From: Glaser, Heather
Sent: Monday, December 8, 2025 11:17 AM
To: City Council
Subject: FW: Historical Preservation
Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Flagged
From: Kerachian, Elaheh <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, December 8, 2025 8:51 AM
To: Glaser, Heather <[email protected]>; Wong, Wanda <[email protected]> Subject: FW: Historical Preservation
FYI - Regarding the Historic Preservation Item, 12/9 CC Meeting From: James Barrett
Sent: Monday, December 8, 2025 8:03 AM
To: Kerachian, Elaheh <[email protected]> Subject: RE: Historical Preservation
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Good Morning
I sent this to you on Friday. We have the City Counsel meeting on Tuesday. I would like some guidance on this. Thank you and have a great day.
Best Regards
James M. Barrett
Law Office of James M. Barrett PLC
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This communication contains information intended for the use of the individuals to whom it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or exempt from other disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any disclosure, printing, copying, distribution or use of the contents is prohibited. If you have received this in error, please notify the sender immediately by telephone or by returning it by return mail and then permanently delete the communication from your system. Thank you.
1 Ms. Kerachian
I represent Kao-Yo-Ju (actually Yo-Ju Kao)the owner. She received a letter indicating her property is being considered for Historical Preservation. She would like to have this property removed from consideration. Please provide the method to have her property removed from consideration. Thank you and have a great weekend.
Best Regards
James M. Barrett
Law Office of James M. Barrett PLC
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This communication contains information intended for the use of the individuals to whom it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or exempt from other disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any disclosure, printing, copying, distribution or use of the contents is prohibited. If you have received this in error, please notify the sender immediately by telephone or by returning it by return mail and then permanently delete the communication from your system. Thank you.
From: James Barrett
Sent: Friday, December 5, 2025 1:49 PM
To: '[email protected]' <[email protected]> Subject: Historical Preservation
Ms. Kerachian
I represent Kao-Yo-Ju (actually Yo-Ju Kao) the owner of. She received a letter indicating her property is being considered for Historical Preservation. She would like to have this property removed from consideration. Please provide the method to have her property removed from consideration. Thank you and have a great weekend.
Best Regards
James M. Barrett
Law Office of James M. Barrett PLC
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This communication contains information intended for the use of the individuals to whom it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or exempt from other disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any disclosure, printing, copying, distribution or use of the contents is prohibited. If you have received this in error, please notify the sender immediately by telephone or by returning it by return mail and then permanently delete the communication from your system. Thank you.
2 From: Anthea chung
Sent: Sunday, December 7, 2025 12:11 AM
To: City Council
Subject: Downtown Historic District Support
CAUTION: EXTERNAL EMAIL - Ensure you trust this email before clicking on any links or attachments.
Members of the Mountain View City Council:
My name is Anthea Chung, and I have been a resident of downtown Mountain View for the past 25 years. I also serve on the board of the Mountain View Historical Association. I understand that the Council will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, December 9, regarding updates to the City's Historic Ordinance and Local Historic Register.
With the implications of SB79 for our historic downtown now clear, the creation of a designated historic district on Mountain View's local historic register, including the downtown historic retail area and nearby commercial buildings, has become both urgent and essential.
I respectfully urge the Council to support this effort. Without this designation, we risk losing the historic heart of Mountain View, along with the history, identity, and vibrancy that make our community unique.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Anthea Chung
Downtown Mountain View Resident, 25 Years
Board Member, Mountain View Historical Association
From:
Sent: Sunday, December 7, 2025 9:02 AM
To: City Council
Subject: Personal comment on Item 6.1: "Historic Preservation Ordinance and Historic Register Update".
CAUTION: EXTERNAL EMAIL - Ensure you trust this email before clicking on any links or attachments.
Mayor Kamei, Vice Mayor Ramos, and Member of the City Council, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on Item 6.1: "Historic Preservation Ordinance and Historic Register Update".
Our downtown commercial district should be saved by declaring it an official historic district on the local historic register. This is a key requirement in an SB79 Local Alternative Plan to save our downtown commercial district.
Mountain View's downtown precise plan acknowledges "Downtown Mountain View is the historic center and focus of the community, and the "heartbeat" of the city." Some have called it "Mountain View's living room" because it where our residents get together to celebrate their community and enjoy each other's company. It is an essential part of our city and an important generator of sales tax revenue. About 75% of people to visit there come from outside our city.
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. In our home, our love for one another is equaled only for our love for our vibrant downtown and the community in which we live. That is why I have dedicated most of my retirement time serving in various leadership positions such as Chair of the Old Mountain View Neighborhood Association and Vice President of the Mountain View Historical Association, although in this letter, I am speaking only on behalf of myself, and not these organizations.
Thank for listening to what I have to say.
