Mayor Kamei, Vice Mayor Ramos, and Members of the City Council,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on Item 3.1: Moffett Boulevard Precise Plan Land Use Alternatives and Streetscape Priorities.
We recommend Land Use Alternative A and while supportive of providing wider sidewalks with trees and pedestrian amenities, caution that retaining and attracting new businesses to Moffett Boulevard will require adequate parking to ensure those businesses thrive, based on the following:
In the workshops conducted by the city, residents have affirmed that “retaining existing small businesses” should be a key priority for the new precise plan.
Of the three land use alternatives, two require ground floor retail in areas where greater building heights are allowed. The staff report suggests with greater building heights, ground floor retail in new residential buildings will be more financially feasible.
The staff report asks council to choose between four-to-five and five-to-seven story buildings but omits any reference to the state density bonus that provides up to 100% increase in height in exchange for 20% affordable housing. And AB2097 requires the city impose no parking standards for new development close to transit.
The combined result of these two state laws could yield 14 story buildings that would tower over the adjacent residential neighborhood, result in a critical parking problem for residents, and negatively impact the viability of businesses in an area where the parking situation is already problematic. For this reason, we recommend Land Use Alternative A, which allows the city to meet its Housing Element requirement with the least undesirable impact on the Moffett area.
We also ask council to question the idea that the highest possible buildings would in fact result in viable businesses on the ground floor. Many ground-floor retail spaces in the Landsby and Dean apartment complexes, which are situated in the San Antonio Precise Plan area, have never been leased.
We believe that a complete and functional Moffett Precise Plan must include a plan which provides adequate parking for the businesses in the Moffett area. If street parking is to be removed as part of the streetscape changes, a plan to provide alternate parking spaces in the vicinity of the businesses must be included in the precise plan. Even if nearby residents can use Caltrain or buses at the transit center to go to work, it is unrealistic to presume they will also not also own cars. And if and when car owners use public transit, they will be exacerbating the situation by leaving their cars on Moffett and/or neighborhood streets. One possibility would be a parking structure funded by assessments of the area businesses, as was provided in the Downtown Precise Plan.
Thank you for considering our views on this important topic.
Robert Cox, Louise Katz, Peter Spitzer, and Nancy Stuhr
For the Steering Committee of Livable Mountain View
