Comment on NASA_FRDOC_0001-1100

I am a Mountain View resident writing in support of the Berkeley Space Center, and specifically in support of Build Alternative 1 (the CEQA Proposed Project). I would like the Final EIR/EIS to carry Build Alternative 1 forward as the preferred alternative, expand the on-site student/faculty housing component, eliminate the No Student/Faculty Housing sub-alternative, and include a coordination commitment with the City of Mountain View to support delivery of housing already entitled in the adjacent North Bayshore Precise Plan area.<br/><br/>The project&#39;s public value is in siting a UC Berkeley research presence physically adjacent to NASA Ames. Few comparable opportunities exist nationally, and the academic and research collaboration the site enables is the reason for the project. The Reduced Density Alternative cuts research and office uses roughly in half (from approximately 2.0 million sf to 1.1 million sf) while retaining the same 130,000 sf student/faculty housing component as Build Alternative 1. The proportion of personnel housed on-site is identical under both alternatives, so Reduced Density gives up roughly half the project&#39;s academic activity without an offsetting gain in on-site housing.<br/><br/>Build Alternative 1&#39;s 130,000 sf student/faculty housing component houses approximately 145 of roughly 6,132 personnel, per the Draft&#39;s Socioeconomics Technical Report. For a 2.3 million sf campus that is too small. NASA and UC Berkeley should expand the on-site residential program in the Final EIR/EIS. The site&#39;s federal status removes the local entitlement barriers that constrain residential development on adjacent parcels, and the academic mission benefits from graduate and postdoctoral residents living next to their labs. The Project Site is also immediately adjacent to Mountain View&#39;s North Bayshore Precise Plan area, which already entitles thousands of housing units that remain unbuilt. A coordination commitment among UC Berkeley, NASA, and the City of Mountain View to support and accelerate delivery of those approved units would be a natural complement to expanding on-site housing.<br/><br/>The No Student/Faculty Housing sub-alternative increases total personnel from 6,132 to 6,518 while eliminating on-site housing entirely. It produces the highest workforce of any alternative with no on-site residential program and should be removed from further consideration in the Final EIR/EIS.<br/><br/>Finally, I support the project&#39;s TDM commitments, including the 31 percent trip-reduction target, paid single-occupant parking, transit and shuttle service, and the bike and pedestrian connections in the TDM Plan. The Final EIR/EIS should make the off-site first/last-mile connections to the VTA Orange Line and the Mountain View Caltrain station enforceable as conditions of phased occupancy, and should fund Caltrain and VTA pass programs for project personnel and students.<br/><br/>Thank you for the opportunity to comment.