No Meeting Notifice Mentioned the GPA is a Rewrite of the General Plan, by Liang

From: Liang C
Date: Sun, Jul 5, 2015 at 7:27 AM
Subject: NONE of the Meeting Notifications Mentioned the GPA is a Rewrite of the General Plan.
To: rsinks@cupertino.org, City Council <citycouncil@cupertino.org>

Dear Mayor Sinks, Vice Mayor Chang and Council members,

   Mayor Sinks tried to clarify on June 30 that General Plan Amendment can be a rewrite of the General Plan (at time 03:15 of the video). So, the Council now admits that "Community Vision 2040" is a rewrite of the General Plan. I have to ask whether it is responsible to approve a rewrite of the General Plan within one meeting when the focus on the meeting is only on Housing Element?

Please. Take a moment and ask yourself. Is it a responsible thing for you as a Council member to approve something you didn't totally understand within one meeting?
It is correct that GPA can be a total rewrite of the General Plan. However, I'd like to point out again that in NONE of the meeting notifications the city informed the residents that the GPA is going to be a massive rewrite of the General Plan. Even in Oct. 7 Staff Report, it states "The proposed Project considers citywide land use, urban design, mobility, and economic development choices but is not a complete revision of the City’s 2000-2020 General Plan."

The term "Community Vision 2040" or even the hint of a new General Plan did not appear until Oct. 14 Staff Report. So, as a result, even the Council members, new or incumbent, did not know the extend of the change in Resolution 14-211 ("Community Vision 2040). Since there is no red-lined version or even comparison table available, there is no way for any one, either a Council member or a resident, to even comprehend the extent of the modification.

I respect that you each have integrity and would try to be the best Council member you can be. I trust that you will put the best interest of Cupertino in mind. Please. Take a moment and ask yourself.

• Did you fully understand that Resolution 14-211 is a massive rewrite of the General Plan?

• Now that you have seen the comparison table. Do you think in good conscience, you would vote to approve Resolution 14-211 in its entirety after just one meeting, which focuses on Housing Element only?

• Do you think that Community Vision 2040 could be approved within one meeting without going through each chapter one by one?
• Shouldn't the Council spend more time reviewing and revising all modifications in Community Vision 2040?

------------------------------------------------------This blog article points out a few places in meeting notification and staff reports where the residents were told that GPA is NOT a rewrite of the General Plan.

 

GPA is Cupertino's New General Plan! Are You Kidding Me?

Many residents are very surprised to learn that the GPA approved on Dec. 4, 2014 is a new General Plan of Cupertino, which replaces the existing 2000-2020 General Plan. These residents attended Community Workshops for General Plan Amendment (GPA) and have attended numerous city meetings on GPA since June 2013. Many of them wrote to the Council and spoke at meetings. Many of them are appalled, "The GPA is Cupertino's New General Plan! Are You Kidding Me?"

In fact, in so many GPA postcards, newsletters, meeting notices, the city never informed the residents that the GPA is a new General Plan for the year 2040. The public were misinformed and misled! And then, in one meeting which only discussed the Housing Element, the entire new General Plan "Community Vision 2040" was adopted.

Around 11pm on Dec. 3, 2014, the City Council reached a consensus to discuss only Housing Element and postpone GPA items to allow the two new Council members and the public time to study it. Yet, around 2pm on Dec. 4, the Council voted to adopt Resolution 14-211. The public who were still in the meeting and those who were watching at home, the Cupertino Courier reporter, Matt Wilson, and even Vice Mayor Barry Chang who seconded the motion to adopt Resolution 14-211 all thought it contains necessary edits only for Housing Element. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth.

Not only Resolution 14-211 contains the GPA that the Council promised to postpone, Resolution 14-211, the 349-page document titled "Community Vision 2040," is in fact almost a total rewrite of the 2000-2020 General Plan, also known as the 2005 General Plan.

However, for over 5 months, no one thought to even compare the adopted Resolution 14-211 with the existing 2000-2020 General Plan. After Dec. 4, some GPA items were postponed and eventually discussed on May 19th, such as development allocation, building heights/planes and Community Benefits program. People were led to believe that the GPA includes Housing Element and these postponed items only. But as it turns out, the the scope of the GPA approved goes way beyond what's described in the meeting notice.

In fact, ever since the GPA process started in June 2013, the city has never conveyed in any communication that this process is a new General Plan for the year 2040 in any workshop or any meeting. In each postcard and each newsletter for GPA and in each staff report, the public were told repeatedly:

"the City Council initiated a process to review several properties in the commercial districts in Cupertino, including the Vallco shopping district, as part of a focused General Plan Amendment." (GPA Newsletter #1, June 2013. GPA Postcard #1)

"While the project will consider citywide land use, urban design, mobility and economic topics, it is not a rewrite of the City’s 2005 General Plan." (Settings and Opportunities Report, Sep. 2013)

"Goal 6: Revise existing General Plan policies and diagrams as they relate to the goals listed above, and make some additional minor changes to address recent State and regional requirements." (Settings and Opportunities Report, Sep. 2013)

"the majority of the General Plan’s content will remain the same" (Staff Repot of April 1 City Council Meeting)

"While the proposed Project considers citywide land use, urban design, mobility, and economic development choices, it is not a complete revision of the City’s 2000-2020 General Plan." (EIR, June 2014) 

"The proposed Project considers citywide land use, urban design, mobility, and economic development choices but is not a complete revision of the City’s 2000-2020 General Plan.” (Staff Report of Oct. 7, 2014 City Council meeting)

"General Plan Amendment to establish citywide development allocation for commercial, office, hotel and residential uses, development parameters for key study areas (including the Vallco Shopping District) and updates to address recent State Law requirements." (Dec. 2 Meeting Notice in Cupertino Courier, published on Nov. 21, 2014)

All of a sudden, the new General Plan "Community Vision 2040" is approved on Dec. 4, 2014, buried inside a resolution. Yet, there is no redlined comparison of the new General Plan with the existing one. It is not easy at all for any one to tell exactly what's changed. However, almost everyone who've compared any one chapter of 2000-2020 General Plan with that in the new General Plan think it's almost a total rewrite. Many important policies in the 2000-2020 General Plan are removed. These policy changes were not discussed in any community meeting or council meeting.

Many residents participated in meetings from 2003 to 2005, contributed to the 2000-2020 General Plan, and attended Council meetings over 6 months period when the Council went over the General Plan item by item, motion by motion. These residents were especially upset since their effort to provide a vision for Cupertino were voided in one single meeting and one single vote. Cupertino residents are appalled, "The GPA is Cupertino's New General Plan for 2040! Are You Kidding Me? We were misinformed and misled."

REFERENCE:
Dec. 2 Meeting Notice published in Cupertino Courier (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7RMc9DXGhUAMVE4UGpmWDJrLUc2UlVaMktKQ2MtZUttVEJN/view?usp=sharing)
Links to the old and new General Plans: http://bettercupertino.blogspot.com/2015/05/please-rescind-resolution-14-211-total.html

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Liang-Fang Chao

Cupertino Resident