The Mountain View City Council approved a proposal Wednesday for a massive Housing Redevelopment plan that would produce almost 10,000 new housing units in the North Bayshore community.
Mountain View Mayor Ken Rosenburg said it was a “land use policy change that is unlike almost anything that has ever been done before,” according to NBC Bay Area, which will increase the available housing by 30 percent, which is sorely needed in the area.
The entire Bay area has been in an increasingly severe housing crisis in recent years, with rent soaring multiple percentage points per year and available housing increasingly scarce, according to Mercury News.
One report from the Silicon Valley Leadership Group found that between 2010 and 2015, almost 370,000 jobs were added but less than 60,000 new homes were built in the same time period. The housing crisis has put pressure on Bay area cities to address affordable housing requirements and encourage redevelopment.
The Mountain View redevelopment plan
The Mountain View redevelopment plan includes 9,850 new homes and apartment units, with as much as 20 percent of new housing designated to be affordable housing. An estimated 70 percent of housing will be studio apartments and single-bedroom apartments in order to accommodate a majority of Google employees.
The North Bayshore Precise Plan, in the works for six years, will incorporate Google headquarters and offices.
Google owns more than half of the land that the redevelopment plan includes, according to BizJournals, which means the company will submit master plan designs to the city for much of the redevelopment.
Largest redevelopment plan
The Mountain View plan is the largest redevelopment proposal in the Bay area, according to Pilar Lorenzana, the deputy director for SV@Home.
Lorenzana said the area was the “first to step up in a real way” to address the local housing crisis, according to Mercury News.
The city still needs to develop more detailed plans for the development, including discussing public theaters, homes for sale and green spaces, and council members estimate it might take a decade to complete the redevelopment.
However, many have expressed hope that Mountain View’s plan will kickstart redevelopment efforts throughout the region. The neighboring city of Cupertino, home to Apple headquarters, has also begun looking into redevelopment plans for a strip of land nearby Apple’s new campus, according to Mercury News. In addition, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has promised to create 25,000 new homes within the next five years.
