City Council Agenda Item 17Vallco Town Center Special Area: Specific Plan and associated amendments to the General Plan, Sept 18 2018Dear Cupertino City Council,I am a local resident. I did not even hear about the many very dense Vallco proposals until last week. Please postpone any decision until you have given time for the residents to chime in.Voters voted No on Measure D. These plans are significantly denser. Based on recent history, the residents have indicated they do not support denser plans.Our schools are already overcrowded since we see it daily in the number of portables. Adding thousands more units at Vallco won't be good for schools no matter how much in "benefits" the developer offers; CUSD has stated upwards of 1000 students will be added, and the cost to build additional infrastructure or student transportation options hasn’t been defined yet. We will pay more in the future in school bonds to build more classrooms, like Fremont Union and Santa Clara Unified School District are doing now.Furthermore, the developer is inserting a clause into the benefits offer that allows the benefits to be rescinded if anyone objects to the development, even if the objections are valid. You should decline to accept any offer that allows the developer to renege on their commitments.Traffic is already terrible around Cupertino. Both Tier 1 and Tier 2 will add 8,000 to 10,000 more workers to commute in for jobs, and another 8000 residents who may commute out. There is no significant fixed mass transit planned, proposed or linked to this development.A year ago, Councilmembers Rod Sinks and Savita Vaidhyanathan co-authored an opinion letter with Santa Clara Mayor Gillmor in the Mercury News stating that the Stevens Creek Blvd “corridor needs significant transit improvements that are lacking” and “The Stevens Creek traffic problems are a result of decades of inaction that preceded all of us. But we, as responsible leaders, should feel compelled to act before entitling more growth. We owe that to our current and future residents as we seek to improve the economic vitality of our cities and our quality of life. We simply cannot wait any longer.” Furthermore, “We’d like to see a new transit study done of the Stevens Creek/280 corridor; we suggest including Interstate 280 because it doesn’t have the cross traffic that impedes the speed of much of VTAs light rail system.”That idea made a lot of sense. You need to work with surrounding cities to complete these studies that you suggested prior to approving these plans. Please postpone any decision until you have given time for the residents to digest, provide input, and further revise the plan.Regards,Howard Huang
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