Fwd: Act Now to Save Mountain View's Historic Downtown
Lawrence Shing
From: <robert....@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Dec 1, 2025, 1:54 PM
Subject: Act Now to Save Mountain View's Historic Downtown
To: <livable-mo...@googlegroups.com>
Send an email to city.c...@mountainview.gov.
Our legislature passed Senate Bill 79 in October 2025. It goes into effect July 1, 2026, and mandates that areas within one-half mile of a rail stop in our county must allow 6-9 story housing BY RIGHT without a city council vote. Residents will have no say in what is built. Our downtown and its historic buildings can be torn down.
But the new law does allow for a limited exception for official city-certified historic districts that are on a local historic register. The problem is that we do not yet have the needed historic district that could save our downtown.
BUT on Tuesday, December 9, the Mountain View City Council will vote on changes to the Historic Ordinance and Local Register. Council will have the opportunity to weigh in on whether our downtown commercial district in and around the 100-300 blocks of Castro Street merits this historic designation. City documents have always called our downtown “the historic center and focus of the community, and the heartbeat of the city”. And it is a key source of sales tax revenue supporting our city’s economic vitality.
Please write the council at city.c...@mountainview.gov and say: “Our downtown commercial district should be saved by declaring it an official historic district on the local historic register.” If you have time, it would help to add a personal note about a restaurant, shop, or life event to illustrate why you love our downtown. I will be writing “My wife and I had our first date on Castro Steet 26 years ago. Each year we celebrate our anniversary with dinner at a downtown restaurant.”
For more information, write to livable.mo...@gmail.com or see our plan to save our historic downtown at https://www.livablemv.com/blog/.
Robert Cox & Louise Katz
For the Steering Committee of Livable Mountain View
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