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Megan V. Winslow/Town Crier

Pet owners walk their dogs in Shoup Park. After a Los Altos city subcommittee developed a pilot program to test off-leash hours, the city council asked to limit the number of parks and hours.

When considering the fate of the new flashing stop signs near Egan Junior High School and a pilot program testing off-leash dog hours at parks, the Los Altos City Council’s mantra at last week’s meeting was hearing out the needs of residents.

After doing so, the council voted to remove the red flashing signs at Los Altos and West Portola avenues and urged further exploration of a proposed pilot program to allow dogs to run off-leash at some parks.

Megan V. Winslow/Town Crier

The Shorebreeze Apartments, above, will add more affordable housing units after Mountain View City Council action last week.

Two very different sides of the affordable housing debate surfaced at last week’s Mountain View City Council meeting.

Under the public comment portion of the council’s Feb. 12 meeting, members heard from soon-to-be displaced tenants of a 20-unit, low-income apartment complex on Rock Street. Residents living in the Royal Viking Apartments stand to be ousted from their homes after the council in December approved plans for demolishing the units in favor of 15 new rowhouses. The apartment complex was subject to the city’s rent control law, prompting speculation that the owners sold the property to maximize their profit.

The second community engagement meeting of the Homestead Corridor Safe Route to School Study is scheduled 6-8 p.m. Monday in the auditorium at Homestead High School, 21370 Homestead Road, Cupertino.

Armed with three new additions on the seven-seat Mountain View City Council, council members opted last week to resurrect discussions that could lead to an amendment or repeal of an approved ordinance regulating city cannabis sales.

Villa Street. Cypress Point Drive. Avellino Way. Mount Vernon Court.

Despite last month’s arrest of six Santa Clara County residents suspected of filching countless pieces of mail from Mountain View apartment complexes, residents of multifamily units along or near Central Expressway are continuing to report the crime.

Town Crier File Photo

Foothill Expressway at Loyola Bridge is closed after flooding from a winter storm in this 2014 photo. The area still poses a pooling-water problem.

The rains that pummeled Los Altos last week serve as a reminder that it may take only a few storms back-to-back to take the city from high-and-dry to a flood risk.

Addressing that potential, city officials plan to ask property owners for $1.1 million annually over 30 years to fund the Clean Water and Sustainable Storm Drainage Initiative. The cost breaks down to an average of $7.33 per month for a single-family home and $11.45 monthly for a commercial property.