Taco shop with a twist WEEKEND | 21
MAY 8, 2015 VOLUME 23, NO. 15
www.MountainViewOnline.com
650.964.6300
MOVIES | 26
LinkedIn wins big, Google plans gutted in North Bayshore decision COUNCIL DIVVIES UP DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS IN FIERCE COMPETITION FOR OFFICE SPACE By Mark Noack
approval of the individual projects yet to come. n a split vote Tuesday night, More than one person described the Mountain View City the process a “beauty contest,” Council laid out a future with contestants taking turns vision for North Bayshore, div- asserting the various perks and vying up 2.2 million square feet benefits they would bring to the in fiercely contested office devel- community. To judge the various opment rights among several projects, Mountain View city officials last year laid out a list rival firms. LinkedIn emerged as the big of criteria, including how well winner, receiving more than each project improved traffic, two-thirds the total allotted environmental sustainability and space for a proposed 10-building the city’s overall vision for the campus just off Highway 101. On area. But the city was still left in the losing end were the dozen or a dilemma with too many qualiso members from team Google, fied projects fighting for too little who seemed shell-shocked after space. To call the meeting long would seeing their proposal for a drabe an understatematic glass-canment. As the only sigopied office park scuttled by the ‘This is such an nificant item on the the North council on a 4-3 unfair process.’ agenda, Bayshore deliberavote. tions stretched over The much anticiDAVID RADCLIFFE, pated meeting on GOOGLE’S VICE PRESIDENT six hours with a series of company presentaTuesday, May 5, OF REAL ESTATE tions, public combrought to a head ments and much months of competition for space to expand in North back-and-forth among elected Bayshore. With Mountain View leaders. Despite the length, the facing a shortage of available meeting remained packed with space for tech firms, city officials stakeholders the entire night, identified North Bayshore as one dwindling only slightly as it of the few areas left for expan- stretched past midnight. Repeating a phrase he had sion. Last December, city officials set a limit of 3.4 million square often used in recent days, Mayor feet of bonus office development John McAlister explained his role that would be allowed in the was to “play Solomon” in slicing area. That cap effectively created up the pie of limited space. Maka competition between Google ing the motion that eventually and other firms looking to stake won the day, the mayor proposed their claims in advance of the giving smaller applicants Broadcity meeting. By Tuesday that reach Capital Partners and Rees number had winnowed down to Properties their full requested space. LinkedIn was allocated just 2.2 million square feet. The council’s decision gives 1.45 million bonus square feet, the green light for winners to an amount just short of the comgo ahead with submitting their plans to the city, with final See NORTH BAYSHORE, page 13
I MAGALI GAUTHIER
WHERE THERE’S SMOKE, THERE’S FIRE The air was particularly smoky in the Whisman neighborhood early this week as members of the Mountain View Fire Department ran live fire training at Station 4 on Monday and Tuesday, using a controlled burn inside a shed to give students in a state certification course for fire training some handson experience putting out fires. Fire fighters from Mountain View and other nearby agencies practiced putting out a live fire in the station’s “training cell,” where materials are set ablaze. Captain Scott Robbins, pictured, would close the door of the cell when the fire needed to be built back up.
City to ID hazardous ‘soft-story’ buildings SURVEY ESTIMATES THOUSANDS ARE LIVING IN STRUCTURES VULNERABLE TO EARTHQUAKES By Kevin Forestieri
T
he city of Mountain View is set to follow the example of San Francisco and Berkeley after staff last week proposed taking the first steps towards encouraging — or forcing — property owners to retrofit buildings in the city that are more likely to collapse in major earthquakes. At the April 28 city council meeting on the draft budget, community development staff proposed putting $350,000 toward a study to identify all the
INSIDE
so-called soft-story buildings in the city — as well as what would need to be done to retrofit those buildings, and to outline potential incentives or mandates for property owners to make those building upgrades. Soft-story buildings have structurally weak ground floors, normally wood-frame construction with a large open area often used for parking, and they are vulnerable to damage and collapse in earthquakes. The structural weakness was clear in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, when soft-story buildings “pan-
caked” following a collapse of the first floor, according to William Strawn, public affairs director for San Francisco’s Department of Building Inspection. Mountain View’s study would survey where soft-story buildings are located in the city, but it would also explore next steps. The city could create incentives for property owners to move forward on retrofitting unsafe buildings, or it could go straight into passing a city ordinance mandating property owners to See BUILDINGS, page 6
VIEWPOINT 19 | GOINGS ON 28 | MARKETPLACE 29 | REAL ESTATE 31