Moffet Park and Moffet Field gain interest from Google and Council

By Alexander Gorodnov

Staff Writer

Vice Mayor Nancy Smith and Councilmember Gustav Larsson break the news about Moffett Park and Sunnyvale areas.

On Nov 30. Summit Denali’s journalism team interviewed Vice Mayor Nancy Smith and Councilmember Gustav Larsson, of the Sunnyvale city council. When asked about new upcoming real estate projects, Nancy Smith said, “Moffett Park.”

Contrary to its name, Moffett Park is not a park. It is a small land area in Sunnyvale, including infrastructure, a large parking garage, and VTA Station.

Vice Mayor Smith said, “Moffett Park is currently parking lots and roads, and Google has bought up 40% of it already, or more, and they have paid for a general plan amendment.”

According to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Google has been slowly buying out property in the Moffett Park area since 2017.

On the other hand, Councilmember Larsson talked about how golf courses had become an extreme priority for the council. “As golf has become less popular, it started losing money,” he said.

Vice Mayor Smith also said, “I do not get the golf one,” while talking about objectives of the Sunnyvale Council to which Councilmember Larsson said, “Every year the losses started going up and up and up.”

A logical step would be to remove the golf course to which Councilmember Larsson said, “The bigger one [golf course] is very close to Moffett Field. It is just south of 101, and it is where the plains are coming into Moffett and going really, really low.”

Due to there being plains next to it Councilmember Larsson said, “The area also has height restrictions, which would prevent the field from being used as real estate property.”

Councilmember Larsson also responded to the point of turning it into a park: “If we turned it into a park, it would actually take up more money than a golf course.”

The Sunnyvale city council is working with investors from Google to change the area around Moffett Park into, as Vice Mayor Smith said, “A Nirvana,” without forgetting about their senior population by upkeeping the golf courses.