[mtviewdave]

Google's current buildings were built years (or decades) ago, long before the current space crunch, and say nothing about current City policy. The maximum height in the current North Bayshore Precise Plan is 140 feet above ground (155 feet above sea level), which takes it pretty close to the federally imposed limit.

http://www.mountainview.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?...

[largote]

Except that Google has tried several times to replace those old building with denser development only to be blocked by the city.

[cowsandmilk]

Which confirms the fact that current zoning code is more restrictive than the federal guidelines for the airfield, in direct contradiction to the claim that Moffett was restricting the heights rather than the city.

[mtviewdave]

There was a skyscraper in downtown San Jose that was proposed a few years ago that was designed to the maximum height allowed by San Jose airport. After the designs were finalized, the FAA decided that the maximum height was too high, and lowered it a few feet, leading the developer to almost abandon the project, before redesigning it at some expense.

Lesson: it's a mistake to design to the limit.

I suppose in some idealized, maximally YIMBY world, the difference between 8 stories and 10 represents some horrible market interference by "NIMBY asshats". But in the real world, Google would be foolish to build above 8 stories no matter what the Mountain View city council says. The Precise Plan just reflects the practical limits of building in that area.