Mountain View fines Google for cutting down 800-plus trees - San Jose Spotlight

"After Google chopped down more than 800 trees in Mountain View to make way for an office project that it later abandoned, the tech behemoth has now agreed to pay up to $703,000 to plant hundreds of new trees throughout the city. The Mountain View City Council unanimously approved a tree mitigation agreement with Google on Sept. 9, providing some closure to long-running concerns about the status of an excavated site at 2001 Landings Drive in North Bayshore."

"Google has agreed to plant a number of trees at the site, although the bulk of the plantings, 678, will be at locations other than Landings Drive. Per the agreement, Google will pay the city between $533,500 and $703,000, depending on the number of replacement trees selected by the city, according to the council report. Google has also already planted roughly 1,344 replacement trees at Charleston Park, Shoreline Boulevard, Gatehouse and along the Stevens Creek Trail, the report said."

"Five years ago, the city council approved Google's plan to massively expand its presence in North Bayshore with an 800,000-square-foot office development near U.S. Highway 101 between Rengstorff Avenue and Permanente Creek. Dubbed "Google Landings," the proposed development planned for a series of cascading, five-story office buildings on a 41-acre site. The project also included a four-level garage on a separate site between Alta and Huff avenues that has since been built."

Google agreed to pay the city between $533,500 and $703,000 to plant replacement trees after cutting down more than 800 trees in Mountain View. The Mountain View City Council unanimously approved a tree mitigation agreement on Sept. 9 related to the excavated 2001 Landings Drive site in North Bayshore. Google will plant a number of trees at the site, while 678 replacement trees will be planted at other city locations. Google already planted roughly 1,344 trees at Charleston Park, Shoreline Boulevard, Gatehouse and along the Stevens Creek Trail. The original 800,000-square-foot Google Landings office project prompted the clearing and partial construction before the company halted the development.

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