Liang - Limit the Unit Size so that market-rate units are more affordable

From: Liang-Fang Chao

Date: Tue, Sep 18, 2018 at 1:00 AM
Subject: Limit the Unit Size so that market-rate units are more affordable
To: City Council <citycouncil@cupertino.org>, City Attorney's Office <CityAttorney@cupertino.org>, manager@cupertino.org, "City of Cupertino Planning Dept." <planning@cupertino.org>

Dear Mayor Paul and Councilmembers,

Both Tier 1 and Tier 2 have no limit at all on the size of each unit.

This would allow developers to create more luxury units, which are not affordable by most people, as we've seen in Main Street with one-bedrooms of 1200 sq. ft. and even up to 1700 sq. ft.

In order to produce "affordable" housing, the size of each unit needs to be small enough.

Palo Alto City Council puts a limit on the square footage of each unit in order to ensure affordable market-rate units are produced.

Please put a limit in the total square footage for the living space in residential units to ensure or specify a minimum percentage of small units.

Please set clear objective standards. Please do not leave anything to "assumptions".

Your assumption that Sand Hill won't submit SB 35 puts the City under the threat of a massive (likely non-compliant) SB 35 application.

The office and residential allocation in Dec. 2014 General Plan should depend on the approval of Vallco Specific Plan with agreed upon community benefits. Unfortunately, Sand Hill took advantage of "your assumption" and simply claimed that they are entitled to the office and residential allocation in SB 35 even without any approved Vallco Specific Plan.

Please do not leave anything to "assumptions".

Sincerely,

Liang Chao

Cupertino Resident

---------- Follow-up Message ----------
From: Liang-Fang Chao <
Date: Tue, Sep 18, 2018 at 1:32 AM
Subject: Re: Limit the Unit Size so that market-rate units are more affordable
To: City Council <citycouncil@cupertino.org>, City Attorney's Office <CityAttorney@cupertino.org>, manager@cupertino.org, "City of Cupertino Planning Dept." <planning@cupertino.org>

The Development Agreement refers to an average unit size of 1250 sq. ft. in the Specific Plan in the following clause:

"City shall not limit square footages of permitted uses or the number of permitted residential units (based upon the presumed general Project average unit size of 1,250 gross square feet assumed in the Specific Plan), or modify parking requirements or access in a manner that is inconsistent with the Project Approvals;"

However, the draft Specific Plan did not mention any reference to "unit size" at all.

The School Impact Analysis assumes the site will have small units mostly for singles and reduced the Student Generation Rate from 0.32 to 0.17 for CUSD, based on such assumption.

Therefore, the Vallco Specific Plan MUST have a limit on unit size for at least 50% of units in order to be consistent with the assumption made in the EIR. Otherwise, the School Impact Analysis for the EIR would have to be adjusted to reflect the Student Generation Rate based on the actual unit size in Vallco Specific Plan.

Liang Chao