Regional housing targets from the Association of Bay Area Governments may be a thorn in Mountain View's side for yet another six years, as ABAG is asking the city to build 280 housing units to compensate for job growth on a piece of federal land it does not control -- Moffett Field.

City officials say the imposed goal makes no sense because NASA is already planning 1,900 units to compensate for job growth at Moffett. What's even more irritating, they say, is that Palo Alto faced a similar situation with Stanford (which that city does not control), but after protesting it was no longer asked to build homes to compensate for growth there.

In Mountain View's case, despite protesting about the 280 homes, ABAG has already approved its Regional Housing Needs Allocation. Last week, the Mountain View City Council approved a letter from Mayor Laura Macias to appeal the decision, which will "likely not" go through, Macias said.

"I think it's good for us to do this, but I'm sorry we didn't start sooner," she said.

Meanwhile, Palo Alto, another jobs-rich city with half the density of Mountain View, is continuing to argue that its allocation is 1,000 units too high, Macias said.

Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.