Liang - Erroneous or Misleading Information Presented in Vallco Scoping Session and in the NOP

From: Liang C
Date: Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 1:16 AM
Subject: Fwd: Erroneous or Misleading Information Presented in Vallco Scoping Session and in the NOP
To: "City of Cupertino Planning Dept." <planning@cupertino.org>

RE: Vallco Shopping District Specific Plan (NOT Vallco Special Area, which doesn't exist in the General Plan)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Liang-Fang Chao <lfchao@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 1:14 AM
Subject: Erroneous or Misleading Information Presented in Vallco Scoping Session and in the NOP
To: City Attorney's Office <CityAttorney@cupertino.org>
Cc: City Council <citycouncil@cupertino.org>

Dear City Attorney,

The erroneous information, intentional or not, in the EIR Scoping session for Vallco Shopping District Specific Plan has led to incorrect interpretation in an article in CupertinoToday.com claiming that Vallco calls for "up to 600,000 square feet of retail".

I am afraid that many Cupertino residents and even the Vallco consultants are misled by such confusion.

https://cupertinotoday.com/2018/03/01/vallco-2640-homes-5-million-sq-ft-development/

"While the City is studying the original General Plan-compliant "Hills at Vallco" application from 2015 – a project that calls for up to a 600,000 square feet of retail, 2,000,000 square feet of office space, 800 housing units and 339 hotel rooms – last week's meeting also saw the introduction of various project alternatives to be studied as well in the EIR, as is required by law."

This is because the Notice of Preparation and the slide from the EIR scoping session both mistakenly listed the minimum allowed amount for retail, 600,000 square feet, while the maximum allowed amounts are used for the other land uses: 2,000,000 square feet of office and 800 housing units (allowable only if the council approved their request to wipe out residential allocation from all other areas to put in Vallco).

The residents and public agencies won't be able to provide complete comments due to such erroneous information so that the option of 1,200,000 sqft of retail space is NOT evaluated except in the No Change option. This is troublesome.

Please evaluate the following options:

    1,200,000 sqft retail space + 800 units of housing + 338 hotels + 0 office space (except small business office under CG zoning)

Mistake 1: The current General Plan did not only allow 600,00 sf of commercial, but a minimum of 600,000 sf and a maximum of 1,200,000 sf.

(In fact, there was no public notice or engagement when the amount of retail space at Vallco Shopping Mall was reduced from 1,200,000 sf to 600,000 sf back in 2014. It was sort of slipped into a giant General Plan Amendment advertised as Housing Element updates and some cleanup items.)

Mistake 2: The current General Plan does not allow 800 residential units. The 9212 report argues that 800 unit is possible ONLY if the Council allows the transfer of units from other areas. But such transfer has not been requested nor approved.)

Would such mistake render the Notice of  Preparation for Vallco EIR insufficient, since the NOP did not accurately describe the land use allocations to be studied?

The NOP also, intentional or not, did not use the proper name for the area to be studied: Vallco Shopping District, to distinguish from the North Vallco Park and South Vallco Park area. The term "Vallco Special Area" was never used in the General Plan at all. However, "Vallco Special Area" is used in the title of the NOP and throughout the document, except one place.

This coupled with the fact that the maximum allowable amount of 1,200,000 sqft retail space was mistakenly listed as 600,000 sqft (intentional or not) gives the impression that the City, without any approval from the City Council, is trying to push for a smaller retail space, against the wishes of many residents.

The NOP also neglected to mention that

"Buildout totals for Office and Residential allocation within the Vallco Shopping District are contingent upon a Specific Plan being adopted for this area by May 31, 2018. If a Specific Plan is
not adopted by that date, City will consider the removal of the Office and Residential allocations for Vallco Shopping District."
"Due to the magnitude of the project, the City
has established a contingency plan to meet the RHNA if a Specific Plan is not
approved within three years of Housing Element adoption. This contingency
plan (called Scenario B and discussed further in General Plan Appendix B),
would involve the City removing Vallco Shopping District,..."

Sincerely,

Liang Chao

Cupertino Resident