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Sure, it may be a Superfund site, but the former military housing compound known as Orion Park is still a lucrative piece of land near Moffett Field. The U.S. Army has been working to lease out the 30-acre site to generate revenue, but its process is raising concerns among Mountain View officials.
Elected officials are requesting a “pause” on efforts to lease Orion Park, saying the current process seems destined to result in more offices and more traffic. In a letter sent to Army officials, Mountain View Mayor Ken Rosenberg pointed out the property should be used to help address the community’s need for parks, schools or affordable housing. He echoed these concerns last month in letters sent to U.S. Reps. Anna Eshoo and Ro Khanna.
“The Army has proceeded hastily with the marketing of this strategic property for private development without the level of intergovernmental coordination and cooperation we would hope for,” he wrote. “The city feels strongly that it and its citizens and other local stakeholders should have a voice in approving the type and density of development being proposed.”
Orion Park was once a neighborhood of about 450 homes for military families, but the residences were demolished in 2009 following the discovery of contamination from trichloroethylene (TCE) vapors in several of the buildings. TCE is a known carcinogen that was often used as a solvent, and has contaminated groundwater in Mountain View. In vapor form, it can leach through the soil and accumulate in unsafe levels inside buildings.
Since 2009, the Orion Park site has remained vacant.
Typically, federal agencies looking to offload unused land would first declare it as surplus property. That would then allow other local government agencies, such as cities or schools, to have first dibs to purchasing it.
But in the case of Orion Park, Army officials decided to go through a separate process to lease out the land specifically for commercial development, or possibly educational purposes. Proposals for housing at the site are not being considered.
Rosenberg and other Mountain View officials are worried that developing offices at Orion Park will worsen traffic in an area already slated for more congestion. Orion Park is located off R.T. Jones Road, the street leading to a site where Google is developing its new 1.1 million square-foot office campus.
In their letters, city officials have pointed out the any development at Orion Park would rely on city utilities and services.
The deadline for proposals from would-be developers of Orion Park was originally set for last month, but Army officials announced they were extending it to Aug. 18. Army spokeswoman Lisa Grossman told the Voice that any lease proposals for Orion Park will remain confidential until a final selection is made, which could take up to 180 days.
So “Mountain View Mayor Ken Rosenberg pointed out the property should be used to help address the community’s need for parks, schools or affordable housing”? Isn’t this the same mistake that Niagara Falls, NY made when they allowed “parks, schools, and housing” to be built on the Love Canal toxic waste site? Santayana famously said, and I paraphrase, “Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors are destined to repeat them.” This litany of mistakes is growing beyond merely alarming.
Question for MV Voice- why is it that almost every time there’s a map in one of your Moffett – Superfund site articles, the map has incredibly low resolution and no detail as to the street names, etc.? I for one would like to see where my home is in relation to the article being presented. Why are your maps so unclear, can’t be zoomed, etc.?
The city should demand that property owners completely cleanup all known toxic waste sites on their property before granting any building permits.
Why stop here? “Rosenberg and other Mountain View officials are worried that developing offices at Orion Park will worsen traffic in an area already slated for more congestion” I don’t believe this for a minute. There is something else going on here…..
The images can be enlarged, and with decent resolution. Right click (or Control click, or command click) on the picture or image and open it in a new tab. Use Control + or Command + to enlarge.
Ok thank you. I am using my iPhone to read this, not a pc. Is there a way to get decent resolution on the utilized maps from an iPhone? Pinching and expanding doesn’t work on this site as well as it usually does.
Help me out here. Am I missing something? From the map, it looks like Orion Park is well away from the contamination plume. The 5 ppb contour is 800 feet away. By the way, <5 ppb is OK to drink according to the EPA. https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/national-primary-drinking-water-regulations So I would guess that up to 100 ppb or so is okay to build on.
Thanks for publishing the pictures, btw. Very helpful.
If this is an Army site then it is federal and not city, therefore the city probably can not stop what is going on and would not be required to issue building permits. It is funny that a city that approves massive new building for Google and other Tech companies now has concerns about traffic and wants housing and parks, my guess is the city wants the places that will generate the most revenue while trying to make the Army suck up the housing and parks that don’t generate as much but are needed. Mountain View just wants more money while making someone else pay for the support layer.
All DOD military housing and property should be tested for Organochlorine Pesticide Contamination.
The why. http://www.basefamilyhousing.info
@Brian, please explain how Council’s proposed 10,000 housing units in North Bayshore square with your theory.
Thank you Frank Vera, when my 3 children attended Mountain View schools we saw some serious health issues in “Base Kids”, attended a funeral for a 2 year old who died of cancer. Maybe there was a common risk for these kids growing up on our MV base.
As a native resident of CA and a voting resident of Mountain View, I would like to express my appreciation for the Mayor representing my interests, and that of my community. The US government will do as they please with their land – but we locals, and our government representatives, should hold them to high standards.
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