Pastrami and brews WEEKEND | 16
JANUARY 23, 2015 VOLUME 22, NO. 52
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MOVIES | 19
Council seeks to develop downtown parking lots HOUSING AND HOTEL FAVORED OVER OTHER USES FOR CITY-OWNED LAND By Daniel DeBolt
Avenue. Council members want to see a hotel developed there n the City Council’s first — Virgin Hotels had previously substantial public discussion proposed developing a hotel with since three new members an underground garage connecttook office Jan. 6, members said ing the two lots under the street. they wanted to ask developers for “You get the benefit of utilizing underground space proposals for a hotel underneath the road,” on a pair of parking said council member lots near the downtown train station, ‘We can get Mike Kasperzak. Members unaniand began to discuss directed the development of a lot of bang mously city staff to begin a housing on the other city-owned down- for our buck.’ “request for qualifications” process to town parking lots, COUNCILMAN vet hotel developers while adding more CHRIS CLARK interested in what city public parking in the staff described in a process. memo as the “develGiven the state of the local economy and interest opment of a hotel, possibly in from developers, council mem- combination with other uses, ber Chris Clark said at the Jan. potentially creating additional 20 meeting, “I think the market public parking downtown and a is in right place, we can get a lot new revenue stream for the city.” In October the council had of bang for our buck.” First on the list are the park- decided not to negotiate excluing lots that sit across from each other on Hope Street near Evelyn See CITY LOTS, page 9
I MICHELLE LE
Rosana Arce receives a flu shot at RotaCare in December prior to peak flu season.
Peak flu season hits Mountain View EL CAMINO IMPOSES RESTRICTIONS ON VISITORS TO COMBAT SURGE IN HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS By Kevin Forestieri
F
lu season is in full swing in the Bay Area, leaving four people dead and sending some patients into
intensive care. In an effort to curb the spread of the virus, local hospitals are restricting visitors to keep contagious flucarriers away from patients. Santa Clara County reached
“peak” flu season last week following six flu outbreaks across the county, according to Catherine Nalesnik, infecSee FLU SHOT, page 13
INSIDE
is the only site that serves buses that run in northern Santa Clara County. VTA’s two other bus yards are in San Jose. That hasn’t hindered interest in the Mountain View site, however. “We’ve had a huge amount of interest ever since we had our developer conference this fall,” Rocci said. Among those who have downloaded documents about the site are officials with Google and LinkedIn, and many of Silicon Valley’s biggest developers. Since the yard was renovated to become a VTA bus maintenance See VTA BUS, page 13
VIEWPOINT 14 | GOINGS ON 21 | MARKETPLACE 22 | REAL ESTATE 24
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ountain View could have a large development built above an active bus yard, thanks to the high price of real estate near Google headquarters. The Valley Transportation Authority is now requesting development proposals for the 16.9-acre property on La Avenida Street near Highway 101 and North Shoreline Boulevard. For some time, VTA officials have been planning for private development on most of VTA’s land throughout Santa Clara County, including its headquar-
ters on North First Street in San Jose, in order to raise revenue through lease agreements. The agency’s first move is to seek development proposals for the Mountain View bus yard, as it is clearly the most valuable land VTA owns, said Jennifer Rocci, senior VTA real estate planner. But here’s the twist: VTA officials want the property to remain a bus yard, so any new development would go on top of or next to a facility where as many as 113 buses are parked on Sundays and 155 buses are maintained around the clock. VTA officials say it isn’t practical to move the operation, as it
N Shoreline Blvd .
By Daniel DeBolt
Inigo Way
Office development on active MV bus yard?
COURTESY OF VTA
The VTA bus yard in Mountain View is now open to development proposals, provided that the bus yard can continue its operations at the site.