A number of City and private development projects are expected to be under construction in the downtown area over the next few years. These projects are all within a few blocks of each other and each will involve temporary lane closures, traffic detours, and/or impacts on public parking. Coordinated planning for pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicle circulation, with good detour signage and regular communication to the public and businesses, will be needed to ensure the community can easily access their favorite downtown destinations and to minimize the impacts on businesses.

This map shows the projects anticipated to be under construction between 2024 and 2026. They include:

• The Robert Green hotel and mixed-use office developments on lots 4 and 8

• A condominium project at 235 Hope Street

• The Lot 12 affordable housing project

• The 590 Castro Street mixed-use office development.

Focus Area(s):

The Transit Center Grade Separation and Access Project will improve safety, capacity, and multimodal access to the Transit Center and Downtown Mountain View. The project is focused on the Castro Street/Moffett Boulevard/Central Expressway intersection and the Castro Street crossing of the railroad tracks. This intersection is congested today and is impacted by frequent railroad gate interruptions, which limit pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicle movements across Central Expressway. Conditions are expected to degrade further with the plans for increased Caltrain service, making it more difficult to cross Central Expressway. Over a thousand pedestrians and bicyclists use this location daily. The project will present them with a safer crossing of Central Expressway and fewer delays.

Safety at the Castro Street at-grade Caltrain railway crossings continues to be a priority for the City. The City has partnered with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and Caltrain on the design of the Castro Street Grade Separation Project to improve pedestrian, cyclist, vehicle and railroad operational safety, decrease traffic congestion, and enhance overall traffic movements on the adjacent streets and surrounding intersections.

The project will include the construction of an undercrossing for pedestrian and cyclists under the Caltrain tracks, as well as two additional pedestrian and cyclist undercrossings under Central Expressway. The design of this projects is scheduled to be completed in two years, and construction of the Castro Street undercrossings will begin when the project is fully funded. In the meantime, the City will be developing and implementing interim improvements on Castro Street at Evelyn Avenue that will close Castro Street to vehicular traffic at Central Expressway and improve the existing at-grade crossing for pedestrians and cyclists. For more information on the projects, visit MountainView.gov/CastroStGradeSeparation.

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At the June 27th, 2023 meeting Council voted to approve early design plans for the new Public Safety Building. The approved conceptual design involves constructing a three-story, 68,000-square-foot building and a 2.5-story parking garage. See the early rendering and Site Layout below:

Read the June 27, 2023 Council Report: Public Safety Building, Project 20-49-Site and Architectural Conceptual Plan

At the December 5th, 2023 meeting, Council voted to

1. Approve the revised scope and site plan to include a larger building size (75,000 SF), a second public safety access point, a fully enclosed shooting range, expanded outdoor event space, and increased number of parking spaces (33 spaces).

2. Select an architectural conceptual design for the building.

3. Approve the Public Art budget increase from $400,000 to $1 million.

Read the December 5th, 2023 Council Report: Public Safety Building, Project 20-49-Conceptual Design and Public Art Budget

Focus Area(s):

The Downtown Parking District covers a portion of downtown Mountain View. Within and adjacent to the Parking District, City-owned parking lots and garages provide public parking for customers, employees, residents, and guests in the area. This shared-parking model has multiple benefits for downtown:

• It is more efficient than private parking because it is used over more of the day by more people and can accommodate average demand over a range of uses instead of peak demand of a single use.

• It can be managed to achieve other public goals, such as reduced private vehicle usage.

• It can improve the quality of the pedestrian and bicycle environment by reducing the number of driveways and providing unobstructed active building frontages.

With the current parking demand for the uses that currently exist in the Downtown Parking District, there is a small deficit of about 100 to 200 parking spaces. If no parking is built and no parking management strategies are implemented, this deficit is projected to increase to 400-500 spaces in the near term and 600-700 spaces in the long term. The long-term scenario is calculated based on conservative growth assumptions that include known opportunity sites, no new parking built, and no management of existing parking demand. While there are other ways to add public parking supply, a new parking garage on an existing public parking lot is the most feasible & space-efficient way to add hundreds of additional spaces. Council provided direction for staff to bring back information and costs for building a parking garage on Lot 5 at the August 24th, 2021 Council Meeting. View the Council Report here.

