Supporters for Mayfield emerge Supporters for Mayfield emerge (January 21, 2005)

Council set to vote on project's process next month

By Jon Wiener

A half dozen public meetings over the last nine months have drawn out hundreds of opponents to a proposed Mayfield housing project. Tuesday, housing advocates had their say.

More than 30 members of the public addressed the city council at a study session Tuesday night. For the first time, supporters of the project-- many speaking on behalf of nonprofit and trade groups -- outnumbered the Monta Loma residents who regularly turn out to speak against it.

The council did not take any formal action, and only a few members commented on the merits of the controversial 631-unit project at San Antonio Road and Central Expressway. Though the purpose of the meeting was for council members to learn about the proposal and ask questions of the staff, several said they did not learn much new from the two-and-a-half hour discussion.

"We've lost the opportunity for dialogue," said Council member Greg Perry, adding that the interminable public meetings on the subject risked becoming repetitive.

Perry and fellow Council member Mike Kasperzak asked the city staff pointed questions, apparently to clarify certain issues including the height of the buildings and the traffic it might bring.

The council will vote on Feb. 8 on several recommendations from the environmental planning commission related to the Mayfield approval process. The commission recommended holding a rezoning hearing before proceeding with an environmental impact report, conducting an economic study of the project's impacts on the city, and analyzing several low-density alternatives, as well as the prospect of turning the land into a city-owned park.

The meeting also featured a rare public defense of the project by the developer, San Ramon-based Toll Brothers. Project manager Kelly Snider, in a presentation to the council, said that her company was proud of the proposal and believed that any changes to the approval process would be a mistake.

Representatives of the Sierra Club, Chamber of Commerce, Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, Transportation and Land Use Coalition, and a number of volunteer groups spoke in support of the project, asking the council to consider requiring even higher-density development on the 27-acre site.

The main issue was the role Mountain View should take in responding to Silicon Valley's housing shortage. Supporters argued that housing is a regional issue.

But Monta Loma resident Gregory Frank said he felt unfairly burdened.

"It's not incumbent on us to solve this problem," he said.

The Valley Transportation Authority is among the regional agencies supporting the project. It recently announced an award of a $25,000 grant to the city of Mountain View to design an improved pedestrian route, possibly an overpass, from the Mayfield site to the San Antonio Caltrain station on the other side of Central Expressway.
E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

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