Google's Moffett adventure Google's Moffett adventure (October 07, 2005)

For a community already enmeshed in the Navy's cleanup of Moffett Field and the unknown fate of Hangar One, the word that Google may land at the former military base was, at least at first glance, welcome news in the Mountain View community.

Google's plans were announced at a joint press conference with NASA last week, as chiefs of the two organizations glowingly reported that the multi-billion-dollar high-tech company had signed an agreement to build up to one million square feet of space at the NASA Ames Research Center.

The decision is a huge deal for NASA, which has been trying for several years to attract universities and others to locate in what it envisions to be a high-tech campus in the heart of Silicon Valley. With Google climbing aboard, NASA hit the commercial real estate jackpot and also virtually wiped out the possibility that the company would slip away to Oregon or, worse, an offshore location.

For Mountain View officials, the deal is not quite so rosy, since it is unlikely that the city or school districts will gain any property tax revenue from a company located on federal land. Nor will the deal lower the nearly 20 percent vacancy factor in the city's commercial real estate inventory.

Of even more concern, particularly to environmentalists who have been closely watching the Navy's cleanup at Moffett, is the lack of any local regulatory oversight of planning and zoning matters at Moffett. This means that even if a Google/NASA project generates unacceptably high traffic on the surrounding highways, city, county and state agencies are powerless to change it. By the same token, if Google/NASA decide to build in environmentally sensitive areas on Moffett with few mitigation measures, little can be done to stop them.

At this point, no one knows what shape the Google/NASA alliance will take, and what posture they will present as they begin to design the Ames research facility. So far, both institutions have a clean record and have been good local citizens. By building a campus that meets the highest design and environmental standards, they will carry on that tradition and continue to be a welcome part of the community.

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