Date: Thu, Jul 16, 2015
Subject: Ground-floor Retail component in exchange for extra height - Please remove the policy!
To: City Council <citycouncil@cupertino.org>, "City of Cupertino Planning Dept." <planning@cupertino.org>
Dear Mayor Sinks, Vice Mayor Chang and Council members,
As
some Council members have recognized during Council meetings and even
joked about it, allowing ground-floor retail components in exchange for
extra building height hasn't produced any community benefit at all. It
has been abused to grant huge benefits for the developers while the
retail component is either not accessible to the public easily or the
retail component is in fact an integral part of the developer's project
and benefit the developer more than the community.
Please fix the problem in the General Plan that has been ongoing for 10 years or more.
A restaurant in a hotel should not be claimed as a retail component, since it's an integral part of the hotel and mainly benefit hotel residents. A retail space not accessible by the community should not be considered a "retail component". For the example of Main Street, the extra office space gained by the developer is 19 times more than the retail space in the ground floor. And that tiny retail space is not even accessible from outside of the building. The Council should put more stringent requirements on the ground-floor retail component and make sure that its design (from the size of each store, to accessibility, to access to parking) is viable as a retail component that serves the entire community of Cupertino.
Please fix the problem in the General Plan that has been ongoing for 10 years or more.
A restaurant in a hotel should not be claimed as a retail component, since it's an integral part of the hotel and mainly benefit hotel residents. A retail space not accessible by the community should not be considered a "retail component". For the example of Main Street, the extra office space gained by the developer is 19 times more than the retail space in the ground floor. And that tiny retail space is not even accessible from outside of the building. The Council should put more stringent requirements on the ground-floor retail component and make sure that its design (from the size of each store, to accessibility, to access to parking) is viable as a retail component that serves the entire community of Cupertino.
Such bad policy in the General Plan should be fixed as soon as
possible. Please do not approve any more development project using such
terrible policy until the General Plan is fixed. It is a well-known
problem. Why not fix it? Why allow it to continue to exist in the new
General Plan?
I would like to urge the Council to put this on the agenda of the next Council meeting for consideration.
I would like to urge the Council to put this on the agenda of the next Council meeting for consideration.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Sincerely,
Liang-Fang Chao
Cupertino Resident
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