Sean Hollister reporting for The Verge, has written an excellent article about Google’s ambitious plans for expansion in Mountain View, where it is now the largest employer with almost 10% of the local workforce.

Welcome to Googletown | The Verge

Some days it feels like Google is taking over the world. For the residents of Mountain View, California, that feeling is personal. Two weeks ago, Google signed a deal for its very own airport just east of the Googleplex, complete with a blimp hangar large enough to house the Hindenburg.

But building a better blimp probably isn't the reason that Google is leasing the historic Moffett Federal Airfield from the US government. At the same time the search giant is building robots and self-driving cars, Google is on a hometown real-estate binge — and Moffett Field could be the missing piece Google needs to reshape the city in its own image.

Google calls itself a good neighbor but with free food and its instance that employees stay on campus, there is little economic windfall to the city of Mountain View and local businesses have been closing. 

As of June 2013 Google employed 11,332 workers in Mountain View, but it told the city council that it hopes to add 3.7 million square feet of new development under the city's latest zoning plan — enough to eventually double its workers to 24,000 by a conservative estimate.

This expansion in office space is very important to Google. 

Google’s VP of real estate David Radcliffe ... "Having our employees right next to each other, shoulder to shoulder, is critical to our success."

Why is Google so resistant to telecommuting when its own studies have shown there is no difference in productivity between remote teams and those located in its offices?

Internal Google Study Shows Telecommuting Works - No Need For Buses

Here is a map of Google’s current offices:

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/u/0/embed?mid=zRDAN3pIb2Rg.klaz3hfaqm8A&pli=1