Mountain View plans to restart its gatekeeper hearings later this year

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Mountain View City Hall on Oct. 10, 2016. Photo by Michelle Le.

After a five-year hiatus, the city of Mountain View plans to restart its “gatekeeper” hearings later this year without making modifications to the process, at least for the time being.

In a 6-1 vote, the City Council approved a motion on Jan. 23 to keep the current gatekeeper process in place. The process allows for developers to offer up projects that deviate from existing zoning rules in exchange for public benefits, often requesting higher densities.

Council member Ellen Kamei cast the dissenting vote, stating that the gatekeeper process had not worked well in the past, according to community feedback, and that she wanted to implement new ideas that the council had proposed for it.

“I feel torn moving forward with our old process after we discussed a new one so thoroughly at four different study sessions last year,” she said at the City Council meeting on Jan. 23.

In the past, gatekeeper hearings offered developers the chance to ask for approval for projects that didn’t comply with city rules and regulations. In exchange for this approval, the city could leverage key concessions, in the form of community benefits, from developers.

But while mutually advantageous, the gatekeeper process had a reputation of being overly cumbersome for both developers and city staff. Eventually, staff buckled under the weight of the workload, and the city suspended the hearings in 2019, an arrangement that was extended during the pandemic because of staff vacancies.

The city now plans to bring back the gatekeeper, in part to comply with the state’s housing element, which mandates that it hold annual hearings for residential and mixed-use projects.

But the council also wants to clarify and streamline the process. Last year, it held four different gatekeeper study sessions, with the objective to create a clearer set of criteria for applicants, particularly in regard to the city’s expectations for community benefits.

“The whole point for me is to really streamline this process, make it clear so developers don’t have to wonder what we want or ask all of us what we want and then try to figure it out,” Council member Margaret Abe-Koga said at the Jan. 23 meeting.

However, public commentators expressed concern that the process was going in the opposite direction and instead of getting easier, it was becoming more difficult for developers. For these reasons, they preferred sticking to the current gatekeeper provisions.

“We would appreciate tonight going ahead with the hearing this year under the old rules, but we really would like to have a broader conversation about how to make sure that this process is changed to expand exemptions and expand ways of making this process easier and less expensive and not harder and more expensive,” said Matthew Reed, policy director at Silicon Valley at Home.

While council members voted to go with the old process for now, they reiterated their intentions to continue developing new criteria for applicants, although the timeline was not clear. They also unanimously passed a motion to keep it as a high priority in the council work plan.

“There are many different perspectives about gatekeeper projects on this council. And I think it would be better since we don’t have an obligation to complete that work by a specific time frame, to be more thoughtful and to be more deliberate and intentional in our work,” said Council member Lucas Ramirez.

The city plans to put out a call for gatekeeper projects in March, with applications due June 28. The gatekeeper hearings will take place from late summer to early fall, according to the council report.