Empanadas, anyone? WEEKEND | 15
JUNE 15, 2018 VOLUME 26, NO. 21
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MOVIES | 18
Council opts to replace apartments with rowhouses Apartments at Moffett Manor were generally considered to be n older cluster of apart- affordable by Mountain View ments in Mountain standards, ranging from around View’s North Whis- $1,850 to $2,400 a month. In man neighborhood will be torn 2016 Grant Huberty, the owner down to build an equivalent of Moffett Manor apartments, number of new rowhouses, a had warned he would sell his decision the owner blames on apartments for redevelopment the city’s rent control law. On if the city enacted rent control. In an email to the Voice, Tuesday night, the City Council unanimously approved plans to Huberty said the housing at redevelop the Moffett Manor Moffett Manor would have Apartments, replacing the 56 needed to be rebuilt in any event. existing rentals with 58 for-sale The apartments were showing their age homes. and they didn’t Playing to meet current the council’s ‘A small net gain seismic stansympathies dards or utilat the June of housing for ity demands. It 12 meeting, a choice of John Hickey such a disruptive was upgrading old of SummerHill Hous- project doesn’t seem apartments or building new ing Group homes, he said. promised that reasonable.’ “The current the new row ANDRE PENA, rental houshouses would MOFFETT MANOR TENANT ing climate be priced to be in Mountain affordable for View had an the so-called “missing middle” — that is, impact on our decision to working professionals who nor- not undertake these extensive mally can’t afford home owner- and expensive renovations,” Huberty said. “Whether comship in the area. In earlier plans sent to the city, pletely remodeled to today’s he indicated the prices would safety standards or simply rederange as low as $680,000 for a veloped, the existing tenants one-bedroom and up to $1.1 would be displaced in either million for a three-bedroom scenario.” A total of 12 tenants from home. On Tuesday, he amended that promise slightly, saying the Moffett Manor have applied so homes would be priced “sub- far for the city’s relocation assisstantially less than $1.6 million tance program, Hickey said. Each qualified tenant will be to $1.7 million.” “The key here is our units provided the equivalent of three will be smaller but still very liv- months of rent and help finding able and efficient,” Hickey said. a new apartment in the area. Some residents made a last“The current owner has done a very good job maintaining the ditch effort to preserve the site, but the simple fact is these apartments, describing it as buildings are reaching the end of their lifespan.” See ROWHOUSES, page 8 By Mark Noack
A COURTESY OF ALBERT JEANS
WATCHING YOU LIKE A ... This young red-tailed hawk appeared to be keeping an eye out for anyone flaunting the trail’s speed limit at Shoreline Park on Memorial Day. Longtime Mountain View resident Albert Jeans shared his photo of the majestic bird, remarking on how it remained completely unruffled by all the trail users passing by.
‘Miscalculations’ blamed for school district’s massive budget errors By Kevin Forestieri
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ountain View Whisman School District officials in March warned that the district was heading into deficit spending over the next few years, eating up nearly $9 million in reserves
to offset growing costs between now and the end of the 2019-20 school year. But it turns out that the gloomy forecast was completely off. A series of accounting errors recently discovered by the district’s financial team revealed the school district had
overestimated costs and undercounted money coming in, causing a cascading effect on each subsequent year’s budget projection. The end result is that the school district is back in the black, and has close to See BUDGET SNAFU, page 6
Switching gears, LASD seeks to condemn Federal Realty site DISTRICT ABANDONS PLANS TO FORCE SALE OF GREYSTAR PROPERTY IN SAN ANTONIO AREA By Kevin Forestieri
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os Altos School District officials announced last week that they plan to use eminent domain to acquire land on the eastern side of the San Antonio Shopping Center for a new school, abandoning plans to
INSIDE
buy the site of the Old Mill and former Safeway across the street. In a letter to city staff on Friday, June 8, Superintendent Jeff Baier revealed that the district is now seeking to buy 9.7 acres of land at the corner of California Street and Showers Drive, currently owned by Federal Realty
and slated for future mixed-use development in the same mold as the western side of the shopping center. Baier told the Voice in an email Wednesday that the Federal Realty land has been on the See LASD CAMPUS, page 8
VIEWPOINT 14 | GOINGS ON 19 | MARKETPLACE 20 | REAL ESTATE 22