MVLA
MOUNTAIN VIEW LOS ALTOS HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF TRUSTEES Phil Faillace, Ph.D.
Sanjay Dave
Esmeralda Ortiz
Thida Cornes
Catherine Vonnegut
HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT
Serving the communities or Mountain
View,
Los Altos and Los Altos H Js
February 6, 2023
Diana Pancholi, Principal Planner
Community Development Department
500 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA 94041
Dear Ms. Pancholi,
SUPERINTENDENT
Nellie Meyer, Ed.D.
This document serves as the Mountain View Los Altos High School District (MVLA) response to the Draft Subsequent Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the North Bayshore Master Plan.
We have reviewed the report and provide the following information in regard to the adequacy of the findings as related to direct and indirect impacts on the Mountain View Los Altos High School District. We understand that the passage of SB50 limits the levying of developer fees for direct impacts on school districts. However, nothing precludes the City, Developer and School District from working collaboratively to develop a mitigation strategy to address the direct and indirect city growth impacts on the school district.
Student Growth
The City of Mountain View's Draft Subsequent EIR indicates the impact of 700 high school students would be adequately mitigated by developer fees. This is not accurate. In reality, developer fees are woefully inadequate, covering less than ten percent of actual school construction and land costs in the city of Mountain View. Moreover, the updated Draft Subsequent EIR states:
As of the end of the 2021 to 2022 school year, Mountain View High School is over capacity by 770 students. The school currently utilizes portable classrooms in addition to permanent education facilities to accommodate the additional students. The construction of permanent classroom facilities is underway through Measure E bond program funding and has undergone a separate environmental review. After completion of construction, Mountain View High School would have a capacity of 2,379 students.
Despite this increase in capacity, there would not be sufficient capacity to accommodate the estimated 700 high school students anticipated from the project. Based on current enrollment, Mountain View High School would be 637 students over capacity. 1299 Bryant Avenue, Mountain View, Callfornla 94040-4599 Phone: (650) 940-4650 Attachment 4
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
500 Castro Street, P.O. Box 7540
Mountain View, CA 94039-7540
650-903-6301 | MountainView.gov
March 9, 2023
Dr. Nellie Meyer
Superintendent
Mountain View Los Altos Union High School District
1299 Bryant Avenue
Mountain View, CA 94040
Dear Dr. Meyer:
City staff has received the Mountain View Los Altos Union High School District’s (District or MVLAUHSD) February 6, 202 3 l etter regarding the Draft Subsequent Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the North Bayshore Master Plan.
Thank you for providing comments. I understand that Assistant City Managers Aarti Shrivastava and Audrey Seymour Ramberg will be meeting with your team on March 16 to discuss your comments on the DEIR as well as the avenues for our continued collaboration. The goals of this letter and follow-up meeting are to provide reassurance that the City recognizes that housing development affects the District and reiterate that we stand with the District as a partner in creating solutions.
General Points Related to the DEIR
We would like to note that the responses to your comments will be separately provided in the Final EIR and will relate to the specific considerations of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and State law. As such, this letter and any subsequent meetings are not intended to be and should not be considered as a formal response to your comments on the DEIR. In the meantime, I am sharing the following general points:
• Students generated by the project —While the EIR uses the student generation rat es provided by the District, the City considers these to be overstated. Rates may be lower due to a range of factors, such as declining fertility rates, different occupancy characteristics of tall, high-rent, amenity-rich buildings, and different occupancy characteristics of the smaller units expected in the North Bayshore Master Plan area. A demographer hired by the City highlighted these factors, identifying possible growth scenarios lower than those projected by the District. This information was shared with the District in 2019.
• 30-year time frame for residential growth —The North Bayshore Master Plan includes a 30-year timeline with eight phases for buildout. Development will be spread out over these phases due to the complex requirements of demo lishing office space, subdividing lots, preparing them for residential buildings and open space, rebuilding streets, and building DEIR for the North Bayshore Master Plan
March 9, 2023
infrastructure and other requirements. Other factors, including market dynamics, economic factors, and market absorption rate s, will affect and potentially slow the build - out of housing units. As a result, the generation of students is expected to be gradual and spread out over the time span of the Master Plan.
