The years-long search for a place to put a homeless shelter in the northern end of Santa Clara County just got a little bit harder, after the Sunnyvale City Council last month doused plans to put temporary shelter on any part of Moffett Field next winter.

Last year, Sunnyvale agreed to have Santa Clara County place a temporary homeless shelter on the northern end of the former Onizuka Air Force Station, which is on the Sunnyvale side of Moffett Field. The 100-bed facility, which opened up in December, has been packed each night. The modular building at the site was an emergency measure to shelter homeless people during a potentially nasty El Nino-fueled rainy season.

But the agreement only lasts through March, and county officials were hoping Sunnyvale's city council would be open to the idea of using Moffett Field next winter as well. Bob Dolci, the housing and homeless concerns coordinator for the county, said at the Feb. 23 Sunnyvale council meeting that county officials were interested in working with the private developer, Jay Paul, on a deal to keep the shelter at the same site next year. Alternatively, Dolci said, the city could work with the county to relocate the facility to the southern end of the former air force base, on city-owned land.

Sunnyvale city council members balked at the idea, and agreed to send a formal letter to Ky Le, director of the county's Office of Supportive Housing, stating that they had no interest in housing a temporary shelter on Moffett Field. City council member Jim Griffith said he didn't want the shelter on city-owned land because of the possibility that temporary use of the "extremely valuable" land could easily become permanent.