Robert Cox
From: Glaser, Heather
Sent: Monday, December 8, 2025 11:10 AM
To: City Council
Subject: FW: Historic Preservation Ordinance And Register Update Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Flagged
From: Kerachian, Elaheh <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, December 8, 2025 10:01 AM
To: Glaser, Heather <[email protected]>; Wong, Wanda <[email protected]> Subject: FW: Historic Preservation Ordinance And Register Update FYI - Regarding the Historic Preservation Item, 12/9 CC Meeting From: May DeLucchi
Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2025 12:34 PM
To: Kerachian, Elaheh
<[email protected]> Cc: M. DeLucchi
Subject: Historic Preservation Ordinance And Register Update CAUTION: EXTERNAL EMAIL - Ensure you trust this email before clicking on any links or attachments.
Re: 22 Nov. 2025
• Hello Elaheh Kerachian,
I have questions regarding the Historic Preservation
Ordinance:
1 1. Will I need to obtain approval for all outdoor modifications or maintenance updates?
1a. If so, am I liable for permits or for any added costs?
2. With the property being on the Mountain View Historical Registry, will that have any impact and implications on property taxes?
3. With the property being on the Mountain View Historical Registry, will that have any impact and implications on home owner's insurance?
4. What are the incentives for the property to be registered as a Mountain View Historical house?
5. Will the Historic Context place any limitations/restrictions on my development or sale of the property?
6. Is the City Council meeting on 9 December 2025 to
consider the draft for the new ordinance open the public? I am looking forward to your reply and to any input you have concerning this matter. Thank you for your time
2 May DeLucchi, Owner
3 From: Carole Goldstein
Sent: Sunday, December 7, 2025 4:45 PM
To: City Council
Subject: Castro Street historic district
CAUTION: EXTERNAL EMAIL - Ensure you trust this email before clicking on any links or attachments.
Please save our downtown from Senate Bill 79 by voting to designate the 100-300 blocks of Castro Street as an historic district. My husband and I have made Mountain View our home since 1970. We have witnessed all the changes to Mountain View over the years. It would mean a lot to us to have our wonderful downtown preserved as it currently is for the enjoyment of residents, guests and visitors who value the small downtown experience in the heart of bustling Silicon Valley.
From: Glaser, Heather
Sent: Monday, December 8, 2025 11:09 AM
To: City Council
Subject: FW: Historic Preservation Ordinance and Historic Register - Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Flagged
From: Kerachian, Elaheh < [email protected]> Sent: Monday, December 8, 2025 10:02 AM
To: Glaser, Heather <[email protected]>; Wong, Wanda <[email protected]> Subject: FW: Historic Preservation Ordinance and Historic Register FYI - Regarding the Historic Preservation Item, 12/9 CC Meeting From: > On Behalf Of Peninsula Church in Christ Sent: Monday, December 1, 2025 2:27 PM
To: Kerachian, Elaheh <[email protected]> Subject: Historic Preservation Ordinance and Historic Register - CAUTION: EXTERNAL EMAIL - Ensure you trust this email before clicking on any links or attachments.
Hello Elaheh,
We have recently received a letter from the City of Mountain View regarding the subject project. In the letter, it states "Based on the analysis and surveys, your property at has been identified as a historic resource, based on age, architectural features, and/or relationship to important event." In the past we have requested to be taken off from the historic register. The current record also shows that we are off the register. We would like to know if we need to do anything if we choose to stay off the register.
I have left a voice message to you this morning.
Thanks,
Wei-Wei Ho
Trust of Peninsula Church of Christ
1 From: livable mountain
Sent: Monday, December 8, 2025 10:41 AM
To:
Subject: Livable Mountain View comment on Item 6.1 "Historic Preservation Ordinance and Historic Register Update."
CAUTION: EXTERNAL EMAIL - Ensure you trust this email before clicking on any links or attachments.
Mayor Kamei, Vice Mayor Ramos and Members of the City Council, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on Item 6.1 "Historic Preservation Ordinance and Historic Register Update."
We appreciate the years of effort staff and consultants Page and Turnbull have put forth to get us to this point.
However, Senate Bill 79 (SB79) has altered how we must plan our city to fulfill density mandates and created conditions and deadlines for doing so which impact our historic downtown.
Urgent Need for Action. For Livable Mountain View and our city, the key urgent need is the establishment of a historic district including the downtown commercial retail district in and around the 100-300 blocks of Castro Street due to the SB79 mandate rezoning the area for 6-9 stories of housing by right unless we implement an SB79 local alternative plan to exempt our historic commercial retail district. This requires submission of a completed plan by the July 1, 2026 deadline which is when the law takes effect. Getting a state-validated SB79 local alternative plan assures there is no loss of housing density potential provided by SB79.
We are fortunate to have the ability to implement such a plan which requires only 10 percent of the downtown commercial retail district to be included in a historic district exemption. We recommend that the density be transferred to the three transit-oriented development zones within Mountain View which are centered on the VTA Light Rail stations.
