From: Liang C <lfchao@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 12:27 AM Subject: Resolution 15-078 is against the residents who you represent To: City Council <citycouncil@cupertino.org>, "City of Cupertino Planning Dept." <planning@cupertino.org>, David Brandt <davidb@cupertino.org>
Enclosed
is a blog article just published to inform the residents about the
truth behind the new process for General Plan Amendments.
The new process for General Plan Amendments is simply a way to allow Community Benefits program, renamed voluntary community amenities, to be applied to any parcel in Cupertino in exchange for any increase in height or office allocation or break any other rule in the General Plan.
Under
this new guideline, Oaks can come along and request 1 million office
space and 120 feet building; Marin can come along and request another 1
million office space and 140 feet building. The sky is the limit. The
limits set in the General Plan is non-existent. We may be able to build
10 million square feet of office space by 2040 and Steven Creek could be
lined with 10 buildings over 100 feet tall by 2040.
Hundreds
of residents have written to you and hundreds of residents have
attended the May 19th meeting to express their concerns on increase in
building height and office allocation. Are you going to ignore all of
their concerns and adopt a new process that does the opposite and allow
even more increase in building height and office allocation?
Are you representing the residents of Cupertino who elected you? Or are you representing others who simply want to make money in Cupertino?
Most recently, Main
Street has been able to gain 19 times more office than the amount of
ground floor retail space. Then, the retail is not accessible to the
community. The planning staff does not think it's a violation because
there is no definition of "retail" in our General Plan.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Blogger <no-reply@blogger.com> Date: Sun, Aug 30, 2015 at 11:36 PM Subject: [BetterCupertino] Buffet-Style Community Benefits Lead to Uncontrolled Growth To: lfchao@gmail.com On Tuesday, September 1, 2015, the Cupertino City Council will deliberate and most likely approve the new process for General Plan Amendments, which opens the door to uncontrolled growth. The agenda description does not mention one word about Community Benefits program. But the devil in the details is an unregulated Community Benefits program, which puts all limits set in the General Plan up on the buffet table to be broken as long as the price is good. On May 19th, 2015, facing strong opposition by residents about large increase in building heights and massive increase in office allocation, the Cupertino City Council voted not to approve the proposed General Plan Amendment. Instead, the Council considered a staff proposal to establish a process to accept requests for General Plan Amendments on an annual or biannual bases. It appears that the Council listened to the residents and slowed down uncontrolled growth pushed by developers. However, that is far from the truth. The new General Plan Amendment process essentially sets no limit on building height or office allocation or any other regulation set in the General Plan. As long as a developer can provide Community Benefits to sweeten the deal. the project would be allowed to get higher height, higher density, smaller setback, more office space, more housing units, more hotel rooms, etc. Anything is up for grabs as the Community Benefits provided is approved by the Council. This is a buffet-style Community Benefits program, which make the policies set in the General Plan non-existent. There is no hard limit on anything, as long as the money is good enough. Knowing the residents' concern on building heights and office allocation, the City Council wants to go ahead and not even set any limit at all. Totally ignore hundreds of residents who sent their written comments and hundreds of residents who attended the meeting on May 19th. Vallco comes along and request 2 million square feet of office and 160 feet in building height. It's approved. Oaks comes along and request 200,000 square feet of office and 100 feet in building height and it's going to be approved. Next developer will come along and request another 1 million square feet of office and 120 feet in building height and it will be approved. Where is the limit? None. If Community Benefits is to be allowed in the General Plan at all, there should be clear policies on what types of General Plan Amendments are allowed and what are the limits. There should be clear policies what types of Community Benefits are allowed and how are they determined. Many other cities have set guidelines on Community Benefits. But the Council is unwilling to bound its own hands. We have seen Community Benefits, which do not benefit the community at all. Main Street has been able to get 19 times more office space on its two office buildings using ground floor retail as a Community Benefit. Then, the ground floor retail ends up to serve only office workers. Main Street also got two extra floors on its garage simply by moving a retail building next to the garage and call it a "ground floor retail," as a Community Benefit. Hamptons offers $7 million dollars donation to Civic Center project, which is supported only by a handful of Council members and does not benefit most of the residents. Oaks is offering to provide bike paths on Mary Avenue as a Community Benefits in order to bring bike traffic to the Mary Bridge, which is barely used. It is questionable whether nicer bike paths would bring traffic if Mary Bridge is not on the commute path of most bicyclists. The Hills at Vallco offered to build a "new" K-5 school to share the same school site as an already over-crowded school. This new school will force the existing school students to share sports fields. This new school will also use the neighborhood streets as parking lot since the tiny school hardly has enough space for classrooms. Such Community Benefits do not benefits the community. They are determined behind closed doors through negotiation between developers and stakeholders who benefit from the transaction. Council members get the developers to donate money to support their own agenda, like the Civic Center project. The surrounding community who actually get negatively impacted by the development project do not get a say in the deal making. And often, the deal benefits the developer far far more than it benefits the community. This practice has to stop and Community Benefits has to be regulated with agreed-upon policies and discussed in open meetings. The "community" should be involved in the decision making process of Community Benefits. And we should not confuse mitigation of project impacts, which is a requirement for any development project with Community Benefits. Buffet-style Community Benefits lead to uncontrolled growth since the sky is the limit.  -- Posted By Blogger to BetterCupertino at 8/30/2015 11:36:00 PM
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