The goal is to keep dot-com companies from gobbling up retailstorefronts and light industrial parks for their office space,clogging up streets and in the case of pure on-line salescompanies, giving nothing back in the form of sales taxrevenues.

Lighting a path for other affected cities, the San Mateo CityCouncil recently broadened its 45-day ground-floor officemoratorium to include more than just its Downtown. Redwood Cityalso is limiting ground-floor offices and requiring more parkingthroughout the city. The city has almost 100 dot-com firms, half ofwhich have moved to town since January.

Planners in both cities are spending the next few weeks comingup with more long-term limits that likely will include tighterboundaries for new office construction. Meanwhile, San Franciscoresidents will vote in November on two competing ballot initiativesthat would further restrict office development in certain citydistricts.