Los Angeles - Google has big plans for its headquarters in Silicon Valley, which may further increase tensions between the search engine giant and its neighbours, local media reported on Thursday.
Google is expected to present a proposal for a vast expansion of its corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California, before a deadline expires on Friday for special terms for business development in the city's North Bayshore district, the San Jose Mercury News and the New York Times reported.
Town officials familiar with Google's plans told the newspapers Google hired a British and a Danish architecture firm to design as many as four new buildings and a giant metal and glass canopy to expand its office space.
“The best way to describe it is a tent-like structure, with a tremendous amount of glass,” city councilman Ken Rosenberg told the Mercury News.
The plans did not make clear the size of the buildings or how many employees they would house, but the city has zoned the North Bayshore district for an additional 3.4 million square feet (315 870 square metres) of office space.
The move comes as other tech giants are expanding headquarters in Silicon Valley.
Facebook hired architect Frank Gehry to design its 21.4-hectare West Campus in Menlo Park, with space for 2 800 employees. Apple is building a new headquarters for 13 000 in Cupertino. LinkedIn is also expected to present expansion plans to Mountain View by Friday's deadline, the Mercury News reported.
The rapid growth of tech firms in Silicon Valley and San Francisco has brought money and jobs to the region. But gridlocked traffic and skyrocketing real estate and rental prices have sparked anti-development movements by local residents and city council members who feel the company is crowding the town out.
“Everyone else wishes they were in our situation, but it's a crisis for the people here,” Mountain View city council member and community activist Leonard M Siegel told the New York Times.
“Nobody will be issued a building permit until the current level of traffic is reduced,” city councilman Mike Kasperzak told the Mercury News.
A compromise plan could involve requiring Google to include employee housing in their plans to reduce commuter traffic - which would also increase its voting bloc in the city, according to the Times.
The city planned to ask Google and LinkedIn to present their designs to the community at an event in April, according to the Mercury News.
Google was founded in 1998 in Menlo Park and moved to nearby Mountain View a year later with a dozen employees.
Now it has 53 000 employees worldwide, more than 15 000 of them in Mountain View, a city of 78 000.
Sapa-dpa