Please Form a Vallco Specific Plan Advisory Committee by Liang

From: Liang C
Date: Wed, Jun 17, 2015
Subject: Please Form a Vallco Specific Plan Advisory Committee
To: City Council citycouncil@cupertino.org

Dear Mayor Sinks, Vice Mayor Chang, and City Council Members,

I would like to request that a Vallco Specific Plan Advisory Committee be formed with a majority of members from the community. The Committee would be tasked with drafting specific plans and outreach to the wider community and stakeholders for additional input.

Vallco is such an important development project. If well designed, Vallco will bring prosperity to Cupertino and surrounding cities and improve our quality of life. However, if ill deigned, Vallco could cripple Cupertino and its neighbors, economically and physically due to congested traffic. The city should allow true community involvement early on in the process. A Vallco Specific Plan Advisory Committee is just what we need.

In Los Gatos, North 40 Specific Plan Advisory Committee, consists of 6 city officials and 9 community representatives. This committee submits the Specific Plan for review by the Planning Commission and the Council.

The North 40 project in Los Gatos is quite similar in size to Vallco Redevelopment Project.
The North 40 refers to approximately 40 acres located at the southeast quadrant of the intersection of Highways 85 and 17. In their current General Plan, adopted in 2010, the guiding principals of North 40 include a mix of uses.

The City of Los Gatos first formed a North 40 Specific Plan Advisory Committee in 2011 when it started the process to re-draft the Specific Plan (after the first draft done in 1999). Three years later, a draft Specific Plan was forwarded to the Planning Commission and City Council for review in October 2013. The notice of the preparation of EIR was dated Feb. 2013. The final EIR is approved on July 18, 2014. The Specific Plan continues to be revised. The most recent draft is dated June 2, 2015.

Out of the 15 members of the Specific Plan Advisory Committee, there are 9 community members. "In October of 2013, a Draft Specific Plan was forwarded for consideration by the Advisory Committee to the Planning Commission and City Council." Therefore, the North 40 Specific Plan is prepared by the city and the community, NOT the developer, as it should be.

NORTH 40 ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Barbara Spector North 40 Advisory Committee Chair, Vice Mayor
Marcia Jensen Town Council
Joe Pirzynski Town Council
Charles Erekson Planning Commission
Marico Sayoc Planning Commission
Barbara Cardillo Community Services Commission
Bob Beyer Community Representative
Jim Foley Community Representative
Mathew Hudes Community Representative
Todd Jarvis Community Representative

Tim Lundell Community Representative
Dan Ross Community Representative
Deborah Weinstein Community Representative
Gordon Yamate Community Representative
John Bourgeois Former Planning Commission

Cupertino residents are highly educated and bright. The dumbed down, sweetened and shallow Vallco Open House is not true community involvement. The residents deserve to get involved in Vallco redevelopment, since Vallco is zoned for retail use, which is supposed to provide service for the residents. Any option to take away that designated land use should have sufficient community involvement and buy-in.

I wish the Council is truly the government of the people, by the people and for the people.

The voters who reside in Cupertino elected you. Not the developers, not the business owners. Please put the interests of the residents first in your decision making process.

 

Thank you.

Liang-Fang Chao
Cupertino Resident