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Uploaded: Wednesday, June 24, 2009, 12:57 PM
City buys church property for $3.5 million
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 | City Council members decided Tuesday that a church property for sale at 263 Escuela Ave. was a deal too good to pass up.
The council spent $3.5 million on the United Pentecostal Inc. church, a .9-acre property which sits across from the Senior Center. The consent calendar item passed with little discussion.
"It's such a strategic location," said council member Jac Siegel in a phone interview Monday. "First of all we need extra parking for the Senior Center. There are a number of other possibilities, one of which is potentially a teen center. We don't know yet, we haven't had that discussion. To pass it up at this point would be a real mistake."
The city will pull the money from its $5 million capital improvement reserve, which would be replaced by a lump sum of lease revenues from the downtown affordable family housing project on Evelyn Avenue, which has yet to be approved.
A lease scheme with the city allows the church to remain for a few years until it finds another, larger building.— Daniel DeBolt Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by Senior, a resident of the Blossom Valley neighborhood, on Jun 24, 2009 at 3:10 pm Well there definitely is a parking problem at the Senior Center. If this new property provides parking for 35 cars, that will have been at a cost of only $100,000 each.
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Posted by Greta S, a resident of the North Whisman neighborhood, on Jun 24, 2009 at 4:25 pm Two years ago, a property on Willowgate came up for sale right behind the current community gardens for about this amount. Would have provided a nice mini-park (or plenty of garden expansion space) in an area currently designated as "parks poor". Now, it's got a bunch of (albeit nice) row houses on it. Where was the city council then?
In future, if we know of a parcel of land for sale that would be a good city acquisition, who do we tell?
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Posted by MV resident, a resident of another community, on Jun 24, 2009 at 8:38 pm Greta S.
I think you can tell the Mountain View city council. I believe they will actually listen to residents.
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Posted by Old Ben, a resident of the Shoreline West neighborhood, on Jun 24, 2009 at 9:14 pm Reminds me of a play called TINY ALICE.
Maybe Theatreworks should do it at MVCPA.
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Posted by Mary Niles, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Jun 26, 2009 at 9:53 am If the city is feeling "spendy" The city should buy the old Cottage property and the "fine estate" on Moffett Blvd. Those places are eyesores.
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Posted by rukidding, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Jun 29, 2009 at 10:29 am The mountain View city Council does not listen to the public, and is only concerned about their careers.
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Posted by carol wright, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Jun 29, 2009 at 6:10 pm Been at that parking lot a few times when visiting Avenidas. Although wondering if MV has those kinds of millions to throw around in view of the state budget crisis, the property might actually work. The city has been trying to find a sizable teen center for a long time, and the church part and surrounding offices could serve the purpose. Look on Google maps, sat. view, and you can see also the L shaped classroom spaces. And currently there are probably 35 marked sparking paces, but there could be more. Perhaps also the small teen center house across the street could be sold to help offset cost. Now if they have to throw even more millions into the scheme for different buildings...
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