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Home + Garden Design JULY 10, 2015 VOLUME 23, NO. 24
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City approves plan to close down RV park RENTERS TO GET EXTRA RELOCATION AID By Mark Noack
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NOT SO QUIET IN THE LIBRARY Four fellows from the Boomerang Barbershop Quartet made things lively at the Mountain View library on Tuesday evening. From left, tenor Al Ward, lead Ramin Kayvan, bass Steve Wolk and baritone Dave Morely performed a variety of tunes, ranging from early 20th century Americana to hits from the 1950s and ‘60s, for the crowd that gathered to hear the free show.
Who wants to be a school board member? MOUNTAIN VIEW WHISMAN DISTRICT SEEKING APPLICANTS FOR BOARD PRESIDENT’S SEAT By Kevin Forestieri
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trife among trustees of the Mountain View Whisman School District led board president Chris Chiang to resign last month. To fill the remainder of his term, the district is accepting applications for a replacement. As of Monday, July 6, any dis-
trict resident interested in filling the vacant seat on the school board can pick up an application from the district office or apply online. The new trustee could be the deciding vote on several difficult decisions facing the fivemember board. Chiang resigned in June, saying that board member Steve Nelson created a hostile environment for
district staff and stymied board discussion, even after the board formally censured Nelson for his behavior in late 2013. Board members unanimously decided Tuesday night, June 30, to start the appointment process, rather than conduct a special election to fill the vacancy. ChiSee SCHOOL BOARD, page 7
wenty-one households will be displaced from a North Whisman RV park to make way for a new row-house development approved by the Mountain View City Council Tuesday night. In a 3-2 vote, the council approved plans to build out a site off Fairchild Drive with 32 new homes, which are expected to sell for around $900,000 apiece. But with the approval, city officials insisted that dislocated residents be given a relocation package that’s more generous than anything considered in the past. The RV park has 30 motorhome spaces, which are rented out for about $850 a month. The property also includes two single-family rental homes and an eight-room motel, but those units have been vacant since late 2013. A series of residents expressed concern that the redevelopment would erase one of the few options for cheap housing in Mountain View’s pricey rental market. One resident, Charles Wagner, described living in one of the park’s rental homes for the last 14 years. He said he is worried about his prospects for finding new
Top planet hunter retires from NASA Ames WILLIAM BORUCKI LAUDED AS VISIONARY FOR KEPLER MISSION By Mark Noack
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ASA Ames Research Center lost one of its brightest stars last week with the retirement of William Borucki, a research scientist
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best known as the mastermind behind the agency’s planet-hunting Kepler mission. Through his work on the Kepler, Borucki proved that small planets are not only present but pervasive throughout the
Milky Way galaxy, a discovery that helped kindle a surge of new interest in the possibility of extraterrestrial life. The Kepler program is credited with discovering more than 1,000 planets, and nearly 3,200
possible but unconfirmed planets, and those numbers continue to grow. In recent years, Borucki has earned a stream of accolades for his success, including personal congratulations from President
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housing in Mountain View. “I’m low income, so obviously this is going to have a huge impact for me,” Wagner said. “I don’t know where I’m going to live. If I’m lucky, I’ll be paying twice as much for a place half the size.” The closure of the RV park was set in motion years ago. As part of a 1997 precise plan for the Evandale neighborhood, city leaders marked the RV park to be closed down no later than December 2017. At the time, city officials opted not to include the mobile-home park as a recognized use and they flagged it to eventually be zoned residential. But exactly why city leaders went this route remains unclear. Most residents first learned about the closure plans last October when the city began a round of interviews for an impact report. According to that report, 10 households at the park fell into the low-income category, but others at the park would hardly be considered poor. Mountain View Zoning Administrator Gerry Beaudin pointed out that many professionals were living out of motor homes at the park as a way to be closer to their jobs during the workweek. In fact, 12 See RV PARK, page 8
Barack Obama, a stream of cash prizes, and dozens of top science awards. But he got a very different kind of response when he first proposed the basis for Kepler more than 20 years ago. To many, it seemed like a pipe dream, and it likely would have remained that if not for Borucki’s tenacity. See BORUCKI, page 14