Mountain View council approves 7‑story, 80‑unit Tirella Avenue development under builder’s remedy amid neighborhood protests

The Mountain View City Council voted 6–1 to conditionally approve a seven‑story, 80‑unit residential condominium project at 294–296 Tirella Avenue, finding the proposal qualified for the state’s Housing Accountability Act builder’s remedy and exempt from further CEQA review as an infill project. The vote followed more than two hours of staff presentations, applicant remarks, and public testimony in which neighbors urged delay, argued the project was out of scale for the neighborhood and raised traffic, parking and safety concerns.

City attorney Selena Chen and principal planner Diana Pancholi told the council the project met the statutory qualifications for the builder’s remedy because the applicant submitted a qualifying preliminary application during the period when Mountain View’s housing element was not yet certified. Chen noted the applicant chose to be governed by the 2024 statutory framework in effect when its preliminary application was filed. Pancholi outlined the proposal: a seven‑story building with about three levels of parking, approximately 20,000 square feet of landscaped open area, a roughly…