Why save the downtown commercial retail district (Area H and commercial parts of areas A, B, F, and G)? Without an official historic district and instead saving only a few designated buildings based on age and architecture, under SB79, not only some buildings but also the visible history of Mountain View as a pioneer-founded city could be lost.
"The personality of any city is not just dependent on its great buildings and great places but is created by the total complex of large and small, important and minor, individual and the mass...Minor buildings, in the aggregate, create the major urban scene. They are the body of any city. The body is being rapidly carved up bit by bit and sometimes in whole chunks...History is dead in such a city just as though it never existed." (Carl Feiss, Our Lost Inheritance)
Our downtown commercial retail district is the historic core of our city. It stands almost exactly as it was set out in the 1860's with the same continuous use and purpose. There is no other place in our small city that is 1 like it. That unique history plays a big role in drawing locals and people from other cities to the downtown, generating business for local businesses and tax revenue for Mountain View.
We have the following comments with regard what is in the staff report regarding historic districts:
1. The key requirement for SB79 exemption is that the exemption area be added to the city's local historic register. The city is granted discretion as to what sites it will add. State and federal guidelines for historic districts help inform regarding eligibility but are not requirements. Our city has the final say.
2. The staff report raises the issue of integrity of buildings and whether they appear significantly different from when originally built. Yet, a historic district is not a matter of a particular number or age of buildings, nor architecture. In a historic district some buildings contribute to the historic merit of the district and others do not. And because history is ongoing, buildings need not be of a certain age to merit consideration. There is no need to set a numerical limit to buildings contributing to historic merit or disqualify a district because it contains those that do not. "A historic district is a formally designated group of buildings, structures, site and spaces that relate to one another historically, architecturally, and/or culturally.
A district can span part or all of a neighborhood. It can be large or small, can represent any architectural style(s), and can include streetscape and landscape elements.
Individual buildings within a district don't need to be highly significant on their own. The area's overall cohesiveness, uniqueness, and architectural integrity are what matters." The National Park Service defines a historic district as a "significant concentration, linkage, or continuity of sites, buildings, structures, or objects, unified by past events or aesthetically by plan or physical developments."
3. The staff report suggests that a percentage of property owners within the proposed historic district approve the nomination process. Not only is this NOT a requirement, due to the urgency of SB79 we believe this is too restrictive of an approach and is not supported by law. While we agree property owners should be able to nominate a historic district, by law individuals, citizen organizations and city officials including city council and staff can nominate one as well and move the process forward. It should be noted that if owners object to property being nominated and deemed eligible for state and/or federal historic registers that means the property is not listed on the official registers and the owners cannot display an identifying plaque. But the buildings retain their eligible historic status.
4. We also acknowledge the demands on staff to complete other projects that have been calendared prior to the exigency of SB 79. We ask council to provide staff direction on land use items on the 2 council work plan that can be delayed six months so that urgent work on an SB79 local alternative plan can be completed on time.
Robert Cox, Louise Katz, Peter Spitzer, Leslie Friedman, Nazanin Dashtara, Maureen Blando, Muriel Sivyer-Lee, Nancy Stuhr, and Jerry Steach
For the Steering Committee of Livable Mountain View
From: Glaser, Heather
Sent: Monday, December 8, 2025 11:09 AM
To: City Council
Subject: FW: Historic Register
Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Flagged
From: Kerachian, Elaheh <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, December 8, 2025 10:02 AM
To: Glaser, Heather <[email protected]>; Wong, Wanda < [email protected]> Subject: FW: Historic Register
FYI - Regarding the Historic Preservation Item, 12/9 CC Meeting From: john martinez
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2025 10:10 AM
To:, Planning Division < <[email protected]> Cc: Kerachian, Elaheh <[email protected]> Subject: Historic Register
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Hello, my name is John Martinez, I am the property owner The other day I received the letter about my property being considered for the Historic Preservation Ordinance and Historic Register. I would like to opt out from my property being put on the register. Please let me know the proper way to do this.
Thank You, John Martinez
From: Sean OMalley
Sent: Sunday, December 7, 2025 10:30 PM
To: City Council
Cc: Sean OMalley
Subiect: Downtown Mountain View
CAUTION: EXTERNAL EMAIL - Ensure you trust this email before clicking on any links or attachments.
Mountain View City Council Members:
As a lifelong resident of Mountain View, l've experienced many years of change in our City. All of this change / progress has drawn a worldwide workforce to Mtn View. While this unprecedented prosperity has provided a wealth of well paying hi-tech jobs, it comes at a price. Housing and transit continues to be a challenge to support job growth within Mtn View.
