From Livable Mountain View: Making Mountain View the Most Livable City in California
Livable Mountain View
230 Houghton Street
Mountain View, CA 94041-1318
Phone: (650)-390-3915
Email: livable-mv-steering@googlegroups.com
Website: https://www.livablemv.com/
Members of the California Assembly subcommittees:
We are sending you this letter in opposition to Senate Bill 79, introduced by Senator Scott Wiener.
Our city of Mountain View’s highest objective is to be a Community for All and a leader in the Bay Area in providing new housing. We are one of the few cities in the region that has earned a pro-housing designation from the legislature. Our city council has always encouraged participation of all stakeholders when it enacts housing policy. The members and supporters of Livable Mountain View have consistently been advocates for good development and participated in opportunities for community outreach. The result is housing and zoning decisions that have wide public support, both from renters and homeowners alike.
We oppose SB-79, which upzones properties within one-half mile of trains, light rail, and for bus lines based on frequency rather than connectivity to allow five to seven story buildings, without any further concessions from developers. SB 79 fails to provide for the needs of our local community as it lacks of protection for our irreplaceable historic resources, weakens the state’s own requirements for affordable and low-income housing offered in the state density bonus and overrides adherence to our local community developed precise plans that already include significant upzoning and increased density in all areas of our city, far beyond that required by our state approved sixth cycle Housing Element.
Because our city is fortunate enough to be served by all three of these modes of transit, about half of our city would be rezoned for high density if this legislation is enacted. Furthermore, by overriding what is offered to developers by the state density bonus, it would undercut our city’s ability to meet our state mandated RHNA allocation for affordable housing. The result could be a total disruption of our state approved plans and negatively impact our city’s neighborhoods.
The housing crisis in our area is one of AFFORDABLE housing, not market-rate housing. According to the latest report of our Rental Housing Committee, 12,5 percent of the housing built in our city the last eight years lies vacant because apartment owners will not rent it out at lower rents. Solutions to provide housing for our community need to go beyond bills that can needlessly destroy historic resources and provide massive rezoning without substantial concessions for more affordable housing from the developers who build that housing.
Thank you for considering our views.
Robert Cox, Louise Katz, Nazanin Dashtara, Muriel Sivyer-Lee, Toni Rath, Peter Spitzer, Maureen Blando, Jerry Steach, David Lewis, Carol Lewis, Hala Alshahwany, Carole Griggs, Leslie Friedman, Nancy Stuhr, Natalie Solomon, Sean O’Malley, Diane Gazzano, Lorrie Wormald, Alice DeGuzman, Chuck Muir, and Julie Muir
For the Steering Committee of Livable Mountain View, Mountain View, CA
