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2/9 UPDATE: 2/14 Meeting @ 5PM, not 7PM as originally posted. 
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Don’t fall for the trite tradition of dinner and a movie this Valentines day. How about dinner and a City Council General Plan study session? Steer clear of the passive movie-going experience and participate in elevating the Draft General Plan from good to extraordinary. After 3 long years, City Council will be holding its final study session on the Draft General Plan and this is the last big opportunity to provide input. While the Draft Plan outlines a sustainable vision, the policies need strengthening to ensure the vision is implemented.

Why do the policies in Draft General Plan need strengthening? Driving and greenhouse gas emissions both increase by 2030 in the Draft General Plan. The main reason for the increase, according to the independent environmental analysis: too few housing units. While opening the floodgates to unlimited housing development is not realistic or desirable, there are still opportunities to plan for housing that won’t clash with Mountain View’s character. Here are thee points to discuss when addressing or writing council: 

1. Ask for absolute, not per capita greenhouse gas reduction targets. Greenhouse gas reduction targets are the foundation of effective, sustainable transportation, land use, and housing policies. The General Plan and associated Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan has weakened the city’s greenhouse gas reduction (GHG) targets by abandoning a previously adopted policy to reduce the city’s overall emissions and proposing a per capita, or per person reduction. This means Mountain View’s overall GHG emission for the year 2030 will increase over 2009 levels due to population increase. International and State greenhouse gas plans have stated that absolute, not per capita, reductions are needed to stall Climate Change.
2. Identify methods to include more housing in the General Plan: The General Plan Environmental Impact Report studied an “increased housing alternative” which was described as “environmentally superior” since people can live closer to jobs and services, which reduces the demand for driving. Adopting this entire alternative would require rebooting the environmental analysis, which is unlikely, but we can ask for two solutions that will consider more housing: a) Ask Council to fold in as much of the increased housing alternative as possible into the Draft General Plan. b) Ask council to incorporate a policy that will evaluate the need for additional housing every 5 years. Finally, consider emphasizing the need for affordable housing, as affordable housing is an important component of environmental sustainability. 
3. Plan for residential development in North Bayshore: Locating housing near jobs is a critical solution to reducing GHG emissions, and there's no place better to do that than in North Bayshore. The Shoreline Boulevard corridor in North Bayshore is poised to transform from office park to a vibrant mixed-use corridor with frequent transit, neighborhood retail, and great public spaces. However, frequent transit service and successful retail are dependent on the right number of housing units. If the area remains exclusively offices, frequent all-day transit service and viable retail are difficult to support because the area becomes a ghost town on the weekends and in the evenings. 

 
Hope to see you there! 

Meeting Time: 
2/14 5PM
City Hall (map), Plaza Conference Room

 

What does this mean exactly?

At an EIR scoping session, nobody is saying yes or no to a proposal. The purpose of the meeting is just to say what should be studied in the project’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR). If you have thoughts on what project impacts should be studied in the EIR, you should go to the meeting and share them. Do not, however, attend to say that you like or dislike the content of the General Plan. That is not the purpose of tonight’s meeting.

What will MVCSP be saying?

MVCSP hopes to get people to the meeting to talk about how the General Plan EIR ought to study one higher density alternative. One of the things an EIR has to study is the amount of green house gases a project will generate. Typically, an EIR would study an alternative to a project that is lower in density or size because that would result in a smaller environmental impact. Planning for fewer homes in Mountain View probably would result in fewer emissions produced within our city's borders. However, if homes aren't built here, they will have to be built somewhere else - probably further from Mountain View and all of the jobs we have here. This means more people will have to commute into town and create more pollution in the process. This will also result in an increase in traffic, especially during peak commuting hours. We want to an equal amount of jobs and homes, and ideally, we'd like those homes to be close to jobs, transit and other services, so that people can get by without their car is they want to.

The bottom line from MVCSP's perspective is that if we take a bigger picture view, a General Plan that allows for the creation of more home, we would actually help reduce region wide green house gas emissions overall.

