Interest in housing development in the City of Mountain View continues with San Jose-based Charities Housing winning unanimous approval from the city council to develop an 84-unit affordable multifamily residential building. The property is at 1265 Montecito Avenue and will replace a vacant 12,300-square-foot office building that is currently on the lot.
The five-story development will offer a mix of 24 studios, 18 one-bedroom, 21 two-bedroom, 21 three-bedroom, and one three-bedroom staff units for a total of 84 affordable apartment homes. The project is aimed at low-income families earning between 30-60 percent of the Area Median Income; even lower AMI earners will be served if they are receiving financial assistance and subsidies. 42 units will be designated as Rapid Rehousing Units, which will serve families and individuals that are currently without housing.
The project proposal also includes 45 parking spaces, which qualifies the development for the state density bonus parking requirement of 0.5 spaces per unit. The development will be positioned across the street from a supermarket, as well as two other residential development projects and a car wash. The building will be a short distance from the Mountain View Caltrain station, providing a public transportation option to its residents.
According to the project details on the Mountain View City Council’s website, the developer will apply for a range of federal, state and local sources of funding for the development. As part of the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), the means by which the federal government announces grant opportunities, Santa Clara county will contribute a total of $18 million to the project as part of its Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Mountain View. The city will contribute $16 million to the development, out of a total of just over $88.7 million.
Formed in 1993 as the Charities Housing Development Corporation of Santa Clara County, the organization originated in response to the significant needs of people who were receiving services from Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County. Charities Housing, as it is known now, today includes projects throughout Santa Clara County across a range of housing types. According to the organization’s website, these projects include service-enriched housing for extremely low-income people and more traditional affordable housing units that total over 1,200 units.
1265 Montecito is one of several recently approved housing projects in the City of Mountain View. The city’s community development department planning division released a development update in 2022, which included long-range policy planning projects. As a result, the most notable recently approved project in the area was the Middlefield Park Master Plan, which was proposed by Google and approved by the City Council in November 2022. The Middlefield Park Master Plan is set to transform a suburban office park into a thriving community focused on well-being, health and sustainability. The development will include 1,900 homes, 20 percent of which will be available at affordable below-market rates. The project also includes over 12 acres of public open spaces, over 50,000 square feet of public retail and community space, carbon-free and all-electric office and residential buildings and several miles of new walking and cycling trails.
Some other long-range projects include the Downtown Precise Plan Update; a Multiple-Family Residential Zoning Code Update; and the East Whisman Impact Fee Nexus Study, which details planned transportation and utility infrastructure improvements for the East Whisman Precise Plan.