As the needs to support the tech industry expand, redevelopment within the city becomes more concerning. Taller buildings adjacent to existing neighborhoods to accommodate increased workforces is placing pressure on single family homes / neighborhoods. Additionally our historic downtown area is at risk for redevelopment threatening the City's historic roots. I encourage you to embrace an alternate plan to SB79 and place the 100, 200 and 300 blocks of Castro Street and the surrounding areas on a Mtn View historic register. In parallel with this designation, I support shifting the redevelopment density around the Castro St. Caltrain Station to other transportation hubs in Mtn View so our historic downtown can be preserved as a vibrant commercial space in this time of continuous growth.
My personal thank you to each of you for your service and commitment to the City of Mtn View.
Sean O'Malley
McGill, Pam
From: Glaser, Heather
Sent: Monday, December 8, 2025 11:17 AM
To: City Council
Subject: FW: 134 Castro St. Historic Status Comments
Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Flagged
From: Kerachian, Elaheh <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, December 8, 2025 8:51 AM
To: Glaser, Heather <[email protected]>; Wong, Wanda < [email protected]> Subject: FW: 134 Castro St. Historic Status Comments
FYI - Regarding the Historic Preservation Item, 12/9 CC Meeting From: Kent Yu
Sent: Sunday, December 7, 2025 8:17 PM
To: Kerachian, Elaheh <[email protected]> Subject: Re: 134 Castro St. Historic Status Comments
CAUTION: EXTERNAL EMAIL - Ensure you trust this email before clicking on any links or attachments.
Dear Council Members,
We are writing in regard to the proposed designation of as a historic resource.
Since, its construction 58 years ago, the property, as described in the city consultant's Draft Survey Intensive Report (Agenda 6 attachment ATT-5 638911988938630000 page 88-90), has never experienced any historical event. It has no association with notable figures, nor does it hold significant ties to Mountain View's Chinese-owned business community. The building's material is standard and overall craftsmanship is basic. Interior and exterior design do not reflect any historic style.
Historic designation would limit opportunities for future tenants and obstruct future renovations while providing no significant public benefit. If the building stays with the current appearance, that would be only fit for a Chinese restaurant and not appealing to other type business.
With great respect for Mountain View's history and its preservation, but in order to be responsible and a rigorous attitude to history and future generations, we request the city to decline the designation of 134 Castro Street as a historic resource.
Best regards,
Mountain View residents, properties owners, and business owners:
Donna Ha, Audrey Ha, Elaine Yu, Kevin Ha, Syvia Ha, Ken Chen, Michelle Yeung, 1 Tony Leung, Erdan Liu, Kyle Kwong, Amy Chen, Jacquelyn Jung. Max Ho, Kent Yu 2 From: Glaser, Heather
Sent: Monday, December 8, 2025 11:09 AM
To:
Subject: FW: Objection to Proposed Historic-Resource Designation of the Sisters' House at 1855 Miramonte Avenue
Attachments: Letter to City of Mountain View re 1 (Nov 30, 2025). pdf Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Flagged
From: Kerachian, Elaheh <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, December 8, 2025 10:02 AM
To: Glaser, Heather <[email protected]>; Wong, Wanda <[email protected]> Subject: FW: Objection to Proposed Historic-Resource Designation of the Sisters' House at FYI - Regarding the Historic Preservation Item, 12/9 CC Meeting From: Joshua Safran
Sent: Sunday, November 30, 2025 1:46 PM
To: Kerachian, Elaheh <[email protected]> Cc:, City Attorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Objection to Proposed Historic-Resource Designation of the Sisters' House at CAUTION: EXTERNAL EMAIL - Ensure you trust this email before clicking on any links or attachments.
Dear Ms. Kerachian,
Please find attached our Objection to Proposed Historic-Resource Designation of the Sisters' House at addressed to you of today's date.
All the best,
Joshua
STRATEGY LAW LLP
Joshua Safran, Esq.
1 The information in this e-mail and any attachments is confidential, and may be subject to the attorney-client or work product privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, any review, disclosure, distribution, or use of such information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please destroy it and notify the sender immediately.
2 From:
Sent: Sunday, December 7, 2025 8:10 AM
To: City Council
Subject: Historic Ordinance and Local Register Update on Dec 9 CAUTION: EXTERNAL EMAIL - Ensure you trust this email before clicking on any links or attachments.
Members of the Mountain View City Council,
When the city council meets next Tuesday, December 9, on the city's Historic Ordinance and Local Register Update, please strongly consider designating a historic district for the Mountain View downtown area. The impact of SB 79 could have a great impact on the character of our city. Our residents and local leaders should decide how to preserve and enhance our local history and not allow Mountain View to turn into an undistinguished downtown.
Please act swiftly to preserve our ability to make local decisions on the future of Mountain View downtown. I request the support of the council on this matter.
Thank you,
David Salinero
Mountain View Historical Association (MVHA) Board Member Native Mountain View Resident