Mayfield housing gets a boost Mayfield housing gets a boost (February 11, 2005)

Council votes to hold rezoning hearing next

By Jon Wiener

The city council left little doubt Tuesday night about its commitment to seeing housing built at the Mayfield site.

In a surprisingly lopsided vote, the council decided 6-1 to limit its study to medium- and high-density housing projects for the 27-acre commercial site, five acres of which are in Palo Alto.

"Growth is happening whether we like it or not," said Council member Mike Kasperzak. "If we don't continue to increase the supply, the price of housing is going to continue going up."

In addition to developer Toll Brothers' proposal for 631 units (with 530 in Mountain View), the council agreed to consider both a lower-density and higher-density housing options. California law requires the city to compare the environmental impacts of the alternatives to what would happen if the site remained for commercial use.

All of the council members, aside from Tom Means, also voted to study only the three housing options and ignore planning commission recommendations to consider single-family housing, park space and mixed-use development at the site. Council member Laura Macias, who originally proposed mixed-used development while on the planning commission, said those options were more unlikely or worse than the others.

Toll Brothers project manager Kelly Snider said she was pleased with the council's decision. "The unanimous support for medium-to-high-density housing from the council was phenomenal," she said.

Mayor Matt Neely said he was glad the council finally had the chance to discuss the issue themselves after months of intense opposition from residents in the adjacent Monta Loma neighborhood.

Nearly 200 people packed the council chambers during the five-hour meeting, which included two-plus hours of public comment, much of it from people who had spoken at past meetings. Speakers in favor of the project once again outnumbered neighbors who have expressed fears of lowering property values and increased traffic.

Leaving City Hall at 11:45 p.m., Monta Loma resident Beth Ericson expressed concern that council members had already made up their mind before the meeting.

"Monta Loma is not against housing -- we just want it done right," she said.

The council did agree with neighborhood opposition on one score, voting 4-3 to hold a separate rezoning hearing this summer before determining the specifics of things like parks and traffic flow.

Rescheduling this hearing could extend the review process by six to eight months and increase Toll Brothers' costs by at least $150,000.

That is a small price to pay, several speakers pointed out, for a decision that could effectively double the value of the land, now owned by HP.

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

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