It is anticipated that the City will hire a consultant to conduct a feasibility analysis of Lot 5 in 2025 which will help determine a design and necessary parameters for building a new parking garage at Lot 5.

Focus Area(s):

The Mountain View Farmers Market takes place every Sunday from 9 am to 1 pm with over 80 farmers and vendors participating  each week.

With future development anticipated on the Downtown Mountain View Caltrain location, the City will be working with the Mountain View Farmers Market to identify a new permanent location.

Focus Area(s):

On June 13, 2023, the City Council adopted the Fiscal Year 2023-25 Work Plan outlining key projects aligned with their Strategic Priorities. One of the City led priorities is a comprehensive update to the Downtown Precise Plan (P-19).

The current Precise Plan was adopted in 1988 with subsequent minor updates. This project will update the vision and mix of land uses, develop objective development standards and streetscape standards, and evaluate and update design, parking, and signage regulations. 

The process includes the following key steps:

• Fall 2023: Confirm scope and goals of project at a Council Study Session

• Winter 2023-24: Hire consultants

• 2024: Conduct community outreach and existing conditions analysis

• Late 2024 or early 2025: Study Sessions with EPC and Council to determine project alternatives; begin environmental review

• Early 2025 to 2026: Conduct additional outreach, hold additional study sessions, draft plan and conduct environmental review

• 2026: Anticipated Adoption

In addition, the City Council will  revisit the need for a temporary office cap while the Precise Plan is being updated.

Learn more about the process & next steps.

The improvements at the intersections of Castro/Villa and Castro/Dana include converting to a single centralized crossing with new pedestrian signals and other traffic signal upgrades. These improvements will follow in the next two to three years along with the California Street roundabout.

View the March 20th, 2023 presentation to the Interim Castro Pedestrian Mall Council Ad Hoc Committee

With the establishment of Castro Street pedestrian mall, the Castro / California intersection will have three legs of vehicle traffic. To improve pedestrian conditions, this intersection is proposed for conversion to a single lane, unsignalized modern roundabout. The current configuration of the intersection is suited to this conversion due to the wider width associated with an existing traffic circle. Modern roundabouts are installed successfully throughout the world and have become more common in this country. When used properly, they improve overall safety at the intersection for all modes. Operating costs are also reduced since traffic signals are not required.

Focus Area(s):

On October 25, 2022, City Council adopted an ordinance establishing pedestrian malls on Castro Street between the east leg of West Evelyn Avenue and Villa Street, Villa Street and West Dana Street, and West Dana Street and California Street. It will take several years to work through design concepts, final design, and construction for converting the street segments into a permanent pedestrian mall. The conceptual design process, in particular, requires significant time and staffing resources to ensure it is handled in a thoughtful manner that includes extensive community and business engagement. The current use of bollards and railings to close the streets to vehicular traffic will continue to be used in the meantime. In addition, the current use of the space on the street and in the flex zones may need to be modified to enhance the pedestrian experience, pedestrian flow, and opportunities for businesses. To address this, staff recommends that low-cost, easy to implement interim improvements be identified to support the temporary closure, and the time period during which a permanent pedestrian mall is planned and designed should one be established by ordinance.

Focus Area(s):

The Mountain View Transit Center serves as the City’s key multimodal transportation node. On a typical weekday, it serves over 12,000 boardings and alightings and provides front-door access to downtown Mountain View. Services provided at the station include Caltrain, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light rail, and many public buses and private shuttles. Current use of the transit center far exceeds the capacity of existing facilities. Further, the station’s usage is expected to increase significantly with more frequent Caltrain service and increased employment and housing in the North Bayshore area and other areas of the City.

To serve the growing demands on the transit center and Caltrain’s plans for a greater number of trains crossing at Castro Street, the City prepared a Transit Center Master Plan that laid out a vision for the future of the transit center site and the adjacent Castro Street rail crossing. That Master Plan, adopted in 2017, identified components to improve access to the station and increase station capacity. One of the primary needs identified was to provide safer and more accessible connections to the Transit Center for people walking or riding a bike.

The first step in realizing the Master Plan is a project, currently underway, called the Grade Separation and Access Project, which is intended to accomplish many of the recommendations made in the Master Plan, addressing the transit center’s current capacity constraints and preparing it for the upcoming modernization of Caltrain.

Learn more about this project.

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