Mountain View Goes Big on Google Expansion, Approves 10,000 Housing Units

"Mountain View City Council Tuesday night unanimously approved a sweeping redevelopment plan, clearing the way for Google and other developers to create a dense, city-like campus of offices and homes in a housing-starving region," reports Louis Hansen.

In effect, the City Council approved a new master plan that enables what Hansen calls "the most ambitious new development in the Bay Area." The master plan allows up to 9,850 new housing units on 150 acres. Of that total, 70 percent of the units will be targeted for studio or one-bedroom apartments, and 20 percent of the apartments will be affordable.

Importantly, the city of Mountain View is pitching the master plan as a bold new development vision for the entire Bay Area, which is stricken by some of the most expensive housing prices in the country. The Google proposal has encountered its share of ups and downs. In October, Planetizen reported that Google had backed down from a threat to cancel the housing component of the project. The company regretted the negotiation tact, which came over a year after the city of Mountain View set the stage for this week's big approval. It wasn't so long ago, 2014 in fact, that Mountain View was taking a much less permissive approach to new housing as jobs in the city soared.