1 From: Ramesh Mistry
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2025 3:27 PM
To: City Council
Subject: Written Comments - Agenda Item 7.1
Attachments: City Council Letter Feb 11 meeting.pdf
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Please include the letter attached here in response to Agenda Item 7.1 - February 11th City Council meeting.
Thank you.
Ramesh Mistry
Ramda by Wyndham Mountain View
Everest Hospitality, dba Ramada by Wyndham Mountain View City Council
500 Castro Street,
Mountain View, CA 94041
February 10, 2025
Dear City of Mountain View City Council,
In 2022, we requested that our site, 55 Fairchild Drive, Mountain View CA 94043, be included in the Housing Element Update 2023-2031, noting to the Planning Department that we are actively looking at opportunities to redevelop our existing hotel. We were happy to see that our site was included in the final draft of the City of Mountain View’s Housing Element Program for 2023-2031.
However, we were surprised that the City is pursuing using the General Plan Mixed Use Village Center (GPMUVC) land use plan for residential development on our site, leaving in place the Evandale Precise Plan’s extremely restrictive Commercial Neighborhood (CN) zoning for commercial development in Area A.
We would like to take this opportunity to request that the City Council review the commercial zoning for the Evandale Precise Plan in conjunction with the change in residential zoning.
While we understand that the purpose of the zoning and general plan amendments is to increase the residential densities to align with the Housing Element inventory, the City should strive to balance residential and commercial growth in this part of the City, especially considering that all of the relevant sites in Area A are currently commercial sites with frontage to Highway 101. To give some insight into how different the two land use criteria are, please see the table below:
GPMUVC - Residential Evandale Precise Plan-Commercial
Height Restriction 55 feet 35 feet / 2 stories max
Floor Area Ratio 1.35 0.35
Front Setback 15 foot minimum 15 foot minimum
Side Setback 15-25 feet 20 feet minimum
Rear Setback 15-25 Feet 20 feet minimum
Usi
ng 55 Fairchild Drive as a representative example of the parcels in Evandale Precise Plan Area A, redeveloping our ~45000 square foot lot as apartments or condos would allow for, roughly:
• Approximately 65,000 square feet of building,
• Spanning 4 stories,
• Split amongst 1000 square foot dwelling units, achieving almost 60 units of housing along with 5000 square feet of public and back of house spaces.
Using the same parcel for commercial use, redeveloping our ~45,000 square foot lot as a new hotel would allow for, roughly:
• Approximately 15,750 square feet of building,
• Spanning 2 stories,
• Split amongst 300 square foot average hotel rooms, achieving at most 35 hotel rooms with 5000 square feet of necessary public and back of house spaces.
As you can see from this rudimentary example, the commercial zoning in the Evandale Precise Plan Area A is so highly restrictive that it will never be feasible for the property owners in this area to redevelop for commercial purposes. The standard prototype for a new hotel is approximately 110 rooms, which is the optimal number of rooms to operate a hotel profitably.
The City should do its utmost to encourage development, both of residential and commercial properties. The zoning found in Evandale Precise Plan Area A, however, is so restrictive that there has been no development in this area in over 20 years.
W
e encourage you to take this opportunity to revisit the Evandale Precise Plan’s Commercial Neighborhood zoning and improve the density and height restrictions to the Commercial/Residential-Arterial (CRA) or Mixed-Use Corridor Zoning Standards. The CRA zoning already addresses redevelopment as hotels and motels, and the Mixed-Use Corridor Zoning provides for an FAR that would actually encourage housing to be built on these sites.
Thank you for your time.
R
amesh Mistry
President, Everest Hospitality