VOTER ★ GU DE ★ 14 ★2 0 VOICE ENDORSEMENTS | 19 OCTOBER 31, 2014 VOLUME 22, NO. 40
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MOVIES | 25
Traffic claim on council candidate’s mailer raises questions ESTIMATES VARY WILDLY OVER POTENTIAL TRAFFIC FROM NEW HOUSING IN NORTH BAYSHORE By Daniel DeBolt
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MICHELLE LE
THIS OLD (HAUNTED) HOUSE Rengstorff House got all decked out in its spookiest Victorian finery for the “Where History Meets Haunting” weekend tours and séance at the vintage manse. Seven-month-old Addison gets a boost from dad Myles Monroe as he investigates a skull decoration dubbed “Uncle Henry” by Friends of the Rengstorff House. More haunted house photos from Oct. 25 are on page 14.
City struggles to add park space UNDERSIZED PARK IN NEW HOUSING PROJECT DRAWS COUNCIL’S IRE By Daniel DeBolt
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t Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, it became clear how difficult it is to add new park space in the city as council members discussed a 375-unit apartment project proposed for 400 San Antonio Road and approved a new parks and open space plan for the city. A consortium of landowners calling itself the Pilar Group has proposed to build four, fourstory buildings above parking garages, with 9,000 square feet of retail mostly facing San Antonio Road between Miller Drive and Fayette Avenue. It would replace the former home of Dittmer’s
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Gourmet Meats, a closed Firestone tire shop and Masa’s Sushi, among other commercial spaces totaling 75,000 square feet. Council members expressed frustration that developers of the 5.75-acre site were proposing only a half-acre park. The group of developers are opting to pay $6.9 million in park fees instead of adding another 1.75 acre of park space within the project to meet city guidelines. “We can’t do more than a halfacre (of park space) — if you want more than half an acre, we’d just start over,” said developer Scott Greer. The developers also stressed in a letter the “market realities” that were forcing them to build at maximum allowed
densities while restricting community benefits. “I’m sorry, I can’t buy it,” said council member Margaret Abe-Koga in reaction to Greer’s remarks. “I don’t get why these developers are going down this path. We need (park) land, this really shouldn’t be a surprise for folks. There’s some kind of disconnect I don’t really understand.” Later that evening the council unanimously approved a parks and open space plan that said the area around the project — dubbed simply the “San Antonio planning area” — had the highest need for open space of any area in the city. In the end, the council sup-
ity Council candidate Ellen Kamei has sent out a mailer that makes a controversial claim: Adding 5,000 new homes in North Bayshore — a key issue dividing the candidates in this year’s race — would cause a 10,000-car “traffic nightmare” on Highway 101. The mailer, which has a tiny embedded speaker that plays a recorded message with Kamei’s voice, proclaims in bold letters, “Ellen Kamei says NO to 10,000 new cars on Highway 101” and “Stop the Traffic Nightmare!” Inside, it says “Ellen Kamei opposes throwing up 5,000 new homes without the infrastructure to support them.” Other candidates cast doubt on the number, and a former Mountain View city manager has asked Kamei to retract her statement. Five of nine candidates in this year’s race support allowing housing in North Bayshore as a way to reduce commuter traffic, not make it worse, by accommodating more of Google’s growing workforce near the corporation’s
offices. Kamei, Lisa Matichak, Mercedes Salem and Margaret Capriles have all stated their opposition to changing zoning to allow housing there. Kamei, a member of the city’s Environmental Planning Commission, defended the mailer in an email, saying that there is no guarantee that those who live in North Bayshore would also work there, so “one can assume there will be significant commute out of North Bayshore to jobs elsewhere.” She said the mailer is based on Census data that says the average Mountain View household has 2.1 vehicles. Others say that’s an unlikely scenario for the yet-be-proposed residential neighborhood. “Logic says that 5,000 homes will not translate into 10,000 more cars on Highway 101 per day,” said candidate Pat Showalter. “That would mean that each of the housing units had at least two cars, that they all wanted to go on 101, that nobody carpooled or went directly to downtown Mountain View or worked in See CANDIDATE MAILER, page 16
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ELECTION DAY + 14 +2 0 Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 4. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. To find your polling place, go to sccgov.org and click on the Registrar of Voters link. Election results for local races will be available online after the polls close at mv-voice.com.
See PARK SPACE, page 14
VIEWPOINT 19 | WEEKEND 21 | ARTS & EVENTS 24 | GOINGS ON 27 | MARKETPLACE 29 | REAL ESTATE 31