We all have special interests - sometimes financial - in government decision-making. Nowadays in Silicon Valley there is little else. Some environmentalists imagine they are not advancing any special interests. But they are. What's missing are principles. What is the government involved properly trying to accomplish? Protecting or enhancing the quality of living here? That is not even on the agenda.

Nothing wrong with phasing it in, instead of approving all 10,000 at once. But we have to make sure we have the infrastructure to support this mass of people (schools, fire, police, roads etc. etc. ad nauseam). Do we have this? Is Google willing to pay for this?

Adding this huge number of apartments to the city with only 1/2 a parking place per Apartment and no plans for New roads to the area and no plans for School funding is madness!

So sick of the greed,congestion and growth! Stop the madness

It's absolutely the right thing to move forward with caution, and ensure corresponding infrastrastructure is in place.

Does anyone even know what this stuff will look like? What's a "micro-unit"? How many square feet?

Does Google control who moves in? (ie will it be 100% Google?).

Can we end the myth about reduced car trips. Yes, IF the person living in the apartment works in North Bayshore (and will work there in perpetuity), then 2 daily trips are eliminated (if that person is not already taking public transit). But those two daily trips are way more than offset by trips to buy gas, groceries, take kids to activities, eat out in Los Altos, etc. And all of those trips are on city streets, as opposed to 101.

Enough already!

All this excessive tech growth is wreaking havoc on our city and the whole region. Our infrastructure is strained to the breaking point, local businesses are struggling and closing, families are being pulled apart. We desperately need to restore balance.

On the other hand, according to an article in the current issue of Wired, Kansas City KS is very interested in growing as a tech hub, and has plenty of space for growth. We ought to be encouraging Google et al to shift some of their growth to places like Kansas City and let us rebuild our broken communities.

Who's greed?
With homeless living feet from Google and million-dollar homes, who is doing something to try to fix this?

Homeowners aren't being asked to give up their land, or even their parking, just, not get in the way of this one-of-a-kind regional solution, that is literally walled off from the rest of Mountain View by a freeway. Problem: people clogging the roads each evening, then the solution: build housing by work centers (rather than El Camino).

Landowner, Google is talking about building housing on their own land, not yours. It's they who will live with the results.

There are many challenges to solve: environmental impact, traffic, and schools, but lets frame those as questions in need of engineered solutions and financial commitments by the new development, rather than politically obstructions.

Hardworking people need homes, that's not a problem, that's life, and being a society. To say it's okay to work in Mountain View, but we won't allow free market forces to construct housing for you is morally wrong.

Rent control and affordable housing programs will never solve the housing crisis, but responsible free market drive housing development will.

North Bayshore could be the world's first 21st century community, built with the pending disruptions of self-driving cars in mind. This is bigger than Mountain View.

Many residents in Mountain View are homeowners because of market driven affordable housing built a generation back, entire neighborhoods of new (innovative for their time) affordable housing (Rex Manor and Monta Loma) built with the can-do spirit of that generation. Don't stop this generation's can-do moment.

Please write letters to city council attend a city council meeting and address council with your concerns about North Bayshore development.

There were numerous speakers who showed up at the planning session on Tuesday night that were representing some kind of special interest group; SPUR, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, Google, School District Superintendents, several different construction unions - who seemed to all be seeking contract language encouraging (perhaps mandating) the hiring of local union workers, Greenbelt Alliance, etc. etc. There were a few local residents (not affiliated with Google) who also spoke, but I don't recall one person who spoke imploring the city to "stop the madness" or if it was "protecting or enhancing the quality of living here". Not one person.

If you are concerned about it, please write letters, attend city council meetings, organize. Let your voice be heard, because I assure you, the numerous other powerful lobbying interest voices Are being heard...loud and clear.

I was at the meeting, and yes, public comment was overwhelmingly in support of the project. Most people were voicing opposition to the perceived "cap", which was later found to be a non-issue. I've talked with 3 of the council members in the past about the rampant growth going on, and none of them expressed any reservations, citing the current availability of funding and the area-wide acute shortage of housing. Somehow they feel that Mountain View has an obligation to provide housing for all the people who want to live here, regardless of the impact on current residents. This project is far enough long that nothing short of a recession or earthquake will stop it.

