MOUNTAIN VIEW — A developer is seeking to demolish 29 rent-controlled apartments to build condominiums west of downtown, potentially displacing dozens of people two years after tenants formed a union to try to stop it.
On Tuesday, the Mountain View City Council is set to discuss allowing a 4-story, 121-unit condo building to replace 29 existing units of affordable housing on the quiet Gamel Way cul de sac, home to about 50 mainly Latino low-income individuals. The applicant said it will pay $4.8 million to purchase the rights to Gamel Way if the city removes the public street and utility services to accommodate the project.
When developers Kevin Denardi and Tod Spieker first proposed the condo building in 2019, Gamel Way tenants organized a union and hired an attorney in a desperate bid to save their homes or find a way to stay in town even if their homes are demolished.
It’s a trend that many Mountain Viewers are familiar with: landlords taking units off the market, demolishing them and replacing them with condos and townhouses priced close to $1 million or more. In a city where nearly 60 percent of the population are renters, that means low-income residents are increasingly being replaced by those who can afford premium rents for luxury units.
Under the city’s Tenant Relocation Assistance Ordinance — which guarantees households a cash payment equivalent to at least three months of rent — qualifying tenants will receive a rent subsidy. But some housing advocates are not sure that will be enough.
Gamel Way residents aren’t the first in the city to organize against being displaced by a developer. In December 2018, another tenants union tried and failed to stop a plan to raze 20 rent-controlled apartments at 2005 Rock Street in order to build 15 luxury townhouses.
Despite failing to stop the project, tenants on Rock Street were given more time to move out of their homes and more money than what is typically offered under the city’s tenant relocation assistance.
Gamel Way is different because the developer is asking the city to sell them the rights to the cul de sac. Although Mountain View has sold public streets to for-profit developers before, this would be the first time in recent years it will do so knowing the decision would displace dozens of residents.
In an email to the Mountain View Housing Justice Coalition, former mayor Lenny Siegel urged members to question if low-income tenants will be offered sufficient assistance. He also wondered whether the “loss of naturally affordable rental housing” will be offset by the construction of new below-market ownership housing and questioned whether the city and the developer have been sufficiently transparent in the past two years.
“In the past, when the council has considered the projects that involve the demolition of naturally affordable housing, some council members have asserted that their ‘hands were tied,’ that they had to approve projects that were compliant with zoning,” Siegel said. “Even if one accepts those arguments as genuine, this project is different. There is no obligation for the city to sell Gamel Way to the developer.”
The city council is set to meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday. A final decision on the project proposal is expected on Sept. 28.
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