Mayor Kamei, Vice Mayor Ramos, and members of the Mountain View City Council,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on Item 8.1 “New Council Policy G-9, Gatekeeper Application Policy and Procedures.
The proposed new gatekeeper policy represents a major deviation from Mountain View’s established historical gatekeeper process and we urge that the council reject it. This proposal is being set forth in this hearing without significant advance public outreach. It makes about one-third of the city’s area eligible for streamlined gatekeeper projects. Our understanding from reading the staff report is that these could be approved on a single council vote. It is unclear from the staff report whether a public hearing would even be held, or if that vote would be on the consent calendar. It is also unclear how the public is expected to participate in the approval process or even how the public would become aware of what streamlined gatekeeper projects have been filed. All these questions need to be answered before considering such a major change.
Many of the included areas for streamlined gatekeeper projects are in the R3 zones that were specifically not selected in the R3 upzoning process. So, it appears that the streamlined gatekeeper process could be used to circumvent the council’s choices for the R3 high intensity areas. Note that there is no minimum lot size, and yet the streamlining criteria (B)(2) requires a provision for open space. The report provides no rationale for this (contradictory) proposal in contrast with the current protocol where, gatekeeper projects generally were of a significant enough size to produce significant housing and merit consideration of a zoning change. Note that, also unlike what was considered in the R3 zoning changes, there are no density or height limits indicated, or even suggested, for streamlined gatekeeper projects.
Finally, not only is this a major change that would be implemented without the public outreach that council has previously acknowledged to be of the utmost importance, this proposed change could even deny residents the right to know what a developer is going to build since the staff report also includes consideration of gatekeeper applications with no associated development. The purpose of a gatekeeper application has always been to consider whether a specific project proposal which is not currently zoning compliant merits special consideration. What benefit is there to the public if a developer can obtain a zoning change without revealing what they intend to build?
For all these reasons, we ask that the council adopt Alternative (2): “Do not adopt Council Policy G-9 and direct staff to open the Gatekeeper submittal window under the existing Gatekeeper Process (utilized in 2024).” Also, we request that the council conduct public outreach and a publicly noticed study session to gather input from the public before adopting a new gatekeeper process.
Thank you for considering our views on this important topic.
Robert Cox, Louise Katz, Maureen Blando, Hala Alshahwany, Muriel Sivyer-Lee, David and Carol Lewis, and Nancy Stuhr
For the Steering Committee of Livable Mountain View
