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Three months ago, Mountain View settled on a plan that would increase density in parts of the city zoned for multifamily homes. Now that plan has been updated to allow for more housing growth beyond what was originally envisioned.
In a split 4-3 vote, the City Council honed in on two areas near California Street as candidates for higher density in the “R3” zoning district, an area that covers about half of the city’s multifamily homes and nearly all of its rent-controlled apartments.
Mayor Ellen Kamei and Council members John McAlister and Pat Showalter cast the dissenting votes at the June 24 meeting.
The Tuesday vote was the second time this year that the City Council has weighed in on “targeted density increases” in the R3 zoning district. At a study session in March, the council voted on density increases for 17 “change areas,” largely favoring a lower density option for most sites.
At the time, the City Council voted for a few of these change areas to allow for high-density development, specifically near the Palo Alto and Sunnyvale borders and along major arterial roadways, with housing as tall as seven stories or higher with state density bonuses. But in April, the council agreed to re-assess the decision, and consider whether more locations were a good fit for higher growth.
The council’s decision this week affects the city’s environmental review of the R3 update under the California Environmental Quality Act. The vote Tuesday was to study the impacts of the higher densities, and does not amount to final approval, according to city staff.
“I think that it’s a better policy to make a broader envelope for consideration of CEQA. That doesn’t mean that is what you actually do, what you decide on, but you just analyze it,” Council member Showalter said at the April 22 meeting.
The Tuesday vote drew mixed reactions from the City Council, which expressed discomfort with the way the process has played out.
“If we’re saying we’re not choosing a density now, we’re studying the envelope for CEQA, then that should have been the process that we announced to the public from the beginning,” Council member Alison Hicks said. “People (should) know what day to come to make the comments that are important to them and not get kind of beaten down by council coming up with an ever-changing process.”
Council member McAlister voiced similar concerns, saying that the public was not given a fair opportunity to discuss the potential changes. “I think it was a disservice to all those people that came before, they don’t have a chance to publicly speak tonight,” he said.
Ultimately, a majority of the council members agreed to allow for maximum residential density in two specific change areas: California/Ortega and California/Latham/Rengstorff, which includes residential properties along California and Latham streets roughly between Ortega to Escuela avenues.
Council member Emily Ann Ramos pressed for the inclusion of the two change areas, expressing concerns about tenant displacement. “If we do have to redevelop those buildings for whatever reason, we hit a major earthquake, I want us to make sure that we can do a one-for-one replacement requirement… and you increase those odds by increasing that density,” Ramos said.
The argument convinced Council member Chris Clark, who made the motion to allow for a higher density option along the California Street corridor.
“I have been swayed by the concerns about displacement,” Clark said. “I’m much more comfortable with limiting it to those two, because I think those are the areas where it makes sense to study the maximum allowable envelope.”
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Howabout more density around our excellent transit center?
I agree with the above comment, but it’s somewhat out of scope for this city work item. Look at the map included with the article. The city is studying updates to the R3 zone, which covers all the colored areas on the map. Downtown has little to no R3. There’s a good amount on the other side of Central, but most of that is covered by HOAs and unlikely to ever redevelop. The downtown and Moffett precise plans have a lot more bearing on what you’re asking for.