Learn more about the Drive Less Challenge by visiting their website. Please consider volunteering to help run the challenge and/or participate in the challenge yourself! Contact MVCSP member and Drive Less Challenge Leader Bruce England to participate.
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We'll be meeting at Vox Design Center (421 Castro Street) on Thursday, 4/12 from 6:30-8:30pm.
We’ll be talking about… - How to protect wildlife if there is housing in North Bayshore - Reviewing some of MVCSP’s final comments on the General Plan before Council’s big 4/21 workshop - Drive thrus and the drive less challenge - Parks in MV. If we’re adding lots of new people, how do we make sure they have access to open space? - Pop-up Vietnamese street food parties happening in vacant El Camino Real buildings (yes you read that correctly!) - An update on BRT ![]() Guys. We're almost done. After three long years, the General Plan update is almost over. True, we've though that before and then it hasn't been over but this time it's different. We can feel it in our ridiculously photogenic bones. <--- This means that with the last dregs of enthusiasm that we might have for this topic (tap into the land use equivalent of a Gu Shot you might have consumed back in say, the summer of 2011) need to be used now. Are you willing to meet with your Council members to talk about what is important to you? How about attending an upcoming meeting? We need people to do both! If you are willing to meet with a Council member please contact us. Council is meeting on April 21st for an all day workshop on the General Plan. It's important that they hear from you before then. On Wednesday, April 18th the EPC will be talking about all kinds of things that MVCSP devotees would care about. They include:
The meeting will either be int eh Council Chambers or Plaza Conference Room on 4/18. The meeting starts at 7:00pm. May 19, 2012 - Town Hall meeting
Public meeting to review the status of the General Plan update. (Meeting beings at 7 p.m. with no designated end time.) Apr 5, 2012 6:41AM May 16, 2012 - Environmental Planning Commission Meeting Public hearing on Final General Plan, Final General Plan Environmental Impact Report and Final Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program. (Meeting starts at 7 p.m. with no designated end time.) Apr 5, 2012 6:39AM Apr 21, 2012 - City Council Workshop Workshop for the City Council to discuss General Plan policy topics. (Meeting starts at 7 p.m. with no designated end time.) Based on your preferences, this email notice is sent to you daily whenever new or modified information is posted. To change how often this email is sent or what types of content will trigger this email, please go to the account preferences page. Hello Sustainability Friends!
As a follow up to my last several emails on the topic of the City’s Environmental Sustainability Action Plan (ESAP), I wanted to let you know that I’ll be bringing the new “ESAP-2” (covering 2011-2014) to council on April 10th. The council meeting starts at 6:30pm, and I’ll let you know when I have a better sense of the timing of ESAP-2 within the agenda. It would be great to have you make any positive comments about adopting ESAP-2. Thanks to those of you who showed up at any of the last 4 Council Environmental Sustainability Committee (CESC) meetings to provide input on ESAP-2! An agenda and staff memo will be posted to the City’s sustainability web site by COB on April 5th. www.mountainview.gov/sustainability — Background on ESAP -- Largely based on the 2008 Environmental Sustainability Task Force recommendations, the City Council adopted an Environmental Sustainability Action Plan (ESAP) in March 2009 to serve as a road map for achieving the City's short- and long-term sustainability goals. The ESAP identified 25 initiatives for completion between 2008 and 2011, most of which are completed or nearing completion. During CESC meetings in April, May, and December 2011, and February 2012, the committee solicited public input about which sustainability activities to pursue over the next few years and include in ESAP-2. I hope to see you at the meeting, and please feel free to spread the word! I am personally grateful for your continued support in making Mountain View as sustainable as possible. Steve -------- Steve Attinger Environmental Sustainability Coordinator - CGBP City of Mountain View - Public Works 500 Castro St. Mountain View, CA 94041-2010 [email protected] www.mountainview.gov/sustainability 650-903-6602 Here's a simple summary of what's on tomorrow's agenda:
Friday, March 16, 2012
