Despite the economic changes of the past years, the need for more housing - particularly more affordable housing - is still great. The jobs/housing imbalance means that Mountain View workers must commute great distances, causing environmental damage and loss of quality of life. Lack of affordable housing is an issue for long time residents who want to remain in the city and for Mountain View businesses, whose workers need places to live.
Part of the problem is that localities are
disincentivized from building housing due to
the fiscalization of land use problem: as
localities get a greater and greater portion of
their revenues from sales taxes, cities find
themselves competing with one another to
bring in revenue-producing retail chains such
as CostCo, and are unlikely to invest in
housing, which requires services but produces
less revenue. Cities must play a greater role in
lobbying for regional and statewide structural
change to eliminate this fiscalization of land
use.
Mountain View has already made great
strides in the area of housing, winning awards
for its transit-oriented developments and
making affordable housing a priority, but
much more work is needed. The city's housing
element is extremely well formulated; what is
needed now is the political will to make sure
that we follow through on the housing
element action items. Mobile home parks are
an important part of the overall affordable
housing picture and the city must stay
engaged to ensure that they remain so.
Options also exist in the downtown area, with
two city-owned plots in residentially-zoned
areas ideal for housing development. An
affordable housing group has expressed
interest in one of these parcels.
With the current high vacancy rate for
commercial space, this is an ideal time to look
for opportunities to re-zone commercial space
for housing, where appropriate. The Mayfield Mall
site is one example of an opportunity for a
variety of housing types, including both
single- and multi-family housing, as well as a
significant addition of park land. This site
is adjacent to existing residential, so it makes
sense to re-zone it for housing. The site is also
along the CalTrain corridor, making it a perfect
location for transit-oriented development.
I support the development strategies of smart
growth and transit-oriented development. We
should be looking to put housing near transit
wherever possible. There are opportunities for
smart development in and near the downtown
and our multi-modal transit hub. (For
example, the blocks of Moffett Blvd near the
train station are ripe for development and
right across from downtown.) It also makes
sense to encourage new housing and new
park land on larger developments such as
Whisman Station.
Increased numbers of housing units
downtown will benefit our economy, bringing
more customers to downtown businesses.
Additionally, the more people we have living
in downtown, the more feasible it becomes to
attract residential-serving retail such as a
drugstores or grocery stores, which would
make the downtown that much more robust.
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