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City council is in favor of NASA development plan
By Jana Seshadri
The Sunnyvale City Council unanimously approved the NASA/Ames 10-year development plan with certain additional staff-recommended mitigations.
"Sunnyvale is committed to the NASA development," Councilman Manuel Valerio said at the meeting.
Michael Marlaire and his team from NASA presented an Environmental Impact Study report to council on Jan. 15, which covered information about land use, transportation, housing and community development.
According to Karen Davis, manager of economic development for the city of Sunnyvale, the area under consideration for development by NASA consists of approximately 1,500 acres of land between Hwy. 101 and the bay. This area is further subdivided into four sub-areas: NASA Research Park, 213 acres located between the airfield, Hwy. 101 and the original Ames campus; Eastside/Airfield, 952 acres comprised of the airfield and the land east of it; Bay View, 95 acres immediately north of the original Ames campus; and Ames Campus, the 234-acre site of Ames Research Center.
"The development will add 7,222 new jobs to the area," Marlaire said.
However, Davis said the new jobs will require a minimum of 3,930 new housing units.
"The development plan will provide 1,040 housing units," Marlaire added.
Councilwomen Pat Vorreiter and Julia Miller both expressed concern about the imbalance in housing units that NASA has planned when compared to the expected new jobs and increased population that the development would inevitably bring to the area.
With five alternatives to consider, staff recommended that the council approve alternative No. 5, which includes additional clarification and mitigation to NASA's plan. Alternative No. 5 proposes a development of approximately 8.4 million square feet of space and is the only plan that does not include major development in the East Airfield, which is the area within the city of Sunnyvale's sphere of influence, according to Davis.
Alternative No. 5 includes new educational, office, research and development, museum, conference center, housing and retail areas in the NASA Research Park. Davis also said of all the plans, it would generate the fewest number of jobs.
In order to cause the least impact, staff has recommended two partial mitigations--a traffic demand management program and off-site housing to accommodate its increased demand. NASA is also required to contribute its fair share to fund the implementation of regional transportation infrastructure improvements.
Davis said the city of Sunnyvale would only incur costs in the future if NASA does not pay its fair share of infrastructure.
The council voted unanimously to support alternative No. 5 of the NASA development plan.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