• Limits of State law—State law imposes significant limitations on the imposition of fees for school facilities. In short, when reviewing projects, the City is prohibited from requiring school fees which exceed those already authorized by statute. In particular, State law provides as follows:
“A State or local agency may not deny or refuse to approve a legislative or adjudicative act, or both, involving, but not limited to, the planning, use, or development of real property . . . on the basis of a person’s refusal to provide school facilities mitigation that exceeds the amounts authorized pursuant to this section or pursuant to Section 65995.5 or 65995.7, as applicable. (Government Code Section 65995(i)) In addition, payment of fees “shall be the exclusive method of considering and mitigating impacts on school facilities,” and “are…deemed to provide full and complete school facilities mitigation .” (Government Code Sections 65996 (a) and (b))”
Avenues for City/District Collaboration on School Capacity
We understand that these technical and statutory considerations cannot speak to the District’s interests to plan for school capacity to meet the needs of the Mountain View community. We further understand that Mountain View is a great place to live, in large part due to its excellent schools. As required by State law, the City is planning for more housing and more affordable housing. This will allow Mountain View residents to remain in the community and continue to attend District schools. It will allow teachers and other critical workers to live closer to work .
And it will allow Mountain View to remain a Community for All where residents and studen ts from diverse backgrounds can enjoy Mountain View’s excellent schools and quality of life .
However, it will also create a need for an increase in school capacity. The City is prepared to assist the District in its efforts to expand school capacity , pri marily through the Council - adopted School Strategy, exploration of potential sites for a high school , and increased Shoreline Community Fund payments made possible as part of an updated Shoreline Area Plan.
Each of these avenues for City support to the District is discussed below.
School Strategy
As mentioned above, one avenue for City/District collaboration to address school capacity is the School Strategy adopted by the City Council in October 2020 . This strategy is in recognition of the limit faced by both the City and the District to impose requirements on project applicants and DEIR for the North Bayshore Master Plan
March 9, 2023
our shared goal to enhance school resources. This strategy seeks to enhance school resources through: (i) a program for Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to facilitate school purchase of land; (ii) potential collaboration for shared open space; and (iii) working with applicants for large master plans to voluntarily identify the potential to locate or augment school sites.
Identification of Potential Sites for a High School
Our staffs have met recently to discuss how we might work together to identify possible locations for future high school development and the use of TDR per the school strategy as a potential source to help fund the purchase. One idea discussed is exploration of a smaller high school at NASA Ames in the context of the University of California Berkeley campus being planned for the site and NASA Ames’ interest to c reate an educational hub. In addition, the Shenandoah Square site owned by the Army may again be an area for exploration . While the option to pursue shared use of this site had been placed on pause at the Federal level, the City received a letter from the Department of the Army in mid-February asking to r eengage on plans for the Shenandoah Square site. While we expect the Army continues to have an interest to meet the housing needs of soldiers on the site, they are also expressing an interest to explore benefits to the residents of Mountain View. We have a meeting scheduled for later this month to learn more about the Army’s plans for the site and will keep you apprised of what we learn.
Use of Shoreline Regional Park Community Funds
The Education Enhancement Reserve Joint Powers Agreement (EER JPA) is another avenue for collaboration and source of support for the District. Focused on the educational needs of the Shoreline Regional Park Community (Shoreline Community), the EER JPA has been in place for more than 15 years and provides MVLAUHSD and the Mountain View Whisman School District (MVWSD) with an annual payment from the Shoreline Community. I n Fiscal Year 2022 -23, this payment to MVLAUHSD was $3,423,095, which is well above the guaranteed minimum payment of $1.8 million stipulated in the agreement. Since the first agreement was enacted in 2006, the Shoreline Community has made payments to MVLAUHSD totaling $32,551,064.
The EER JPA was amended in 2019 to include an increase in the payment from the Shoreline Community, applying the District’s full tax rate allocation to the assessed value on all new residential development. Consequently, when new housing comes online in the North Bayshore Area over time, the payment to the District will increase significantly.
