With COVID-19 still very much among us, the pandemic was by no means a non-issue this year. But for Mountain View, this year was about getting back to business on some of the pre-pandemic issues – things like the housing crisis, homelessness and income disparities – that were only exacerbated and magnified during the previous two years.

Recognizing the financial toll of the pandemic on its residents, the city of Mountain View launched a universal basic income pilot program in September, and the first cash payments were delivered to participants in mid-December. The city hit its stride this year with affordable housing projects, securing funding and purchasing land for future developments. Meanwhile, Mountain View has been contending with the state-mandated Housing Element update, where it must prove how it’s going to build enough housing to help combat California’s housing crisis – a goal that not everyone is optimistic the city can easily achieve.

But a city can’t talk about growth without also talking about the infrastructure and public amenities needed to support it. City officials had their fair share of hard conversations with residents this year about quality of life issues in Mountain View: the dearth of accessible green space in neighborhoods like Monta Loma; concerns about downtown Mountain View becoming overrun by office developments; once-quiet streets suddenly lined with RVs after hundreds of unhoused vehicle dwellers were forced to uproot their lives; the urgent need to improve safe bike routes following the tragic death of a child on his way to school.

Mountain View made big strides this year, but newly reelected City Council incumbents say there’s a lot more work to be done on issues that are finally coming off the pandemic backburner.

RV rules and homelessness

This year proved to be a tumultuous one for Mountain View’s unhoused population, particularly those who live in RVs.

Just days into the new year, litigation filed in federal court ordered that the city suspend enforcement of its RV parking ban on streets with bike lanes and streets that are 40 feet wide or narrower, which encompasses the majority of city streets. The city’s RV rules, which were passed by the City Council in 2019 and then reaffirmed by voter referendum in 2020, didn’t end up being enforced until after the lawsuit was settled in late August.

On Oct. 1, those rules took effect, forcing RV vehicle dwellers to move their homes to a few streets, and to keep moving every three days due to the city’s 72 hour parking rule. Meanwhile, some residents who never had an RV parked outside their homes before suddenly found their entire street lined with them. Some criticized the city for not having a better plan for how the new rules would impact both RV dwellers and homeowners.

Housing and growth

Hand in glove with the conversation around homelessness is the severe need for more affordable housing – both to get people off the streets and into stable living conditions, but also to keep people from becoming homeless in the first place.

The city is ending 2022 with a strong pipeline of affordable housing projects, and continues to forge vital partnerships with affordable housing nonprofits and the county. In March, the nonprofit Charities Housing announced that it was purchasing two properties along Evelyn Avenue for development into affordable housing. A couple months later, the city announced plans to turn the former Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) parking lot that currently serves as a safe parking site into as many as 220 affordable apartments. In June, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors accepted a $16.6 million Project Homekey grant to convert the 67-room Crestview Hotel into 49 affordable housing units, and then in September, supervisors also approved the purchase of a property within the North Bayshore Precise Plan area to develop 100 affordable units. Later that month, a proposed affordable housing project on Terra Bella Avenue in Mountain View nabbed a $13.5 million financial commitment from the city.

But whether these efforts will be enough to meet state housing standards remains to be seen. The city is in the midst of updating its Housing Element, a process by which jurisdictions must show that they can meet housing development quotas set by the state.

Cities are required to update their Housing Elements every eight years, but this cycle is proving to be more intensive than ever before, with the state tightening its standards and threatening serious consequences if cities don’t submit compliant Housing Elements.

City staff is optimistic that Mountain View’s draft Housing Element – which holds that the city is capable of building more than 17,000 housing units in the next eight years – will be accepted by the state.

But community members and elected officials alike are wary. The state requires that cities build housing that’s affordable to a variety of income levels, but it has strict guidelines to ensure that jurisdictions put programs in place to “affirmatively further fair housing,” meaning that cities commit to getting affordable housing built, and that this housing isn’t condensed in low-resourced areas. At a December council meeting, Mayor Lucas Ramirez was uneasy about how the current draft distributes potential affordable units throughout the city.

“I don’t share the optimism that staff has,” Ramirez said bluntly.

With the Housing Element deadline approaching fast on Jan. 31, cities across California will soon find out if their plans are good enough.

Schools and education

2022 marked the third calendar year in which local schools were faced with responding to the coronavirus pandemic, and was also the year in which the last of the COVID-19 safety rules on campuses were largely removed.

January dawned with surging COVID-19 cases at local schools as the omicron variant spread, leading to challenges ensuring adequate staffing levels. By the end of the month, cases were trending downwards and in March, the state lifted its school mask mandate.

Most districts followed suit and no longer required face coverings, but Mountain View Whisman was one of the few to take a more cautious approach. It kept its mask mandate in place for the remainder of the spring, except for roughly a month between late March and late April. When classes began this fall, masks continued to be required, but the rule was dropped in less than two weeks as cases fell in the county. Schools continue to work on addressing the lost learning and mental health challenges that students have experienced during the pandemic.

When it came to elections, 2022 saw a competitive school board race in the Mountain View Los Altos Union High School District. With three spots up for a vote on the five-member board and two incumbents choosing not to run, six candidates put their hats in the ring for the trio of open seats. Ultimately, voters picked incumbent Catherine Vonnegut, along with newcomers Esmeralda Ortiz and Thida Cornes.

Mountain View Whisman's school board race was uncontested this time around. Only incumbent Devon Conley and former trustee Bill Lambert filed to run. Lambert, who previously served from 2012 to 2016, replaced longtime board member Ellen Wheeler, who retired after 20 years on the board.

The Foothill-De Anza Community College District's board also had an uncontested race, with incumbents Pearl Cheng and Patrick Ahrens getting another term. The lack of challengers was despite Foothill-De Anza adopting a new election model this spring, in which the district was split into five geographic zones and voters in each region now pick a trustee who lives in their area.

2022 was also a year in which local schools planned for the future. Although schools have seen enrollment drop during the pandemic, Mountain View Whisman is bracing for an expected influx of students in the longer term as more housing is built locally. The district has been trying to find ways to raise money to construct new campuses to serve these future students.

Mountain View Whisman also broke ground this year on a project to build 123 units of housing for teachers and other school staff members. The effort is an attempt to help retain employees in light of the sky-high cost of housing in Silicon Valley. Construction was delayed by the pandemic, but the goal is to have the units completed in 2024.

Looking forward

If there was one thing that didn’t change this year, it was the make-up of the Mountain View City Council on election night. All three incumbents – Mayor Lucas Ramirez, Vice Mayor Alison Hicks and Council member Ellen Kamei – won reelection on Nov. 8, each vowing to use their next term to chip away at issues that the pandemic forced off the priority list.

But the council will still get a fresh face come the New Year: After winning a seat on the State Board of Equalization, Mountain View City Council member Sally Lieber announced her resignation from council in December after learning about a conflict of interest between the two positions. The council will meet during the first week of January to talk about how it wants to fill the vacancy.

The new council will be tasked with rounding out the Housing Element update process, making good on the city’s affordable housing promises, and of course, contending with all the other unsolved issues that COVID-19 either created or uncovered in the past three years.

Here are other notable moments in photos this year: