On Tuesday Mountain View’s newest City Council members balked at displacing 32 households in an apartment complex at 333 North Rengstorff Ave. in order to make way for 29 large, expensive row houses.
After expressing their hesitancy, council members eventually voted 5-1 in favor of the project, with newly elected Pat Showalter opposed and Mayor Chris Clark absent, after the developer promised to increase relocation assistance for tenants to a rate beyond the city’s usual requirements.
“I don’t want new projects to come forward that are basically going to displace people,” said Lenny Siegel, also a new council member. He said he ended up voting in favor of the project because of its long history with the previous council. “That’s not how we solve our housing crisis; that’s how to make it worse.”
Proposals for the site have been brought before the council since 2006. The reactions to the proposals highlight the changing council views on housing development, almost as if a pendulum swings every eight years from a pro-residential-growth to a slow-residential-growth philosophy among the council majority. In 2006, council members supported a high-density condominium project for the site. It was cut nearly in half the next year, from 102 units to 64 units, when Jac Siegel, Ronit Bryant and Margaret Abe-Koga took seats on the council.
Things are different in 2015. After a November election in which the city’s housing shortage and rising rents were center stage, the pendulum has swung the other way. Council members want more homes in the city to balance the city’s exploding job growth.
“It seems like a nice project, but it needs to be denser,” Showalter said, reflecting the new majority’s emphasis on housing. “I want to send a signal that that’s what we are looking for. I wish it had 10 to 12 more units in there.”
Council member John Inks said the project has been “whipsawed through several different council philosophies, and we have what we have here.” Member Mike Kasperzak added that the “developer is getting whiplash” from the shifting position of the council on housing.
The homes are expected to sell for around $1 million each. The 2006 proposal estimated that the condos would sell for $400,000 each.
“This isn’t an easy decision,” said new council member Ken Rosenberg. “The displacement is really troubling to me. It’s upsetting that there’s just not enough help to the people being displaced.”
In 2006, council members also said they were concerned about displacing residents.
“We haven’t really seen the development of anything affordable; at the same time we are erasing anything affordable,” said then-council member Nick Galiotto about the condo proposal.
As part of the row house project, the 1.72-acre site will see 88 new trees planted, while 38 large “heritage” trees are to be cut down.
Email Daniel DeBolt at ddebolt@mv-voice.com
