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The Mountain View City Council gave its final stamp of approval Tuesday night on 7,000 new homes, 3 million square feet of office space and more than 26 acres of parks and open space that will be built out over the next 30 years in the city’s North Bayshore area.
Dubbed the North Bayshore Master Plan, the Google-led project’s unanimous approval from council at the June 13 meeting was a moment years in the making. It’s the largest development ever approved in the city of Mountain View.
Before she cast her vote Tuesday night, Vice Mayor Pat Showalter recalled that one of the big campaign issues when she was running for council in 2014 was whether or not housing should be allowed in the North Bayshore area. Excluding the existing mobile home park in the area north of Highway 101, North Bayshore has largely been home to offices and commercial development.
The council agreed to change the precise plan in 2015 to allow residential development – a vision that’s just now beginning to come to fruition with Google’s project, which will transform North Bayshore from a suburban office park into a mixed-use, complete neighborhood. The zoning was formally amended in 2017.
“I thought it should be then, and I still think it should be,” Showalter said of allowing residential development in North Bayshore. “So I’m very excited that we’re at this point.”
Though the June 13 approval was unanimous, some council members raised concerns about the number of affordable homes coming out of the project, and whether the council was adequately consulted when that number of units was recently reduced.
Developers Google and LendLease first introduced the plan in 2021, with SITELAB urban studio being the urban design lead and author for the plan. The plan set a target for 1,400 of the project’s 7,000 homes to be affordable. Of those units, 1,050 would be built on land dedicated to the city, and the remaining 350 were proposed to be included among the plan’s market rate units.
But in a March 2023 version of the master plan, those 350 inclusionary units quietly disappeared from the project proposal. Google said at the time that it was no longer financially feasible for them to keep the extra affordable units in the project, and maintained that reasoning Tuesday night.
“We wish our discussions tonight were not impacted by the uncertainty of the economic climate,” said Michael Tymoff, Google’s director of district development for Mountain View, at the June 13 meeting. “However, these are uncertain times, and the changes we’ve made are necessary to implement the master plan and achieve a balanced outcome. They are necessary to move forward with housing.”
At the request of the city’s Environmental Planning Commission, staff provided an estimated value of those units at the June 13 meeting. Staff said 350 inclusionary units would have been worth somewhere between $43 to $66 million to the city, depending on factors like the income level of residents and the unit mix.
Council member Lucas Ramirez said he would have liked to see the change come before the City Council for deliberation.
“That’s tough for us to swallow as a council,” he said at the June 13 meeting. “I think it’s a policy decision and I think it’s appropriate for the council to at least have that discussion.”
However, council members were pleased to see that language was added to the development agreement to keep the door open for inclusionary affordable units to be added back to the project somewhere down the road. The agreement now states that the developer and city staff “agree to meet from time to time” to explore adding more affordable homes to the project – though doing would be entirely voluntary for the developers.
“This collaborative approach may include options whereby the city may identify alternative funding pathways, to facilitate the voluntary provision of such units into the project, to the extent financially feasible, at developer’s sole discretion,” the agreement now reads.
While the number of affordable homes was reduced to the bare minimum required under the precise plan, the project offers a community benefit package that goes above and beyond. Per the city’s rules, the project was subject to the minimum community benefit value of $42 million. To fulfill that, Google and LendLease are dedicating a 4.1 acre parcel of land to the city currently valued at $48 million. The city plans to use that land for a future elementary school site to help accommodate the large influx in students that the project will bring.
The project will also include nearly 15 acres of public parks; about 11 acres of privately owned, publicly accessible areas; and will contribute another $112 million of in-lieu fees to the city to meet its parkland requirements. The developers also revised the project’s “public benefits package” — separated from community benefits — to a value of $18.5 million, which will fund things like public art and activation programs for the project’s nearly 300,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space.
As for the concerns around affordable housing, council member Emily Ann Ramos said the city and the developers would “hold each other accountable for those promises, and see if we can make it through that finish line.”
“This is just a start,” she said. “This is a major milestone and I’m happy to be part of it.”
The project passed unanimously, a moment met with applause from members of the public in the audience.
“I’m very hopeful about this plan,” Mayor Alison Hicks remarked before casting her vote. “I know we have 30 years ahead of us, but I’m very positive about the transformation this will make.”
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I hope there is some requirement that the housing gets built before office space is added. Google has already backed out of the 350 affordable housing units and they’ll likely try to get out of all the housing too if not required to get the office space.
I just think in about 6 months we will hear the project is POSTPONED indefinitely.
Like they did in San Jose
Since there was no hurry – why just accept future “talk” dearest Councilmembers? Discuss it among yourselves, ponder for a few more weeks … It is a shame (IMO) to ‘sit back and just accept’ this 350 unit reduction. “Talk” later, would probably produce about as much benefit for our public, as “talk” with Russia would produce any actual good for the public of the Ukraine.
I continue to support Showalter and her long efforts to get this (or some) housing built out there! Public Policy shifts – toward those that get the support of the electorate.
I share the disappointment in Google’s reneging on its promise to build inclusionary affordable housing, but this plan and agreement still exceed the expectations – in both quantity and quality – that many of us had when we proposed North Bayshore housing in 2014. I urge people to stay active, not only to implement this vision, but to ensure that other North Bayshore property owners complement the Google-based complete neighborhoods.
Thank you for your foundational work on this huge project, Lenny. It has taken many councils to finally get this done.
Lenny, it might be helpful for those of us who were either not around or were not paying attention back in 2014 for you to elaborate. What were the expectations that you had back then?
I am tired of the frame that we “lack housing” here. From what I see, we don’t lack housing at all, we have an ABUNDANCE of expensive, unaffordable housing.
