Letter to the Editor: Delay San Antonio Shopping Center's Phase II

Neighbors of the San Antonio Shopping Center, now the Village at San Antonio, have launched a petition drive to urge the Mountain View City Council to delay final consideration of Merlone Geier's Phase II development proposal, as well as that of any other potential developments, until a new Precise Plan is completed for the area. They are also suggesting to the Council that no more Gatekeeper requests for the area be approved until after completion of the Precise Plan.

The Greater San Antonio Community Association, officially formed in October of 2012, but active earlier informally, hopes to gather 1,000 signatures, mostly from Mountain View residents, but also from residents of nearby cities that will also be impacted, such as Los Altos and Palo Alto.

Their first petitioning effort, in the summer of 2012, was successful in convincing the council to prioritize creating a Precise Plan for the San Antonio Change Area, over another area also designated for significant change, according to the city's General Plan 2030. This newly adopted broad planning overview for the city features areas turned into walkable, higher density village centers near mass transit.

At the time of that decision, the council decided that rather than hold up Merlone Geier's Phase II plans for the estimated 18 or more months that it would take to complete the Precise Plan, it would instead hold two community visioning workshops to come to a better consensus on a vision, especially since the original Phase II development proposal was quite shocking to many, with its proposed eleven-story buildings.

These professionally mediated workshops, in October and December of 2012, brought developer representatives, business owners, commercial property owners, residents, and school and other social/civic representatives together. Participants pored over maps and talked about connectivity, open space, building heights, land use and densities for various sub-areas. They looked at a slide show, voting instantly, rating and discussing such things as types of open space, intersections, sidewalk and bike lane treatments. Many participated via surveys online as well. Although this was a terrific conversation and a good start, many on the council later expressed disappointment that more was not accomplished in terms of specifics that everyone agreed on.

Recently, the council agreed that before receiving Merlone Geier's second proposal for Phase II, originally scheduled for mid-February, they would hold a study session on March 19th to discuss the public benefits that they should require of Merlone Geier before approving any version of a proposal from them. Merlone Geier has since published a press release that gave everyone a sneak peak at their newest proposal.

Although neighbors are pleased with some of proposed changes, they have major concerns about traffic impacts, blocked views, demise of current local businesses, lack of park space for new residents, and other issues.

The concerns are not just for this development, but this one combined with the many more already waiting to be evaluated next. They don't want the council to decide on individual developments in a piecemeal fashion, but to use the Precise Plan as a framework for guiding all the future development and as a tool to solve these difficult problems.

The GSACA argues that the same reasons the council wisely decided to prioritize the San Antonio precise plan are still very good reasons for holding off building a significant portion of the change area while completing the comprehensive planning necessary to ensure the success of such an unprecedented neighborhood infill project.

The new petition has been circulating on various neighborhood association e-lists, as well as active parents within the Los Altos School District, since residents of this area are members of LASD. The petition is posted on the GSACA's website http://www.greater-san-antonio.org. There are currently over 325 signatures. They plan to submit their petition and speak to the council on this topic at the March 19th study session, and encourage all interested residents to attend this meeting and comment if they want to.

Submitted by:

Nancy Morimoto
Planning Committee Chairperson
Greater San Antonio Community Association