Google’s North Bayshore Megaproject is a redevelopment on 127 acres of North Bayshore. The plan is on 30-year development agreement in order to manage the scheme’smassive scale. The current plan is to split out construction into eight phases, with around 3,000 homes planned for the first two phases of development. Every feature of the North Bayshore Master Plan is on a big scale. The 7,000 homes will comprises of 1,400 affordable housing — almost to doubling the number of below market rate units in the city — and 31 acres will be converted into public parks. The North Bayshore Megaproject will also crank up office development by 1.3 million additional square feet.
Car-centric, single-use destination.
Although Google is subject to strict caps on parking so as to limit the use of cars in the future urban district, a proposed garage outside Shoreline Amphitheatre will comprise of 4,330 parking areas. Google’s recommended community benefit package is attached exclusively in North Bayshore, dedicating $42 million to pay for transportation upgrades and the creation of the area’s so-called “eco gem,” a huge conservation area to preserve natural habitat and ecology in a space that will later be packed with high-density housing and offices.
Mountain View’s Environmental Planning Commission highly supported the plans in a meeting, praising the scheme for adhering closely to the city’s plans for North Bayshore as a mixed-use set of neighborhoods constructed in close proximity to offices. Google’s lead urban planner, Jeff Hosea stated that the master plan makes good on the vision that replaced what he described as a “car-centric, single-use destination” ripe for a new thing. Google’s North Bayshore Megaproject will start on the east side of Shoreline Boulevard from Charleston Road to Space Park Way, frontloaded with the clearance of existing offices and the building of 2,912 housing units, according to a city staff report. Hosea added that the “optimistic” plan is to have the first two phases done by late 2030 or 2031.
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Another eye-popping issue in Google’s North Bayshore Megaproject is how many trees need to be removed to create way for new roadways and buildings that will redefine North Bayshore.
A grand total of 2,586 trees will have to be removed, according to city staff, or roughly two-thirds of the total trees located at the master plan area. Number of them are large, mature redwood trees covering big swaths of the tech park, encompassing large roadway medians and surrounding one-story offices. The removal of trees will take place in many small phases, replacing them with more diverse plants over the coming decades, but the existing redwood trees simply doesn’t fit in with much of the master plan.
Timeline.
2021.
Google’s North Bayshore Megaproject to develop 7,000 new homes and 3 million square feet of offices is set to take decades to finish, with some of the earliest phases slated to be complete by 2030 earliest. The Mountain View City Council will take another look at the scheme proposal on Dec. 14, followed by another design review later in Spring 2022.
