Our thanks go to the dozens of supporters who crowded Mountain View City Council Chambers on Tuesday night, to rally and speak up for 9,850 new homes- with 20 percent set aside as affordable– in North Bayshore.  Early Wednesday morning, the Council gave a resounding thumbs up!

Although we had that good news, we are now addressing an unforeseen problem. Google’s spokesperson, Joe Van Belleghem, stated at the study session that Google would not support any new residential—in other words the 9,850 units—unless the Council also agreed to additional office space, something that had not been part of the discussion.

Any new employee generating uses – whether from office, commercial, or retail – will generate an even greater need for affordable housing. SV@Home will continue to work with the City, Google, and all the stakeholders to ensure that Mountain View’s jobs and housing imbalance does not worsen.

Read more about what SV@Home Deputy Director Pilar Lorenzana had to say about what transpired on Tuesday via these articles from the Mountain View Voice:

“The city’s plans to require 20 percent of this new housing to be subsidized for a range of incomes would inspire other cities to follow suit, said Pilar Lorenzana from the housing advocacy nonprofit, SV@Home.

“Leadership such as yours and the policies that you taken on are felt across the Valley and the region,” she said. “We look to you to be the leaders that you need to be.”

and the Mercury News:

“It’s a matter of figuring out how we can do that in a way that incentivizes Google to allow housing to be created on their property, but in a way that also doesn’t completely exacerbate the jobs/housing imbalance that already exists in Mountain View,” Lorenzana said.

Photo courtesy of the Mercury News/City of Mountain View.