Google explores another frontier Google explores another frontier (October 07, 2005)

Deal with NASA cause for celebration -- and concern

By Jon Wiener

Google's announcement last Wednesday -- that it will build a million-square-foot campus at Moffett Field while also keeping its similarly sized headquarters -- put to rest the fears of local officials worried that the company might leave Mountain View. At the same time, the high-profile deal has resurrected old fears about the company's new home, NASA Ames Research Park, and its impact on local infrastructure.

In the past year, Google has made no secret of its search for places around Silicon Valley to build a large campus -- even while touring India and buying property elsewhere. That the company is staying in and around Mountain View has local officials breathing sighs of relief.

"The economic impact is that their workers are here and they're here long-term. They're not going to move to Oregon," said Mayor Matt Neely, expressing a sentiment echoed by others at City Hall.

For legal reasons, the academic institutions and private businesses that set up shop in the research park -- a planned business development in the historic district of the former base -- must have some putative link to NASA's work. At last week's press conference, Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave an example of such a link: the possibility of indexing images from the space agency's satellites and Mars rovers. More details are expected to be released by early December.

With the centerpiece of the research park -- a giant museum and amusement park inside Hangar One -- on hold because of concerns about contamination there, Google represents a major boost for NASA's effort to bring 7,200 new civilian employees onto the base.

But the newfound attention to the research park has also meant the reemergence of concerns about the impacts of all those people on local infrastructure: the housing market, traffic conditions and school districts, not to mention the tax implications for local school districts and other agencies.

"It is just way too early to talk about the impact of our physical presence at NASA," said Google spokesperson Lynn Fox. "We're just very happy to be collaborating with NASA."

Assistant city manager Linda Forsberg, the city's liaison to the development, said the city might reopen the review process of the environmental impacts of the proposed development.

The city has no pull over the federal land, short of disconnecting the sewer line to the base. But much of the base does fall in the city's economic sphere of influence, entitling Mountain View to give input on development plans.

Three years ago, as the agency was finalizing its plan for the future development of four million square feet of land on the base, the city council expressed concerns that the 1,930 dormitory-style units would not be enough to house all the new employees and their families, exacerbating an imbalance between jobs and housing. Additional comments characterized the traffic plan as "too optimistic and unrealistic."
Millions in tax revenues also in limbo

Fox refused to comment on the company's reaction to allegations that the deal was a way to dodge property taxes it would have to pay. The company's corporate motto is "Do no evil," and it has played an active if somewhat quiet role in local philanthropy. For instance, it collaborated on a day-care center at Theuerkauf Elementary School, and is outfitting a new bookmobile for the library.

County assessor Larry Stone said he is trying to sort out whether the company will have to pay "possessory interest" tax roughly equivalent to what the property tax would be for a similar development on private land, which he estimates to be $2.3 million. That money would be allocated in large part to the local school systems, as well as to the regional open space, hospital and water districts.

Whether Stone can force Google to pay up depends on how long the federal government has owned the land that Google will use.

NASA officials did not return phone calls seeking comment. The agency's public relations director, Michael Marlaire, has recently stated that Google will probably spend more money building a complex at NASA than they would on private land.

But Stone said that's not the point. He said he is delighted that Google is expanding locally, but that it would not be fair for them to pay nothing while, on the other side of Stevens Creek, Microsoft is paying millions in taxes.

"I don't think that Google is trying to do anything sinister at all," said Stone. "I'll bet that they didn't they didn't even know about this."

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

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