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City Council hopeful Li Zhang’s first time witnessing local government in action earlier this year came as a bit of a shock.
“I went to the (Chinese Language Civic Leadership Academy) class, and I was asked to observe the council meeting,” Zhang told the Voice in an interview. “The first meeting, it just so happened, was the Housing Element discussion that lasted for over eight hours.”
While such an experience could’ve scared Zhang away from local politics, she said she left the exorbitantly long meeting wanting to learn more.
“I was just intrigued by where the source of data came from. I was trying to understand the report, which was so long,” said Zhang, who works at Tesla as a senior tax manager. “Then I followed up (with) all the subsequent meetings related to this Housing Element report, as well as the R3 workshops.”
Zhang soon realized she doesn’t agree with the direction she sees the council going as far as growth is concerned. She decided to run for Mountain View City Council to make her voice heard as a typical citizen of Silicon Valley, which is how she describes herself.
“The current council majority is supportive of a significant upzoning of the R3 zoning district across the city,” Zhang said in an email. “This will increase the density in many, many neighborhoods, which will decrease the quality of life for residents. I am not supportive of this.”
The R3 Update is not technically upzoning, at least not by definition: It only pertains to the development standards for areas that are already zoned R3 (multi-family residential), and does not propose to change R1 (single-family residential) or R2 (one- and two-family) zones to higher densities. But depending on how the update takes shape, it could allow developers to build more densely in the city’s R3 zones, which is what Zhang takes issue with. Instead of the R3 Zoning Update, Zhang would like to reopen the city’s general plan and consider creating new precise plans.
“Both of these tools allow us to define where we want increased density and where we do not, and they allow us to define what we want neighborhoods to look like, including where we want parks, where we want retail, and where we want other uses to make complete neighborhoods,” she said.
Zhang said she adamantly opposes redeveloping the Mountain View Shopping Center on the corner of Grant Road and El Camino Real. City staffers have stated their goal is for the city not to lose commercial space in these shopping centers.
“That area is already very packed,” Zhang said. “The schools are probably going to be over capacity if they are building density housing in that area.”
In addition to her concerns about future growth, Zhang is also worried about small businesses surviving to see those changes. She said she spoke to small business owners on Castro Street to hear their concerns.
One business owner told her that he’s kind of giving up at this point. “He’s like, ‘I’ve been through many years here, I just feel like there’s not much new in downtown. We already have a hard time to survive,’” Zhang said. “I have similar views because I used to go to downtown so much more often. We have to think very deeply, what kind of businesses actually attract people to go there post-COVID?”
These quality of life concerns are central to Zhang’s campaign.
“I don’t want us not considering infrastructure before we’re building housing,” Zhang said.
She suggested that the city try new ways of predicting the side effects that often come with development, like tree removal and increased traffic. Zhang, who has a Ph.D. in chemistry, believes her background in science would help the city achieve this.
“People argue profusely around the size of the trees, and the location of the trees, and keep talking about it. I really think if there was some kind of simulation, 3D modeling can be done, it might be easier to agree on the visualization of it,” she said. “In addition, a lot of environmental reporting on traffic is formula based. … (If) you’re going to put this much population on the road, you should do a traffic simulation. That can be easily done these days with a software tool.”
Quality of life issues have been top of mind for a lot of residents lately as the city settled a lawsuit over the Narrow Streets and Bike Lane ordinances, which prohibit RVs and other oversized vehicles from parking on the street in large swaths of the city. Those who favored these ordinances have said that allowing inhabited RVs to park on public streets creates trash, health hazards and other quality of life issues, while those opposed were concerned that people living in their vehicles would be ousted from the city.
Zhang said her opinion on the rules has changed over time. When voters got the Measure C referendum on the 2020 ballot, Zhang said she “voted to allow the RVs to park on the narrow streets,” and she did not support Measure C at the time.
“I sympathize very much with those people,” Zhang said of homeless residents in Mountain View.
After researching the topic further, Zhang said she now agrees with the decision made by the city to ban oversized vehicles on narrow streets.
“Now I know the issue is a traffic issue as well,” she said. “When I observed RVs parked in certain neighborhoods, it’s really affecting the residents.”
Another top priority for Zhang is climate change, she told the Voice. According to her campaign website, if elected, Zhang said she’ll “maximize opportunities from the recently passed Federal Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to electrify buildings and install additional electric vehicle charging stations, especially in multi-family developments.” She also plans to decarbonize city facilities and equipment, expand alternative transportation options for residents and collaborate with neighboring cities to address sea level rise.
Zhang’s major endorsements include Livable Mountain View, Mountain View Environmental Planning Commissioner Jose Gutierrez, the Sierra Club, the Mountain View Professional Firefighters Local 1965, the Silicon Valley Asian Pacific American Democratic Club and Former Mountain View Mayor Jac Siegel.
