SB 79 & the Future of Downtown Castro Street
active• mountainview
The most urgent land-use battle in Mountain View right now centers on Senate Bill 79, the state's new transit-oriented housing law. Signed by Governor Newsom in October 2025, SB 79 goes into effect July 1, 2026, and sets statewide zoning standards allowing buildings of six to nine stories within a half mile of a Caltrain station. The Mountain View Transit Center is directly adjacent to the city's historic retail district — the one and two-story buildings on the 100, 200, and 300 blocks of Castro Street — as well as the Old Mountain View and Shoreline West neighborhoods. Preservation advocates warn that the law could enable demolition of irreplaceable historic commercial buildings. The city is now developing a local "alternative plan" to try to mitigate SB 79's impacts, though work on that plan is not currently scheduled to begin until late 2027 at the earliest.
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Related cause: Historic preservation
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