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Mountain View City Hall City Council Chambers, 2nd Floor 500 Castro Street Topics: · Mountain View’s General Plan and North Bayshore Precise Plan efforts · Anticipated long-term growth and transportation needs in the Shoreline Regional Park Community · National trends in transportation and smart growth · Panel discussion — Innovative transportation options for the Shoreline Regional Park Community — Portland South Waterfront Transportation System — Los Colinas (Dallas) Area Personal Transit System Welcoming Remarks: R. Michael Kasperzak, Mayor, City of Mountain View Keynote Speaker/Panel Moderator: William Fulton, AICP Smart Growth America—VP for Policy and Programs Former Mayor and Councilmember—Ventura, CA Speakers/Panelists: · Randal Tsuda, City of Mountain View Community Development Director · James Lightbody, AECOM · Steve Raney, ULTra PRT · Jerry Sanders, SkyTran · Brian Newman, Director of Campus Planning, Oregon Health and Science University Contact the Mountain View Public Works Department for more information (650) 903-6311 What: City Council study session on affordable housing impact fee
When: Tuesday, March 6, 5:15pm-6:30pm Where: Our ask to MVCSP members: Please attend and speak in favor of the impact fee. Why: B/C affordability is key to sustainability. This impact fee is a tool to create affordable housing. Without support from the public, Council will likely decide not to use this tool. Affordable housing is a key part of any sustainable community? Why? Because when there isn't a big enough supply of housing at all different price points, including less expensive homes, then workers are forced to drive long distances to get to their jobs. This worsens air pollution and climate change. It also has negative social and economic impacts for our City. In short, it's bad for all of the things that MVCSP stands for. This is why we are urging people to attend the City Council study session on Tuesday, 3/6. You'll be commenting on the issue of an "Affordable Housing Impact Fee". In case you haven't been following the saga, affordable housing creation in California is in BAAAD shape. Many of the tools we could once count on (redevelopment agencies, inclusionary rental housing policies, etc.) have been eliminated. This has left cities grasping at straws, and looking for any solutions to get affordable housing in CA built. Here in Mountain View, we have such a solution! It's in the findings of the City's Nexus Study. Last year, the City studied the economic impacts of building market rate housing. The findings of the study showed that building new market rate homes generated a need for below market rate (aka affordable) homes! To grossly oversimplify the reasons for these findings, we'll explain by saying that every new home brings new residents to town. These new residents will use the local dry cleaner, buy coffee at a nearby coffee shop, etc. The jobs (or little pieces of jobs) will be generated by these new customers and the people that hold these jobs need a place to live. Hopefully close by. The nexus study justifies charging developers an "impact fee". This impact fee would then be used to build affordable housing in the City. (Again, this is simplified.) MVCSP supports the idea of adopting an impact fee of 3% of the total cost of each market rate unit. We hope you do too. MVCSP members are urged to give up a little bit of their evening this Tuesday to go speak in favor of the adoption of the an impact fee for affordable housing. It's part and parcel of being sustainability-minded Mountain View residents. The meeting will be held from 5:15 to 6:30 in the Plaza Conference Room. p.s. Just like the Valentine's Day Council meeting we asked you to go to, this will be over early and quickly so you can get home to your dinners! MVCSP is gearing up for the third installment of the ongoing training series, Planning for Change: How to be an Effective Advocate, that we are hosting in partnership with Greenbelt Alliance. On March 29th, Greenbelt Alliance's Online Communications Manager, Sara Barz will be showing us all how to use free or inexpensive online communication tools for advocacy purposes. Like all of our other workshops, this event will be free but will require registration. Unlike our other workshops, we ask that you try to bring a laptop or some other wireless internet device (preferably something more elaborate than a smart phone) so that you can visit some of the sites Sara is telling us about in real time. Also, please note that we have not yet confirmed a location for this event. If you know of a good spot for a group of 20-40 people with wireless internet, please contact [email protected].
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