Mayor Kamei, Vice Mayor Ramos, and Members of the Mountain View City Council,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on Item 6.2: Gatekeeper Process
- We support the historic preservation fee. At the discussion of the Historic Ordinance and Register Update at the last EPC meeting, the EPC supported finding money to restore the historic facades of buildings on Mountain View’s local historic register, particularly those in the downtown. A key example is the Rogers Building 142-156 Castro Street, which could lose its position on the local historic register unless the façade is restored. Under SB79, such buildings could be demolished if they do not remain on the local historic register.
- We support the recommendation on the park fee as a community benefit. While a 25% of property dedication for park land may seem out of proportion compared to alternative benefits, the council should keep in mind that dedicating land for a park would be done as an alternative to paying the park in-lieu fee.
- We support removing the community facility benefit. Typically, this “benefit” has been to allow the occasional use of an office conference room by community organizations. We do not know of any community organizations that have taken advantage of such a benefit here in Mountain View. It is much less useful now that many community groups hold many of their meetings on Zoom. In any case, this “benefit” is of miniscule value compared to something substantial like a dedicated park. We do not want to encourage developers to opt for it as alternate to a real community benefit.
Thank you for listening to our views.
Robert Cox, Louise Katz, Muriel Sivyer-Lee, Peter Spitzer, Julia Ha, Hala Alshahwany, and Nazanin Dashtara
For the Steering Committee of Livable Mountain View