The current EER JPA expires on June 30, 2023. City and District staff have been meeting since August 2019, as required by the agreement, to share information, talk about interests, and negotiate a successor agreement. From these discussions, it has become clear that more time is needed to craft a long-term agreement that balances school needs related to housing growth in North Bayshore with the community needs fulfilled by the Shoreline Communi ty. More time is DEIR for the North Bayshore Master Plan
March 9, 2023
also needed to be able to inform these discussions by the Google North Bayshore Master Plan, which is anticipated to come to the City Council for adoption in Q2 2023.
Short-Term Successor EER JPA
At the November 29, 2022 EER JPA Board meeting, the Board provided direction to staff to develop a short -term agreement for adoption as soon as possible to provide certainty for a payment in Fiscal Year 2023-24. I committed that my staff would continue to work diligently to develop a timely new agreement and that this would include a Fiscal Year 2023-24 payment in an amount no less than the Fiscal Year 2022-23 payment (i.e., $3,423,095) for MVLAUHSD.
Since that time, our staffs have held multiple calls and meetings to develop terms for the short- term agreement. City staff has provided a draft agreement to both districts that includes the minimum payment as stated above, plus an adjustment payment based on the growth in property tax revenue in the Shoreline Community, plus an additional one-time payment. After the EER JPA Board meeting, MVWSD staff communicated an interest in having some certainty that a new bond issuance by the Shoreline Community in Fiscal Year 2023 -24, if any, would not preclude the ability of the Shoreline Community to make future payments to the District. In response, City staff included a term in the short-term agreement that the Shoreline Community will not issue bonds in Fiscal Year 2023-24.
I am hopeful that the EER JPA Board will be able to meet early in Q2 2023 to vote to recommend adoption of the agreement to each of the agencies’ respective elected bodies.
Long-Term Successor EER JPA and Updated Shoreline Area Plan
At the November 29, 2022 EER JPA Board meeting, the Board also provided direction that our staffs continue to meet to negotiate a longer -term agreement and present an update to the Board before summer 2023 with a timeline and process for that negotiation. As context for a longer-term successor EER JPA agreement, the City inte nds to update the 1977 Shoreline Area Plan, which defines the developments and improvements that accomplish the purposes of the Act that created the Shoreline Community in 1969. This is proposed as one of the City Council’s priority projects in its Fiscal Years 2023-25 Work Plan, which Council supported at its February 28, 2023 Study Session.
As presented during the November EER JPA Board meeting, schools were not contemplated in the development of the original Shoreline Area Plan, which is the guiding d ocument for acceptable uses of Shoreline Community funds. As noted in that staff report, an updated Shoreline Area Plan can more effectively contemplate support for school capacity during the remainder of the development phase of the Shoreline Community. This development phase will focus on private housing development, affordable housing creation, and public improvements to DEIR for the North Bayshore Master Plan
March 9, 2023
build out the core infrastructure to support the area, including, but not limited to, transportation, utilities, and sea level rise protection.
Following the development phase, the Shoreline Area Plan will transition to a steady state phase of infrastructure reinforcement, maintenance, and operation . During this phase, the Shoreline Community will continue to be responsible for region al assets —such as a 750 -acre park, extensive wetlands that are home to Federally protected species, and irrigated meadowlands — as well as regional obligations , such as a 650 -acre closed landfill and a system of tidal marshes, sloughs, creeks, and a storm re tention basin which must be improved and managed to protect the Shoreline Community and broader area from sea level rise.
In the steady state phase, the use of Shoreline Community funds will be more narrowly scoped to continue to support this defined set of regional benefits and obligations with the rest of the revenue paid out to the taxing entities. This approach will address specific concerns about the impacts of new development and support increased school capacity while also supporting long- term growth in the region that will result in higher assessed value, increased property tax revenue, and a significant, sustainable revenue stream for all taxing entities.
In closing, I am pleased to document in writing the City’s intentions to assist the District by helping to identify a school site and continuing and increasing payments from the Shoreline Community through a long-term successor EER JPA. I am hopeful that we can continue to work together on school capacity and our many other areas of collaboration.
Regards,
Kimbra McCarthy
City Manager
KMC/HM/6/MGR/611-03-09-23L
cc: Mountain View Los Altos Union High School District Board of Trustees
Mike Mathiesen, Chief Business Officer, Mountain View Whisman School District
City Council
ACM—Ramberg, ACM/CDD