Dear Mayor Ramos and City Council,
SB 79
Mountain View YIMBY supports harmonizing local development standards with the provisions of SB 79, as much as feasible, to provide clarity for developers and the community. We believe that such standards should incorporate existing work, specifically from the Moffett Boulevard Precise Plan, the Downtown Precise Plan Update, and the R3 Zoning Update, to make best use of staff resources and existing community engagement.
We caution against more extensive work given the existing demands placed on staff by legally-required permitting procedures and council priority projects like Citywide Objective Design Standards and Low/Middle-Income Homeownership. Additionally, exclusions are only allowed until 2031 and alternative plans, if done, would have to be redone for the next Housing Element by 2031, whereas the medium-effort and significant-effort options can’t be finished until at least 2027. Spending a year or more on work that would expire in 4 years or less would be an inefficient use of resources.
Regarding exclusions, we do not believe the areas identified within the East Whisman, San Antonio, and El Camino Real Precise Plans can be excluded as allowing 50% of SB 79 density. Those Plans have base FAR lower than 50% of what SB 79 allows in their respective areas; anything larger requires discretionary Bonus FAR that prevents the use of state density bonus (MVCC 36.48.80(c)) as required under SB 79 (Gov 65912.157(d)). Regarding the Downtown Precise Plan, some sites only allow housing under a discretionary Provisional Use Permit.
AB 130
We support the staff recommendation of applying ministerial approval to any AB 130-eligible project. As the memo states, laws such as the Housing Accountability Act and the CEQA exemption from AB 130 already limit the city’s discretion to disapprove projects, and the updates to the Permit Streamlining Act have made timelines shorter and violations more punishable. We believe that maintaining public hearings where no discretion exists serves no useful purpose.
Thank you for your consideration.
James Kuszmaul, on behalf of Mountain View YIMBY