Not sure about Mountain View but I've seen a bunch of new complexes in San Jose and Santa Clara with the residential over retail construction.

yes, it's opposed but it's not usually for that reason, more often has to do with height or traffic. two recent examples:

- adjacent to Millbrae BART/Caltrain https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/millbrae-station-p...

- adjacent to Hayward Park Caltrain in San Mateo https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/major-mixed-use-ho...

Financing development is a big constraint - loans that conform to existing types can be resold. This is why strip malls, industrial parks, malls, and housing developments look the same all over America. If a developer wants to build a multistory, mixed use development, they have to negotiate exceptional financing as well as zoning variances. Even if a city greatly loosened single use zoning, it would still probably be slow and expensive to redevelop.

I'd be worried you'd never fill the retail on the ground level. The small neighborhoods that have the retail/residential buildings have a ton of vacancies even now due to high rents.

The "Two Worlds" development on El Camino in Mountain View, which is residential over ground-floor retail, is at least 30 years old.