A great talk is being given in our neighbor city this Wednesday:

Learn how communities can measure vibrancy and grow, and limits to growth
• What can the community do to breathe life into the downtown?
• What metrics can be used to evaluate the health of a downtown?
• Learn how zoning decisions can affect a city for decades to come in many ways – economically, socially, and architecturally.

Come! Open and free to all
Please RSVP at http://unlockinglosaltosvibrancy.eventbrite.com/

A Los Altos Forward Community Conversation
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
5:30-7:30pm
The Bike Shop, 359 State Street, Los Altos

Take out about five minutes and do yourself a favor....
(click the photo to the left)

Final City Council Meeting on General Plan @ 6:30PM in City Hall, 500 Castro St.

Last night (July 3) during a study session Council took a straw vote and decided 4-3 to not plan for housing in the North Bayshore neighborhood.

Council Chambers was quite full with about 40 or so people there to support housing in North Bayshore and about 10 against. (Those are complete eyeball estimates, that could be wrong!) Most of those who were there to speak in favor of housing in North Bayshore were Mountain View residents. Most of those who were opposed to housing were not from Mountain View. The common message among supporters who spoke was please leave housing in North Bayshore on the table as an option. It is a complicated idea that needs further exploration and the Precise Plan is the place to do that. Please don't remove that option now.

After hearing over about an hour of public comments, Council had a brief discussion of this and other topics. While a formal vote cannot be taken during a study session, Council did decide to take a straw vote in the matter so that city planning staff can prepare a final version of the General Plan that reflects their wishes, which will be ready for Council to approve at their July 10th meeting.  Mayor Kasperzak asked for a show of hands on whether or not housing should be left in the General Plan as an issue to explore further. Three said yes, while four said no. This means that next week the final draft General Plan that Council will presumably approve will not include housing in North Bayshore. Wah.

Yes:
Mayor Mike Kasperzak
Vice Mayor John Inks
Councilmember Tom Means

No:
Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga
Councilmember Ronit Bryant
Councilmember Laura Macias
Councilmember Jac Siegel

Thanks to the many who came out last night and wrote Council ahead of time. Your comments were eloquent and thoughtful. While this particular decision didn't go as MVCSP had wanted, but overall we have a really wonderful General Plan that we had a hand in crafting and should be proud of. This one, very interesting issue popped up toward the very end of the process and has sucked a lot of attention away from the whole document, which is very strong. It has lots of great policies that will set MV on a good course for the future. Let's keep that in mind and celebrate it!

On that note, there will be a celebratory BBQ next Thursday in lieu of a meeting. We'll be hanging out at the home of the Karneys (833 Bush Street) from 6:30-8:30. There will be food. Please join us! Please email info@mvcsp.org if you'd like to attend.

This study session is to discuss the 2030 General Plan and Land Use Map, Draft Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program and the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for these reports. You can check the City web site on or after June 29th to confirm the scheduled time and location for the study session.
http://laserfiche.mountainview.gov/WebLink/0/fol/25128/Row1.aspx

Can only attend 1 meeting? Attend this one!

The Chick-fil-a ZA hearing (continued) is on Wednesday, July 11th at 4pm.
The zoning adminstrator, at the 6/27 hearing, gave the developer an option to make certain revisions to their plans, as he appeared to be leaning toward denying the proposal as currently designed.
This project would replace the Sizzler at 1962 West El Camino and would include a drive-through addition. Please consider speaking out against this project's including a drive through, as we already have 26 drive-through businesses in our city (https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=215093886093862439511.0004bdab6239ffc3d2a63&msa=0), and adding more would be inconsistent with our vision for Mountain View, the 2030 General Plan, Grand Boulevard and Bus Rapid Transit principles.