Please consider:
Attending tomorrow night's meeting and speaking up in favor of an EIR that looks at a high intensity alternative with more homes around transit.

EPC meeting
Wed, Feb 16
Council Chambers
7:00pm-9:00pm

Eat your vegetables. Exercise. Get plenty of sleep. Adopt good city planning policies??

Did you know that the way a city is designed has a huge impact on the health of the people that live there? Want to know how?

Join Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga, the Health Trust and MVCSP as we host Heather Wooten, senior associate and expert on the links between health and city planning with Public Health Law & Policy on Thursday, January 27 at City Hall. The event will be kicked off with a short film about healthy, eco-friendly living being that’s happening right here in Mountain View!

Healthy Communities in Practice and Policy
January 27, 7 p.m.-8:45 p.m.
Council Chambers, City Hall
500 Castro Street, Mountain View
Free admission
Light refreshments will be served

As reported in the Mountain View Voice, 12/13/10, by Daniel DeBolt. Click here for original link.

The City Council unanimously voted to study potential changes to the city's general plan on Tuesday, including the possibility of allowing 1,500 homes in the neighborhood near Google headquarters.

Council members had expressed reservations about allowing homes among the office buildings of North Bayshore, as new residents there could protest. Google's workplace services director Dan Hoffman said he supported studying the idea.

"If you don't study the options, you won't have any options," said City Manager Kevin Duggan.

Potential changes city-wide include doubling the density allowed along portions of El Camino Real and office buildings in the Whisman and North Bay Shore areas, and encouraging the revamp of the city's neighborhood shopping centers.

Resident Joan MacDonald said she was concerned that new general plan policies did not do enough to encourage subsidized affordable housing.

The council decided not to label the Francia family's orchard on Whisman Road as a community facility after concerns were expressed that it would look like a "taking," despite the neighborhood support for a park there.

Doggone it! Last night, the City Council directed planning staff to start the environmental review process on the current draft General Plan.  Council did not direct staff to study the higher intensity development option for the General Plan, even though this scenario could mean Mountain View generates fewer greenhouse gas emissions over time.

Higher density development is definitely not the answer to everything, but we had hoped the EIR would have at least looked into how planning for more homes would have affected environmental issues here in Mountain View.

Bummer.

What now? Have ideas? Email [email protected] and come to our brainstorming meeting in January. Stay tuned for the date.

Thanks for all your hard work!

On Tuesday, December 7, Council will be taking one final look at the General Plan before approving a version to go through the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) process. This may be our last chance to really influence the General Plan.

Unless Council tells planning staff to study an alternate version of the plan that allows for more homes to be built near transit, Mountain View will probably end up with a General Plan that sets the bar too low to really reduce the City's greenhouse gas emissions.

Tell Council to that the EIR should study one lower intensity and one higher intensity General Plan scenario if they really want to do what's right for the environment.

Take Action: Email Council @ [email protected]
Attend the meeting on 12/7 at 6:30PM @ City Hall

Curious about how the Council meeting on the General Plan went the other night? Take a peek at MVCSP's unofficial minutes. They don't capture everything that happened but they should give you the gist!

These notes were taken by Sue Russell, member of MVCSP, the League of Women Voters and Advocates for Affordable Housing. Ellie Casson , member of MVCSP, added a few additional notes of her own.

Thanks to everyone who attended or submitted comments for Tuesday’s Council meeting on the General Plan. The members and views of the Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning had a fantastic showing! We had about six or so people get up and express their support for a walkable, affordable, beautiful, transit-accessible city. These folks made it very clear that if achieving the City of Villages vision took a certain amount of new growth then that was ok by them! Way to be bold guys!

Council seems to be hearing the messages we're sending; four members of Council asked staff if the allowed densities in our identified focus areas were high enough to actually allow villages to develop. Staff said that in the new year they would delve deeper into what each neighborhood’s “village center” should look like and what it will take to get there, so stay tuned!

Keep up the good work! Our efforts are having an impact!