The big tech companies are raking in the profits while we have to live with the mess they make. What's going on here anyway? When things are booming, there's supposed to be plenty of funding for public projects, yet our roads, schools, public transportation and more are all strapped for cash and taxpayers are continually asked to approve more taxes. Where's the windfall from the booming tech companies? Oh, right, they hide it in overseas tax shelters while the public is left trying to fix the mess they make. It's high time for the tech companies to stop being the problem and start being part of the solution.

@Christopher Chiang. Why should the City of Mountain View allow huge corporations to build and bring thousands or tens of thousands of workers here? So they and you can next argue that the workers next need housing and next need infrastructure and next need public schools?

It is not just GOOGLE that will pay. The quality of living here will drop through the floor,

Communities often want development - but at some point say ENOUGH. Can you and this City Council ever say ENOUGH? So far, this City Council has only said "not so fast." They do not want anyone getting worked up.

Quality of living? For who?
For many of us who do have a home, we need only look out the window or walk down the street to see someone living in their car/RV, or walk by a neighbor paying half their paycheck in rent. All those are voters, don't their quality of life matter?

How about those who can't vote, but work in MV serving us, driving hours each day, because each city says no.

Quality of living?
Google's contracted with a modular home builder to build at a unit price under $100,000.
Video here: Web Link
Is that a slum?

Hard working people should never apologize for existing, of course we need infrastructure, that's what taxes are for, and development must internalize their cost on a community, that's what fees and vigilant city government are for. North Bayshore is unique, it's not El Camino Real, this can truly be a "yes and" win win scenario for all.

Nobody has the right to live here, and nobody has to live here. There are plenty of other places where housing is a fraction of what it costs here. Those of us who choose to live here understand that it's more expensive, and that should include paying more for services so those people can afford to live here too. I grew up in Palo Alto, but that doesn't mean I have a right to live there now, or Los Altos Hills or Atherton. And if it gets too congested and crowded for me, I can move somewhere else, but in the meantime, I want to do what I can to prevent that from happening.

No has a right to live here. Yes.
And yes, if a free market wants to build on private property, and people want to pay, to what degree does a community have the right to restrain supply?

When it comes to North Bayshore development, no one is asking any of us to give anyone a free ride. If a city adds new residents (or businesses for that matter), the new taxes from those new additions should cover the increased demands of public services, we should demand that.

Albert,

Of course you'll move when it's convenient for you, since the rest of us are subsidizing you via Prop 13, insulating yourself from any negative side effects of the housing crisis.

Let me guess, you're living in a roughly $1.5 million house you bought decades ago, but you're paying property taxes on only, what, half a million? The rest of us are subsidizing you, and you have the audacity to just want to slam the door shut behind you.

Christopher,

Not just hard-working, but no person, period, should apologize for existing. Have we fallen so far that we can't recognize the basic dignity of all people, and only judge them based on their "work?"

Hey Christopher Chiang. How about them thar HILLS. Plenty of room. Let your "free market" build in the HILLS. How dare those bureaucrats and politicians save the HILLS for themselves or (other) rich folks. Or forget the Hills. Another million residents could be added to San Jose by annexing some south county land. Will that be enough for Google? Will Google even exist in 10 years? Will the USA exist or be overrun by newcomers with money stolen from other countries such as RUSSIA? At one time, might was right. Now, according to Christopher Chiang, money is right or - at least - should rule the day. Money by hook or crook. Is that your guiding principle?

What can we do to stall thus ridiculous project until the housing market crashes again? The rationale for this whole thing us so sick, where do we start? We already have severe traffic congestion and parking issues all over Mountain View, where 10 years ago, there was no parking problem and local traffic issues were nonexistent in many areas. Now? Driving and parking in MV is like Los Angeles.

The number one cause of community angst is roadway problems- both parking and driving. By making an argument against providing parking spaces, developers are showing their greed, and destructiveness to our community. We've already got major thoroughfares blocked off, rerouted, criscrossed, filled with flashing lights and signs as an attempt to "calm" traffic, when really, if you want to calm traffic, you should have left Evelynn as it was, an industrial thoroughfare, as well as Moffett Blvd, for example. That would have relieved traffic. Instead, we've taken former industrial areas, filled them with dense housing, no parking, and we wonder why we have a town full of people about to explode with anger because it takes 45 minutes to drive across Central Expressway. Get it? There's F'ing no way to get from our homes to major roads because all the major roads have become bottlenecks. Yup, I'm one if the people ready to blow a gasket. It's sick watching a beautiful place destroyed by greedy parasitic corporate interests and stupidity.


