NASA and the U.S. General Services Administration have taken another step in plans to develop “a minimum of 1,930 housing units” within the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field.

On Oct. 18, the two federal agencies published a request for proposals at fedbizopps.gov and https://rfphousing.arc.nasa.gov/ to find “a qualified lessee to construct and operate” the housing units.

The project has been in the talking and planning stages for some time. In September, it was announced that the new housing campus would be devoted to rental units, of which 10 percent would be tagged as affordable.

NASA Ames Research Center said people who work or go to school on its property would get first dibs on the new units. As many as 8,000 workers would be able to apply for such “priority access,” including NASA civil servants, contractors and others employed by dozens of other organizations at Moffett.

On Wednesday, Mountain View City Manager Daniel Rich said in an email that the city “is supportive of new housing initiatives, especially when they include affordable housing near easy access to transportation. And we would encourage NASA to consider an even higher percentage of affordable housing for this project to help with the regional housing crisis.

“Some questions that we still have for NASA include impacts on traffic, schools and city services, such as public safety, utilities and roads. It may even be appropriate to explore annexation of that land into the City of Mountain View, regardless of the federal control and uses, so we look forward to discussing these issues with NASA in the coming months.”

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“Housing in Silicon Valley is in high demand, and there’s a significant need for our employees and our community to have more options,” Ames Center director Eugene Tu told the Bay Area News Group in September. “Plus, this housing will mitigate some of the increasing traffic and air emissions in the region.”

The mixed-use project calls for 100,000 square feet of retail space in addition to the rental housing, which would be built over the next three to five years alongside Highway 101 on the southern end of NASA Ames’ property.

The project area is now open for tours to interested developers, and NASA and the GSA are soliciting comments about the project.

The deadline for proposals and bid deposits is Feb. 9. Development team presentations for proposed projects are to be made in March, and a selection is to be made by spring.

This project, and another large one planned for the North Bayshore Area, may add significant numbers of students in the Mountain View Whisman School District, which is why plans are being made to add a school in North Bayshore.