Liang - Vallco impact on overflow parking to neighborhoods. Farmers' Market

From: Liang C

Date: Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 2:10 AM
Subject: Comment on Vallco EIR - impact on overflow parking to the neighborhood
To: "City of Cupertino Planning Dept." <planning@cupertino.org>

RE: Comment on Vallco EIR

Please study the impact of overflow parking demands on neighboring streets, such as Portal and other side streets, and shopping centers, especially the center with JoAnne Frabric and United Furniture across the street.

Please study the impact of overflow parking demands on neighboring streets of the new K-5 elementary school at Nan Allen Elementary site.

It is well known that the parking stalls required for office park, residential or mixed use sites in the zoning code is well below the needed amount, since the zoning code makes an unrealistic assumption on the number of people who uses alternative methods of transportation. As a result, the neighborhood streets often become parking lot for the nearby mixed use sites.

One resident just spoke on Nov. 3rd about Apple employees at Infinity Loop taking up street parking near Lawson. As a result, parents cannot park near school and are forced to double park to pick up students. The local residents do not want the city to turn the street into a permit parking zone since it means added cost for the residents and added trouble for their guests.

The neighborhood streets around Biltmore Apartments are always full 24-7 to the point that even a guest cannot find a parking space.

Apple Campus 2 with expected emplyes of 14,000 and a commitment to provide alternative transportation for 40% of them, including carpool. So, the expected number of single-driver vehicle is 8,000. The number of parking stalls provided in Apple Campus 2 is 10,980 parking spaces, according to its EIR.

The Hills at Vallco provides only 9,175 vehicles, the very minimum required by the Zoning Code.

Let's see how much would actually be needed.

The Hills at Vallco contains

• 2 million square feet of office, which will house about 10,000 workers. If 20% car pool or use alternative means (which is already higher than the average from 2010 census), it will need 8,000 parking spaces.
•  800 housing units, which would require 2 cars per unit or more (if multiple young singles share one apartment or any family has a teenager of driving age). Thus, it will require 1,600 spaces.
•  625,000 square feet of retail space. Per 1,000 square feet of retail space is recommended to have 5-10 parking spaces. Thus, 3,1250 to 6,250 parking space is recommended.

• According to "Site Design, Parking and Zoning for Shopping Centers" from Planning.org: "the recommended standard of 10.0 car spaces per 1,000 square feet of net retail area (or a parking ratio of 3:1, i.e., three square feet of parking area for every one square foot of retail sales area)."
• Loss in Value due to Inadequate Parking: "The shopping center could accommodate the  peak holiday shopping during Thanksgiving and Christmas when the  merchants make up to 50% of their profit for the year.  If a business can not  accommodate its customers during that time, then the property may not have  adequate parking and the property may suffer from obsolescence.  Other  studies have been done which show a need of 5 parking spaces for every 1,000  square feet of building area."

The total parking spaces needed is 8000+1600+3125 = 12,725.

The 9,175 parking spaces at Vallco is only 72% of needed space,

When other shopping center needs extra parking, it overflows to the next one or two streets.

When The Hills at Vallco overflows, it will overflow to the next 10 to 20 streets since the project is more than 10 times bigger than any other shopping mall in Cupertino.

Since there is little mass transit and even less ridership in Cupertino, any assumption of the number of visitors or workers who take public transit has to be realistic.

Note that even in San Jose where there are lightrail, the ridership is still low since the VTA transportation network does not cover enough areas so that most people still had to drive.

Any solution to solve the last mile problem is still experimental, such as Uber or Lyft. The EIR impact analysis should not be based on unproven future trend. It should be based on real data and real transportation method available today or in any committed plan.

Therefore, the effect of overflow parking from The Hills of Vallco needs to be studied using realistic data in every day situation and also worst case situation during Christmas shopping season.

The impact of difficulty of parking on the accessibility of retail shops and other amenities at The Hills at Vallco should be studied.

The impact of difficulty of parking on the willingness of customers to visit shops and other amenities in The Hills at Vallco should be studied.

The impact of difficulty of parking on the sales volume of the shops during Christmas season when most retail shops make 50% of their sales should be studied since it affects the sustainability of the shopping center at Vallco.

The impact of difficulty of parking on community events, like Farmers' Market, hosted at The Hills at Vallco should be studied.

Where will the Farmers' Market be held? Since most farmers sell their produce right off their truck. Would there be space for the farmers to drive up their truck into the Farmers' Market?

Liang Chao