We're due in 5 years for a housing crash, which means by the time this project is done, it will be ripe for disaster. Not only will we have the environmental disaster, the traffic, lack if parking, and general lack of quality of life, we'll have a giant piece of crap real estate with no trees and no air to breathe.

Why is the city letting Google buy up all this land? Why isn't the city buying land and preserving and expanding open space, rather than destroying it?

Why are developers allowed to come in like locusts and drain every cent possible out of our community resources, while residents are held to strict by the book rules and are denied permits to expand their living space?

Hey executive director of the South Bay housing nonprofit SV@Home - Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Mountain View has been too generous with allowing new development. My neighborhood is surrounded by "affordable housing" complexes, and they keep adding new ones, and then everyone wonders why the elementary school in that neighborhood struggles and why middle and upper class families don't want to send their kids there.

I'm tired of the guilt trip that organizations like yours give to Mountain View, and I'm tired of the Mountain View City Council being the ONLY city council in the area to even attempt to make a dent in this problem, but that's not enough for you. You want more. And you want Mountain View to be the only city to provide it, probably because it's easier for you. Smart growth is not dumping all the affordable housing in one small area. That helps no one. If you really want to help, ensure that this housing gets sprinkled all over the bay area.

Work harder at getting other cities to add more housing as well. Palo Alto, Los Altos, Menlo Park, Sunnyvale, Cupertino all these cities offer lots of jobs but are building very little new housing. Stop taking advantage on Mountain View and placing a burden on only one city! MV city council, grow up and learn to stand up to bullies, even if they appear in sheep's clothing.

There is NOTHING wrong with starting this plan small and growing as needed, if and when all the necessary services for all the new and existing residents are able keep up.

Smart growth is putting new housing by regional work centers and transit hubs. All the growth along El Camino has not been smart growth, and has soured people's faith that we can engineer solutions that can bring wellness to a greater number of people. We can allow for new housing, and still demand less traffic, we just need to innovate, and not build more of the same.

Don't like congestion, even more reason to scale back building more car-dependent housing projects and support a new different future in North Bayshore. Look at the new housing being built around Facebook, we wouldn't be the only one addressing the regional housing shortage, nor is doing what is right dependent on what other city's do.

If a new community is paid for by private dollars on private land, with infrastructure supported by those new developments and new residents, how does it negatively impact you? I live in North Bayshore, my family is most impacted by construction pollution and new development traffic, yet I see this is bigger than me. My daughter walks by the homeless RV encampments parked outside of Google, and I have to believe that the Mountain View she grows up in is better than one that accepts this someone else's problem.

Mr. Chiang:
You say Facebook and Google are addressing the housing shortage. Please check your math. The reality is they are making the housing crisis even worse.

Google San Jose: Web Link

Office space for 15,000 to 20,000 workers with 2,500 units of housing. Not a great ratio. Will the 2500 homes be restricted to Google employees? Will their spouses/partners also work at Google, or will they have to drive to a job elsewhere?

What about the other 17,500 Google employees? Will they all hop on the train? Google buses?

Facebook Menlo Park: Web Link

More than 15,000 employees by 2019, with two new 75-foot office buildings plus a 75-foot hotel with 200 rooms and a staff of 150. The site would have 3,533 underground parking spaces. That’s a lot of cars!

Finally, check out this site, which shows how much housing would have to be built for Google, Facebook, Apple employees. Note that it’s dated 2015. It would be much worse now. Web Link

@History Buff - exactly!

Even if we built enough housing for all Google and Facebook employees (and Apple, Palantir and all the rest), we'd still be behind because these companies are expanding at a mad rate and the new jobs are going not to locals but to people they bring in to fill them.

Companies do not need to apologize for creating jobs and it's not their responsibility to create housing for the jobs they create. No one should expect them to build housing equal to the jobs they create, nor would their workers want that.

A few companies like Google and Facebook have been model neighbors. Google and Facebook lead in their support of local schools and local businesses (Google protects small business tenants like the Pear Theatre), though both can do more to support local food vendors.

It was another big Mountain View company that vocally opposed any housing in North Bayshore to make room for more workers and also closed down small businesses like the Cheryl Burke Dance Studio. Local residents should keep track of which businesses support the community, and extend cooperation to good corporate neighbors, not bad.

No one is demanding that the big tech companies build housing, nor that they apologize for creating jobs. What needs to change is the crushing and growing overcrowding resulting in ever-increasing traffic congestion, homelessness, loss of local businesses, huge strains on our schools, parks, infrastructure and services.