Urs - The Responsible Thing to Do Would be to Cut Back Until Traffic Fits

Dear Cupertino Planning Department: 

I live on Tantau in the Loree Estates near Steven’s Creek. I’m hoping that the City is able to stay away from any “E” or “F” Traffic Ratings for whatever becomes approved for the Vallco Site. One thing that is clear from the DEIR on traffic is that roadways in Cupertino are already past their limits without any further development with a long list of intersections that just can’t be improved because of property boundaries. I am not against development, and can see the allure of the green roof and architecture, but certainly question the wisdom of planning decisions that would head significant parts of Cupertino into traffic situations common in cities with poor planning departments. 

 The top contributors of added traffic at Vallco are pretty much proportional to how densely developed that site becomes. It does not seem to matter very much if it is Housing, Office or Retail. It seems like the sensible thing to do would be to significantly shrink the size of the Vallco redevelopment project as currently being proposed. Nowhere in the DEIR is this really analyzed or discussed directly. 

 Only the Housing elements are subject to the limits of new state law if I understand the intent of that legislation. If something needs to be fast tracked for state laws, perhaps guiding re-development only to housing might be the right compromise to get the project quicker through the planning approval process. The current projects proposed are so heavy with office, that the housing being generated really does nothing positive for the regional housing imbalance problem. 

 Very dense cities eventually add subways to increase mobility once street level becomes unusable. Subways give an additional travel layer that isn’t constrained by existing property boundaries. In the digital chip business, it is what is done when you can’t connect all the logic gates: add more metal layers to the chip to handle the increased traffic. Its called “Rent’s Rule”. Until there are more ways to get around, the responsible thing to do would be to cut the project back until traffic fits, or delay the project until subways, or flying cars, are built. 

 Urs