Mountain View, Calif., denies development rights for Google campus master plan

Despite Google’s offer of new bike paths, pedestrian bridges over a major highway, two new parks, wetlands restoration, and other perks, the city of Mountain View, Calif., denied the company the development rights to construct a grand new headquarters.

The Mountain View City Council instead gave another Internet giant, LinkedIn, about 1.4 million sf of the roughly 2.2 million sf of available commercial space in the area. Google was promised just 515,000 sf, or enough for one component of its four-part campus expansion.

City councilors spoke approvingly about the snazzy design proposal of the new Googleplex, but also said they were concerned about stunting growth in the city for LinkedIn.

The council wants to promote business diversity and not have the city’s business base be dominated by one company.

Google proposed adding 5,000 units of housing on the grounds of the new headquarters to help alleviate the housing shortage in Silicon Valley.

That proposal did not sway Mountain View officials. “Housing by companies went out with the mining towns,” one councilor reportedly remarked.