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Mountain View

The City of Mountain View has kicked off the update of its General Plan—the City's blueprint for growth over the long term. The process will include an update of the Housing Element, an important part of any city’s general plan. The General Plan and Housing Element updates are a critical opportunity for Mountain View to lay out a sustainable plan for the City’s future growth. This opportunity comes at a time of economic crisis and environmental change, both of which Mountain View can use its General Plan to tackle head on.

The Mountain View Environmental Planning Commission and a subcommittee of the City Council will be working on the General Plan and Housing Element updates between now and the end of 2010. Along the way significant issues will be debated and important decisions made.

Among these issues are:

• In the next 25 years, the Bay Area will grow by 1.7 million. Much of that growth will be directed into existing cities and towns, near public transit. 
• Climate change also means designing cities that use land more efficiently and reduce dependency on cars.
• Rising fuel costs will require the creation of communities where mobility by foot, bike, and transit is safe, convenient, and appealing.
• An aging population: by 2020, Santa Clara County’s population of adults over 65 will nearly double, reaching close to 300,000.

Since early 2009, Greenbelt Alliance has been working closely with members of the Mountain View residential, business and activist community. These community members have organized themselves into a diverse, dynamic new group, known as the Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning. The Coalition is eager to tackle what they have identified as the critical issues in Mountain View. For the City of Mountain View, one of the community’s greatest impediments to reducing it’s greenhouse gas emissions is the lack of housing, especially affordable housing. Compared to other cities in the region, Mountain View is a "jobs rich" city. Since 2003, the number of jobs in Mountain View has increased by 19 percent, while the number of homes has increased by only 3 percent since 2000. This unbalanced pace of growth means that many of these new jobs are being filled by commuters who have to live outside of Mountain View and commute to work each day. The need for affordable housing is particularly acute in Mountain View, especially among the senior community.

What's At Stake

To meet these challenges, Mountain View must act now and use the General Plan update as a tool for progressive, innovative planning that will set new, high standards for coming development. This is the ideal time ot set ambitious goals, as the next time Mountain View takes on a project of this nature it may be too late to confront the threat of climate change.

Additional, affordable housing can and must be built in Mountain View. It will be particularly important for those updating the General Plan to consider how to incorporate higher levels of density, especially around transit, in a way that fits with the existing community.

If Mountain View does not open up to the possibility of future growth, it could lose the diversity that makes it such a wonderful place to live. It will also cost the community any chance it has to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

What You Can Do

• If you are a Mountain View resident and want your community to grow in a sustainable manner and would like talking points for public comment, please email Ellie Casson or call (408) 983-0539.
  
• Join the Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning. Contact Ellie Casson at ecasson@greenbelt.org or call (408) 983-0539.
  
• Attend Environmental Planning Commission, City Council and Project Advisory Committee meetings. Check the City of Mountain View calendar for times and dates.