Rescind "Community Vision 2040" Immediately Before Any More Development Project, by Liang

From: Liang C
Date: Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 11:55 PM
Subject: Rescind "Community Vision 2040" Immediately Before Any More Development Project
To: City Council <citycouncil@cupertino.org>, "City of Cupertino Planning Dept." <planning@cupertino.org>, City Clerk CityClerk@cupertino.org

Dear Mayor Sinks, Vice Mayor Chang, and Council members,

The new General Plan "Community Vision 2040" did not follow the generally accepted review and approval procedure used by other cities and Cupertino in the past. The Council did not go over the policies one-by-one or the chapters one-by-one. The Council certainly did not go over the wordings of each policy one by one. The Council approved "Community Vision 2040" in one meeting when little time was even spent on deliberating the content of the General Plan.

The Comparison Tables in CupertinoGPA.org revealed that the new General Plan is a massive rewrite of the 2000-2020 General Plan (a.k.a. 2005 General Plan), even though the city kept insisting that "the majority of the General Plan’s content will remain the same" (April 1, 2014 Council Meeting). The Comparison Tables also revealed that many policy changes are NOT REQUIRED by the State Laws, but are optional or simply best practices, which a city could choose not to adopt. Policies were added, removed or edited without deliberation by the Council or review by the public.

The General Plan is a constitution for the development and growth of Cupertino. Like any legal document, it should be examined and reviewed in detail since the removal or inclusion of one policy or a slight change in wording might mean tens of millions of dollars in revenue or expenses. And the impact of these policies would stay for decades. Any unintended damages done as a result of a well-intentioned, yet badly-worded policy would be very hard to undo. The General Plan deserves to be reviewed and deliberated in detail.

Since the Comparison Tables between 2005 General Plan and the new General Plan were not available on Dec. 2, 2014 and the city consistently stated that "the majority of the General Plan’s content will remain the same." The Council members and the residents all thought that Resolution 14-211 only contained necessary changes for the Housing Element and some "cleanup items," as the staff described.

The new General Plan, "Community Vision 2040", should not be approved in one meeting without much deliberation. Resolution 14-211 should be rescinded. Let us start over and follow the proper procedure to approve the 2040 General Plan. Cupertino deserves a General Plan that's carefully-reviewed and well-accepted by the residents.
Tens of millions of dollars, if not billions, and the future of Cupertino and Cupertino schools are at stake. Be responsible. Be accountable. Correct the unintended mistake. Please Rescind Resolution 14-211. Please immediately correct the mistake before approving anymore development projects.

Liang-Fang Chao

Cupertino Resident