Mountain View shelves plan that could displace RV dwellers

A project to add bike lanes in a part of Mountain View that is slated to gain hundreds of new homes looks like it will be put on hold for years, if not indefinitely.

The City Council directed city staff last week to shelve a plan that would put in bike lanes on Terra Bella Avenue after Councilmember Lucas Ramirez raised concerns that the lanes were being used as “a pretext for getting rid of the RVs.”

Terra Bella Avenue lies just south of Highway 101 in an area with a lot of office and industrial buildings. It is one of a handful of streets in Mountain View not covered by city policies prohibiting RV parking. Because it is wide and has no bike lanes, RVs can park for 72 hours before being required to relocate. Putting in bike lanes would trigger the city’s oversized vehicle ban, effectively pushing RVs off the street.

Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour confirmed at the April 14 meeting that oversized vehicles, including inhabited RVs, had drawn the ire of surrounding businesses, with many property owners participating in city outreach meetings about the “potential use and need for bike lanes” in the area.

“There are a number of large property owners and businesses on Terra Bella that have contacted the city with concern about traffic safety, the circulation for their employees coming to and leaving their sites,” Seymour said.

A project to add bike lanes in a part of Mountain View that is slated to gain hundreds of new homes looks like it will be put on hold for years, if not indefinitely.

The City Council directed city staff last week to shelve a plan that would put in bike lanes on Terra Bella Avenue after Council member Lucas Ramirez raised concerns that the lanes were being used as “a pretext for getting rid of the RVs.”

Terra Bella Avenue lies just south of U.S. Highway 101 in an area with a lot of office and industrial buildings. It is one of a handful of streets in Mountain View that is not covered by city ordinances prohibiting RV parking. Because it is wide and has no bike lanes, RVs can park for 72 hours before being required to relocate. Putting in bike lanes would trigger the city’s oversized vehicle ban, effectively pushing RVs off of the street.

Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour confirmed at the April 14 meeting that oversized vehicles, including inhabited RVs, had drawn the ire of surrounding businesses, with many property owners participating in city outreach meetings about the “potential use and need for bike lanes” in the area.

“There are a number of large property owners and businesses on Terra Bella that have contacted the city with concern about traffic safety, the circulation for their employees coming to and leaving their sites,” Seymour said.

But it was not just the lack of staff that prompted Ramirez to speak out against the bike lanes. He also noted the broader implications of what it would mean for people living in vehicles.

“I’m a little sad that we said the quiet part out loud that the bike lane is the pretext for getting rid of the RVs,” he said.

A sign advertises the Terra Bella bike lane project at the corner of Linda Vista and Terra Bella avenues. Photo by Zoe Morgan.

Mayor Emily Ann Ramos and Councilmember Alison Hicks expressed support for axing the project, although Ramos noted she was open to a discussion about deferring it instead.

“It feels kind of weird to kill a bikeway,” Ramos said.

While agreeing that the city had higher priority projects, Councilmember Chris Clark argued against eliminating the Terra Bella bike lane project entirely. That area is slated for major residential growth, with plans for a 108-home affordable housing development at 1020 Terra Bella Ave. and a 303-home housing project at 1001 N. Shoreline Blvd.

Clark said he would like to see bike lanes that could connect future residents to other parts of the city. He also voiced concerns that the RVs would be a traffic safety hazard for people living in the area, once the housing projects got built.

“I would not want to be a resident there who is strongly encouraged to bike, walk through all those things,” Clark said. “I can’t do that on what ends up being a very busy street, especially a couple of times a day with lines of RVs where you’re forced to just go with traffic.”

Similarly, Councilmember Pat Showalter expressed concerns about eliminating the project, agreeing with Clark that the bike lanes would be a good resource for future residents. She also noted that some work had already been done on the project, making it more feasible for staff to keep going once they had the capacity to do so.

“From our point of view, nobody’s clamoring for it, and yet on the other hand if work has started, that’s important,” she said.

Ultimately, the council directed staff to hold off on the Terra Bella bike lane project without specifying how long to keep it on the backburner, instead leaving it to staff’s discretion.

“I think we should just defer to the judgment of the public works staff about when to provide resources to it,” Showalter said. “I don’t think we need to do that from the dais.”

This story originally appeared in the Mountain View Voice. Emily Margaretten joined the Mountain View Voice in 2023 as a reporter covering City Hall.