The renderings are not a serious proposal, just a way to visualize how much housing might be needed to address the problem, Twu said. A more realistic plan could make use of Google's many other properties nearby, including the vacant 18-acre "Charleston East" lot next door, for example.

The renderings are a response to increased attention to the impacts of job growth by Google and others. Twu noted recent protests in San Francisco have targeted Google's iconic white commuter shuttles, now a symbol for the Bay Area's soaring housing prices and spiking commuter traffic.

Twu explained his motivation for creating the image: "The booming tech industry has created huge demand for housing in the San Francisco Bay Area, driving up housing costs and leading to long commutes," he writes on his webpage , where he has also posted images of housing for other major valley employers.

Berkeley-based designer Alfred Twu wondered the same thing. He created a digital rendering of what 10,040 apartments (800 square-feet each) could look like if built on the parking lots of Google's headquarters at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway. It required 39 high-rise buildings ranging in height from seven to 50 stories tall - a total of 8 million square feet of development.

If you've ever wondered what it might look like if there was enough housing in Mountain View for all of the city's Google employees, you aren't alone.

The office plan makes room for an additional 15,000 to 20,000 employees around Google headquarters by 2030 (many more are planned elsewhere in Mountain View as well), though the city's new general plan will allow for fewer than 7,000 new homes in Mountain View, likely making commuter traffic and housing prices much worse.

Instead of housing, council members gave a preliminary OK to more offices for Shoreline Boulevard last week as a "precise plan" for the area is developed this year. The six- and eight-story offices would be built above ground-floor retail in a transit-oriented downtown-like corridor north of Highway 101 and south of Charleston Road where the Google housing was previously slated.

While striking, the image does not capture the full picture. City officials estimated last year that Google actually has over 20,000 employees in Mountain View, double what Twu's rendering has space for. Only around 2,000 live within city limits.

"I don't understand the comments about housing in North Bayshore resulting in insular, private towns, and comparisons to Chinese workers, coal towns, 'needing to grow up and get out' and so on," wrote one commenter on the Voice's Town Square reader forum. "Maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought that employees who live on military bases (like Moffett Field), students who live on college campuses (like Davis, Chico, San Luis Obispo) and even seniors in retirement communities do lots of shopping, eating, and participating in the local community. Everyone I know who works at Google is married with kids who attend public school in MV. Google already provides their employees with numerous on-site amenities, but getting there causes the huge traffic mess. What is so bad about living close to work? Does residential housing threaten the burrowing owls in ways that office development does not? I just want to understand the thinking behind the opposition to housing in North Bayshore."

In their opposition to Google housing north of Highway 101, council members expressed fears about feral cats and stray dogs endangering the rare burrowing owl at Shoreline Park, and compared the idea to Chinese factory dorms where workers do not live "happily ever after." Voting against new North Bayshore housing were members Jac Siegel, Ronit Bryant, Margaret Abe-Koga and Laura Macias (Macias termed out shortly after.)

"It's hard to blame the city for doing that because of the state's tax policies," Twu said. "It's in every city's interest to have as few residents as possible and as many businesses as possible. So to really solve the Bay Area's housing problem would take something from the state level."

Council members Ronit Bryant and Margaret Abe-Koga supported the office concept last week, along with Mayor Chris Clark and Mike Kasperzak. Members John McAlister and John Inks thought the plan was too restrictive on office growth. The move wasn't unusual. The council has approved well over one million square feet of new offices in recent years.

He explained his focus on company parking lots: "Right now in the Bay Area we have situation where we don't want to build on open space and generally don't want to build in existing residential areas either - or existing industrial areas," Twu said. "So that really leaves the parking lots."

Twu says the image may be surprising because the Valley's job growth has happened in such a small footprint, and inside low rise buildings. Computer programmers don't use much office space, he said.

What adequate Google housing could look like