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Adding more height to the fast-changing San Antonio neighborhood, the Mountain View City Council gave its blessing Tuesday night to a six-story condominium project on a bite-sized property.
A majority of the council at the study session gave the green light to the 44-unit project on roughly two-thirds of an acre at 2645 and 2655 Fayette Drive, provided the developer offers a menu of community benefits to improve traffic infrastructure and ensure that a future school in the area would offer safe routes for young children.
The project has undergone several revisions over the last three years, and gets taller and more dense with each iteration. In June 2016, the proposal by the developer Octane Capital called for 24 units in four stories in an area zoned for high-density residential. In December 2016, the developer sought to get the property rezoned into the more urban San Antonio Precise Plan, and boosted the unit count to between 33 and 40 in a building that would stand five stories tall.
Today, the project proposes taking advantage of the new San Antonio zoning as well as California’s density bonus laws to boost the size to six stories and 44 condos, five of which would be sold as below-market-rate (BMR) units to middle-income families. The proposed building’s rooftop is 75 feet tall, with an elevator shaft rising to 91 feet, according to a city staff report.
Representatives from Octane estimated that the smaller one-bedroom condos would sell for $700,000 to $800,000, while the larger three-bedroom units would go for as much as $1.5 million. The five affordable units would sell for between $350,000 and $450,000.
Council members largely praised the idea of bringing more ownership housing to the city, particularly for-sale inclusionary housing instead of paying an in-lieu fee to the city. Also winning points from the council was the type of housing — stacked-flat condos — described as a rare and valuable design worth some added density.
Councilman Chris Clark said the latest, tallest version of the project would be a problem for him in other areas of the city, but that the condos would fit in well with the neighboring San Antonio area. Prometheus Real Estate Group already has a high-density apartment project under construction nearby, and the council recently approved a 623-unit project further north on San Antonio Road.
In the minority was Mayor Lisa Matichak, who said the San Antonio Precise Plan had clear, natural boundaries of streets and the Hetch Hetchy water pipeline right-of-way, and the Fayette property resides on the other side of them. She questioned carving out this specific project for the sake of added density, and said she would be fine with a smaller project.
“I do appreciate that this is stacked-flat condos, I do like that product, but I don’t like this project,” she said.
Councilwoman Margaret Abe-Koga said she was uneasy with the number of below-market-rate units in the project, which satisfies a 10 percent affordable housing requirement. The council is expected to revise its requirements and potentially ratchet the requirement up to 15 percent BMR units, which she said would come out to 6.6 units — something she said would be more in line with her expectations from the developer.
“We still have to figure out this BMR issue … so I’m not inclined to say five is enough today,” she said.
The project is going through the city’s “gatekeeper” process, when exceptions can be made to existing zoning allowances based on what the developer is willing to offer in community benefits. Council member Alison Hicks made a pitch for bike and pedestrian improvements, noting that it was almost impossible to walk around the area that day due to the heat and dearth of trees in and around the shopping center.
“The whole San Antonio area does not have great pedestrian amenities, and bike amenities could be improved as well,” she said.
The Los Altos School District is negotiating to purchase land for a school less than half a mile away from the project, and council members Lucas Ramirez and Ellen Kamei suggested community benefits could include higher contributions to school fees and taking measures to create safe routes to school.
Perhaps the Council should try driving San Antonio road before approving all the additional housing. Bad for kids, bad for the environment, bad for the neighborhoods. The City should be renamed Building View and San Antonio Road should become Gridlock Road.
This is wonderful. We need to build tall housing and create more ownership.
@kyle
Don’t be fooled by the perception of home ownership in condos. A large portion of them around Mountain View are purchased by investors and rented out to Stanford students, Googlers and others. This further tightens the market and leaves few opportunities for home ownership. Nothing wrong with entrepreneurship, but at least understand the truth behind the doors.
The council holds the power to really screw up this city. I don’t believe they would continue with the over-densification of the San Antonio area if any of them lived nearby.
And when you ask them about traffic mitigation you just get hand waving and talk about shuttle busses. So disingenuous.
I support this housing. The 6 stories does not bother me, as long as there is a buffer from it being next to or across from single family homes.
This should be the type of housing for our future where you have it in front of a 4 lane road, but not for a 2 lane road.
IMO 6 stories, in that area, will work given the current building profiles.
I’m not sure if it would work in any other area of the city though. If there has to be a 6 story building, that’s the part of town for it.
This is the way to go- building upwards, too bad Palo Alto will never figure that out. Plus, as an added benefit, this will drive palo,alto crazy as it is right near the border.
I’m really happy to see the city approve denser projects. The city, the Peninsula, the Bay Area, and the state have a shortage of housing built up over several decades. This leads to a decrease in financial diversity in the area and slowly forces out lower income individuals and families. This is not good for society. I applaud the city for approving the project. I only wish six story buildings didn’t generate controversy because it isn’t unusual.
No, I never did. I studied then played outside.
Think better and you may have better more creative ideas than just another anonymous msg boarder.
Poster: “Did anyone ever play the original Sim City”
Response: “No, I never did. I studied then played outside.”
Poster’s reply: “You did not address what I was discussing”
(sigh) That’s OK message boarder, never mind.
It isn’t bad enough the Abe-Koga is attempting to strong-arm LASD to do her bidding, she is bound and determined to punish the area further by adding this completely out-of-place high-rise building project in a suburban residential area. The San Antonio Center development was supposed to be 7 stories but the public outcry made them scale back. Now that they have 4 stories, it moves to 7, then 10, then who knows? It’s disgusting.
This city council is out of touch with reality. All they see are dollar signs. The quality of life for the people who shell out the high taxes they live to fritter away means ZERO to them. They’ve sold their souls to the company (Google) store and sold out the citizens of the town in the process.
Did anyone ever play the original Sim City
THe problem with Civil Engineering is that sometimes an entire quadrant of a community needs to be leveled in order to revise it to handle the current needs.
For example, you can reroute and reallocate roads. Create parking resources that cannot be built because of existing structures. Provide significant improvements is land allocation.
This is a VERY UGLY truth. In effect, you can have a square mile needing to be systemically destroyed in order to establish the resources neccessry for the current situation or plan ahead for the next say 30 years.
This is why the Consitution has Eminiant Domain. THe fact is that in order for the U.S. to function, there cannot be a permenant lock on land or structures. Since the evolution of resources is unavoidable.
You did not address what I was discussing.
The fact is that it is VERY difficult regarding having to deal with the very significant problem of Civil Planning.
I know that this will result in serious consequences regarding those who either own proerty or live in the areas that NEED major redesign.
This is the issue I really was discussing.
I know that as a graduate of the Lucas Business School of San Jose State.
Finally, I know my user name is The Business Man, but everyone knows who I really am.