the project and site where Target sits should be turned into a school.

"There is no city where everyone who works there lives there"
"Current mantra of 'Housing Housing Housing' is just stupid"

I hear claims like these fairly often, and they make no sense to me.

The altruistic perspective barely needs repeating, but here's something people may not know. Mountain View already has about 1.7 jobs per employed resident. That means about 15,000 net inbound commuters. That's a lot of traffic. I have a friend who works at Google and used to live in Santa Clara. It took him almost an hour to get to work. After a while, he couldn't take it any more, got a place here in MV, and now bikes to work. Long commutes stress people out so they're less productive at work and less present for their families, not to mention traffic congestion, pollution, etc.

Now here's the selfish perspective. If you want less traffic in MV, you should support housing. The amount of floor space per worker in an office is much less than the space per resident in an apartment or house. For the same floor area, offices have 2x--3x as many people. Where are the howls of anger about the big office building now under construction? It's even on the map in this article. San Antonio is a good area to build offices, since it's walking distance from Caltrain, but if you're dead-set against congestion you should support housing instead.

That said, traffic routing through Phase 1 is pretty bad. Fayette Drive doesn't work as a main entrance, and continuing it south of Phase 1 is a joke. Many of the other access points shown in this map don't look much better. For instance, direct access to El Camino should be restricted, and people should enter via San Antonio and Showers.

How about instead of cramming in more high end housing they take a quarter of that development to build up a new school? LASD school enrollment has been steadily increasing even with BCS taking in some of the public and private school growth. I'm in favor of school bonds and parcel taxes but those won't solve the growing enrollment issue if developers keep adding thousands of apartments without consideration of schools. New schools are needed to serve the growth in this area.

Why would you want to add the additional lines of traffic that schools attract to this area. This makes no sense. Drive past any school in the area in the morning and you find cars lined up to drop off their kids. Afternoons are worse when cars park and wait for their kids. Most cars have just one child.

Crossing guards are great for kids crossing, but know nothing about traffic control, so they just make traffic delays all the worse. And any school feeding traffic from El Camino is just asking for trouble.

Why so much greed in the City of Mountain View to make more and more money off of developers? Where is the space for a good sized school (that is not squeezed onto 5 acres, thank you LASD) that can serve the many families that will be housed in those crazy high rise apartments along El Camino? Why does Mountain View never do any long term city planning? It all seems random and unplanned for decades. Why does Mountain View continue to pour more kids into LASD without sharing in the cost of land to house a school? Why does LASD run after the City of Los Altos begging for Hillview when they should be begging the City of Mountain View for some of their land in this area?

Hmm, well, add a school here because 600 kids live within 4/10 of a mile from the Pacchetti Way/California intersection. 300 of them within 1/8 mile. What traffic? They could walk if their school was here.

Ew! Ew! Ew!

The land there would be very expensive for a a school. That site is the best of any that LASD has publicly pondered in the El Camino area though. 600 kids really close now, but there will be a number more kids if another 2500 units of housing go in right there ( in 10-20 years time). Mpre going in on that side of El Camino Real in the fairly near future too.