Sunnyvale gives green light to Moffett Park redevelopment

Sunnyvale’s City Council gave a unanimous greenlight to city staff’s plan for a large urban village redevelopment with the goal to transform an old office district.

Moffett Park will be converted into six distinct neighborhoods. All of those neighborhoods will have some combination of commercial and residential space, and in some cases, community and public space as well. Currently, Moffett Park consists of office, research and industrial space, restaurants and hotels, and institutional buildings including a fire station, a Veterans Affair Department research center and a community college.

Plans call for the development of 20,000 new residential units, as well as an increase in the amount of approved office space from 22 million square feet to 30 million square feet. Current plans call for 15 percent of residential units to be affordable, however city officials hope it will be closer to 20 percent.

Along with the new commercial and residential space, there will be 500,000 additional square feet of retail and 150,000 square feet of hospitality. Plans would allow for the construction of new schools, community space or governmental buildings.

The plan will help address the city’s housing needs. Sunnyvale is required to build 12,000 new homes to meet state requirements by 2031.

Moffett Park is a triangular portion of the city bounded to the west by Moffett Federal Airfield, to the south by Highway 237 and to the east by Caribbean Drive, Baylands Park and the Twin Creeks Sports Complex.

Sunnyvale is the latest Silicon Valley city pushing forward with a large mixed-use development. Google got the go-ahead to build thousands of homes, offices and hotels in an urban retail village near its headquarters in Mountain View. The tech giant won approval from the city to build a 153-acre master-planned community by Stevens Creek.

Also, the site of San Jose’s main flea market will be transformed into more than 3,400 new homes and 3 million square feet of offices. It is currently on the market for $300 million.