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Greenbelt Alliance In the News
March 21, 2008
'City isn't green
without green housing
Michele Beasley and Beth Mezias
The fate of the Mayfield project may well be decided this Tuesday, when
the City Council holds what is likely to be its last study session on the 521-home
proposal at 100 Mayfield Ave. A formal decision, however, is months away.
It's a "make or break" study session, said Mayor Laura Macias, "absolutely."
The city has been holding hearings on housing development on the 27 acres
at the old Mayfield Mall site for the better part of a decade. After numerous
public hearings, "This is the best Toll Brothers can do," Macias
said, so it's "either up or down, because I think everyone is ready to
move forward or stop it. I don't think anyone wants to do one more study session
on Mayfield."
In March, the recently elected, slower-growth council had some harsh words
for the project, which had cleared the rezoning process by the previous council.
"
I think this project is absurd as it's proposed," said council member
Jac Siegel at the time, regarding the number of units. Macias and council member
Ronit Bryant said the large condo buildings would look like "fortresses."
However, Bryant is reluctantly recusing herself from future discussions because
her husband works for Hewlett Packard. The company still owns the 27 acres,
and would benefit financially from its development.
"
When I participated the first time I didn't realize HP was still involved in
the process," Bryant said. "I talked to the city attorney and I will
have to recuse myself. It's a major issue in town -- I wish I could be involved
but at this point I can't."
Since the February study session, Toll Brothers has lowered the number
of units in the project on the Mountain View side from 519 to 476 by removing
an entire
condo building. On the Palo Alto side, the developer continues to plan for
45 homes.
On June 7 the development review committee wasn't pleased with the latest
design, and Toll Brothers said major architectural changes were in store.
"
Obviously we didn't do a good job," said Toll Brothers division president
Rick Nelson. "This has been a challenge for us."
Architecture may be one factor in the project's fate, but it won't be
the subject of the upcoming July 10 meeting. Instead, the council will discuss
the size
and layout of the project, and related things such as park space.
Siegel and Bryant are the major opponents of the project, while members
Nick Galiotto, Tom Means and Matt Pear have been relatively supportive. Macias
and
Margaret Abe-Koga may be the swing votes.
"
I would like to see a lower unit count, but as far as what that number is I
don't know," Abe-Koga said in March. "They can only go lower ...
realistically I think it has to go lower."
Abe-Koga said her concern was how the project "sits with the community." The
Monta Loma Neighborhood Association has become highly organized watchdogs of
the project, and continues to voice concerns about traffic, parking, housing
density and park space.
As far as parks go, the developer is "adding only the amount required," said
Elna Tymes, former president of the association.
"
Which is admirable," she continued, "but the problem of us being
underserved with parks pre-existed them. There aren't many places to build
parks. Why can't the city buy an acre or two with their existing park funds?"
For its part, Toll Brothers has been trying to drum up more support for
the project, and recently e-mailed the Voice a list of environmental groups
that
would speak in its favor. Marla Wilson of Greenbelt
Alliance was one.
"
This is the kind of development Mountain View and the Bay Area needs," Wilson
said. She added that the project will provide homes near mass transit. And
because it is high density, it lessens the need to build at the city's borders,
which helps protect "natural areas and working farms," she said.
Tymes said the green development philosophy is "not a one-size-fits-all
solution. There are places where that philosophy works really well such as
Capitol Avenue in San Jose. I don't think they've looked at the ramifications
of what they are pushing."
Tymes said one of those ramifications will be putting 1,000 more cars
on San Antonio Road and Central Expressway, two streets that are already heavily
trafficked.
And neighbors have questioned the assertion that people will want to use Caltrain
instead of their cars.
Wilson, however, disagrees that the single-family homes the neighborhood
association wants would help in the long run.
"
If this amount of homes were provided in sprawl, the traffic impacts would
be a lot greater," she said.
The bottom line, Wilson said, is that the Bay Area will grow by one million
people by 2020, and the kind of development proposed by Toll Brothers has become
a necessity to make living affordable, both economically and environmentally.
City project manager Peter Gilli said a formal decision on the Mayfield
master plan could still be a
year away, but Kelly Snider of Toll Brothers said that "staff
has told us the master plan could be approved by the end of this year. We can
do that as long as we can get the hearing date scheduled."
Regarding the chances of the project being rejected, Snider said "We're
not optimistic or pessimistic, we're just interested."
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