The City of Mountain View has granted a CEQA Exemption for the eight-story proposal at 490 East Middlefield Road in Mountain View, Santa Clara County. The project was determined to meet the criteria for the streamlined review through the California Environmental Quality Act via Assembly Bill 130. Jeff Stone of Diamond Construction Inc is listed as the project applicant, filed through WTA Middlefield LLC.
490 East Middlefield Road street view, rendering by SDT Architects
490 East Middlefield Road second-level floor plan, illustration by SDT Architects
The roughly 85-foot-tall structure is expected to yield around 391,700 square feet, including 327,440 square feet for housing, 9,370 square feet of ground-level retail, and 54,960 square feet for the ground-level stacker-filled garage. Parking will be included for 495 cars and 358 bicycles. The project is expected to create 460 apartments, including 230 studios, 196 one-bedrooms, 26 two-bedrooms, and eight loft-style apartments.
SDT Architects is responsible for the design, working with Los Angeles-based Olin for the landscape architecture. Illustrations show the podium-style complex will be carved up to visually reduce the structure’s scale from the street. This includes facade articulation, setbacks, and wrapping the top two floors in a dark grey cladding. Facade materials will include insulated metal panels and stucco.
490 East Middlefield Road sidewalk view, rendering by SDT Architects
490 East Middlefield Road pedestrian view showcasing the podium-top courtyard, rendering by SDT Architects
Residential amenities will be spread across several lounges, two podium-top courtyards, and a few fitness studios. The open-air courtyard will include a pool deck, a dog park, outdoor dining spaces, and ample seating.
The application benefits from Assembly Bill 130, which “expands CEQA to include a new statutory exemption applying to a broad array of infill housing projects.” The filing also invokes the State Density Bonus law to increase residential capacity above base zoning. Of the 460 units, 55 will be deed-restricted as affordable housing for low-income and very low-income households.
The 2.86-acre property is located along Middlefield Road between Ellis Street and North Whisman Road. Demolition will be required for an existing two-story office building. Future residents will find themselves between several Google-owned offices, apartments, and single-family homes. The site is close to the Middlefield lightrail station, less than 15 minutes from the Mountain View Caltrain Station via transit or bicycle.
490 East Middlefield Road vertical cross-section, illustration by SDT Architects
490 East Middlefield Road, image via Google Satellite outlined approximately by YIMBY
The estimated cost and timeline for construction have not yet been established.
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oh woof! Almost 500 units… That’s how you combat a housing affordability crisis.
What used to be a cruddy office building and a sea of parking will be homes for easily 500+ residents. Please, SJ, get started on just 5% of the tons of stuff approved city-wide.
Interesting to watch the ongoing transformation of these office park wastelands into dense urban housing. It is going to be a strange hopscotch effect for a while until the transformation is complete.
I am old enough to remember when a lot of these office parks were going up. As a kid I was so sad riding in my parents’ car and watching all of the almond, cherry, and plum orchards dozed and burned to build these beige office parks, as well as all of the beige slump block walls along the freeways announcing the arrival of yet another sprawly subdivision. I only saw the very tail end of it in the late 1970s/early 1980s, but the Santa Clara Valley was a stunningly beautiful place at one time. Think Napa with fruit trees instead of grapes.
Maybe keep one or two of the “better” office parks as a reminder of what not to do.
Same thing happening out here in East Contra Costa County. Once full of beautiful farmland and vineyards…now they want to build office buildings,data centers and low income housing. Thankfully every time there is a local ballot measure to move the urban limit line, it gets voted down.I am in Discovery Bay with a two-lane road to Stockton that will never get any wider and they want to build a 3,000 home development on a once beautiful asparagus farm that is below the levee. Idiotic to say the least.
Yes, it’s a shame what they’re doing to east Contra Costa and San Joaquin counties. Seems like Stockton could do with some urban development in its downtown core rather than paving over all that rich farmland. The sprawl out there is unreal. It’s really depressing, but sadly most Americans want to live like that I guess.