And now we are on course to dramatically increase the amount of expensive, market-rate housing in MV, housing that is unaffordable to MOST residents … how does that help MV? Was it ever even SUPPOSED to help MV residents? We are on course to dramatically increase the number of high wage earners in MV, which is called “gentrification”. Is that what was envisioned and promised back in 2014?
IMHO, we are on a path that primarily benefits Google, not MV residents. That is not cause for celebration in my book, quite the opposite. One of the richest and most powerful corporations on the planet feels free to break its promises of affordable housing to this community. MV has been played. Shame on Google, and on those who would serve as apologists for Google’s behavior.
@Leslie,
In 2012 city staff had proposed somewhere around 1100 new housing units in North Bayshore, but the Council rejected that when it revised the General Plan.
So I thought I was really pushing the envelope in 2014 when I proposed 5,000 units. The December, 2017 Precise Plan Residential Update planned for 9,850 homes, after we heard from experts that it would take at least 7,000 units to support a neighborhood grocery story the size of Trader Joe’s. In addition, in 2014 we didn’t have the comprehensive proposal for mixed-use, car-light, sustainable neighborhoods, complete with homes, offices, retail businesses, parks, habitat, active transportation, and a school.
Will we reach the 9,850 total? How much will be subsidized? When will they be built? The pace of market-rate development is dependent upon economic conditions as well as Google’s redevelopment of offices. The progress in developing subsidized (“affordable”) housing will depend largely on funding. Here’s my current summary.
At La Avenida and Armand, Eden Housing is building 100 affordable units.
At 1255 Pear Avenue, Sobrato appears to be reducing its application, already approved at a higher number, to 244 market-rate units. The original approval included a dedication of enough land to the city to build 140 affordable units.
Google is proposing to construct 5950 market-rate units in three complete neighborhoods.
Google is dedicating to the city enough land to build a projected “950 to 1,180 affordable housing units, depending on building height, unit size, unit mix, and how parking is provided.”
Syufi Enterprises, owner of the theater property, proposes to build a multi-use project that includes 1760 market-rate units and 440 affordable units. This proposal appears to be in the early stages.
So I think it’s like that we’ll get 9,850 homes, or even more, but it will take some effort to get that done quickly.
Wow, how much longer will it take to break ground?
We have been involved in this project for more than 10 years.
I just don’t see it ever being started, given that google is closing offices for good here now.
W for housing! It should definitely be affordable considering its proximity to Shoreline Amphitheater. Future residents would be subjected to unhealthy noise level and duration and traffic congestion during concert season. Rent should be like $1000 tops.
There are so many unknowns still happening.
This area can be part of the are polluted with TCE. So far no research has been done to detect it? What happens if it is exposed and more gases escape in the area? You can make buildings into clean rooms but the public air will be poisoned
Second, the Baykeeper case is still a major problem, the City has until 2028 to install a stormwater treatment facility and to reroute all storm drains into it. Just using chlorine to kill the E. Coli will do damages to the ecology of the water. If the city doesn’t do it, wow will it be in trouble.
This city is looking at as much as $56K fines for every day it was dumping untreated water into the rivers and groundwater. Let alone the $700K in legal fees.
And again look at the fact that there is no reliable way to determine whether Google will ever make this project. This thing has been promised for more than 10 years.
To me this is just another silicon valley “fake it til you make it” approach, but those often fall through
@Steve,
Portions of North Bayshore are above distal, low-concentration portions of the Teledyne-Spectra Physics Superfund TCE plume. It is not an unknown. It is being addressed. Money is being set aside to build mitigation, such as sub-slab depressurization, into new buildings to prevent indoor exposure to TCE. Vapor intrusion is not a threat outdoors.
Lets address something here, there are NO ambient gas samples being taken at that location, meaning there is no evidence to prove that there is not a TCE vapor problem. Until someone actually starts testing that area, it should NOT be assumed safe.
I remember when the TCE vapor intrusion control was accidently or by some fault shut down, I believe in a Google office not long ago, and the levels of TCE shot up in a very short period of time.
So the claim that you have accounted for EVERY contingency cannot be factually true. Given that no one has all the data regarding that area, and the possible disturbances of the soil in the course of the project.
That was just one variable of why I suspect this project may never be started. Given that Alphabet made a deal in San Jose, and stopped the work only AFTER it had already destroyed and leveled the land in the city.
Just what I am afraid will happen here, thus any “mitigation” regarding the TCE vapors will not be installed at all.
This is a rotten carrot on a stick that has been teasing the city for more than 10 years. And Alphabet is CLOSING DOWN locations in this city.
Um, pretty sure that the discharge in the bay from Stevens Creek is at least partly due to people using the Creek itself as a toilet. There wouldn’t be any rerouting involved, not of the creek itself. Put up porta potties near the creek or some such.
As for TCE, it would have to be an amazing case for the ground vapors to pollute the open air in any vicinity. Such a case would require clean up of the ground aquifers as was done in North Whisman, but North Bayshore is not that dense of a plume. If it were you’d need the treatment plants even without housing. It wouldn’t be good for employees up there either….
Long Resident,
The pollutant in the creek was E.Coli. Which in humans makes them VERY sick and either are hospitalized or die. We haven’t heard of any E.Coli outbreak in humans here.
That pollutant is coming from the wildlife here. We have a lot of it. Mostly Raccoons, Squirrels, and even Coyotes and Deer. The real problem is we decided to directly pour our road stormdrains into the water in the area with no treatment.
So until you can show research that humans were the sources of E.Coli, I think you are trying to hit the wrong target.
Just an Observation