Liang - Adopt strong policies to ensure promises are kept

From: Liang-Fang Chao

Date: Wed, Sep 19, 2018 at 12:07 AM
Subject: Adopt strong policies to ensure promises are kept
To: City Clerk <CityClerk@cupertino.org>, City Council <citycouncil@cupertino.org>

Please put this in the city record for Sept. 18 Council Meeting.

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Dear Mayor and Counculmembers,

The current plan is conceived behind closed doors since May. Those who participated in the Opticos process city did not even get informed the details of Vallco plan until last week. Please do a citywide survey first before moving forward.

The theaters, ice rink, bowling alleys, gyms would all be gone from Vallco. In their place, there will be 10,000 more workers who commute in and 8000 residents with almost no real parkland.

I oppose all very dense options with mega office, since they all worsen housing shortage. Please stand up if you agree.

We want a vibrant community friendly Vallco. Please don't let various outside forces hijack our city.

In case you do go forward, It's important to adopt strong policies to ensure that promises are kept.

1. Please set an expiration date for all allocation granted so that there is an incentive to build sufficuent housing units before 2023, the end is Housing Element.

2. Please set a condition so that the office allocation would be taken away or not issue occupancy permits if the BMR is not built.

3. I support quality affordable housing for families and people with disabilities. But there is no quarantee that the BMR units will ever get built since Sand Hill will NOT fund them. They will seek public funding, which they may or may not get.

The Specific Plan is NOT a solution for BMR housing.

Please require a completion bond for th BMR units.

4. If you want market-rate units that are actually affordable for mixed population, you need to specify unit sizes in the Specific Plan.

5. Please don't be blinded by token benefits, which will in fact cost more for taxpayers like the empty-shell PAC. Your approval of the Specific Plan will give the developer an instant boost in property value. You have no quarantee that any housing will be built before more profitable portions might be sold off or the entire site might be sold off for double and triple the price.

6. The Tier 2 Plan has double the amount of office of Tier 1 with a similar amount of housing units. 

It will worsen housing shortage, worsen traffic and worsen Greenhouse emission.

Tier 2 is NOT a solution for the housing crisis we face.

7. Both Tiers will add about 900 students to CUSD, which is about one elementary school and half a middle school. If you do care about CUSD, you would demand contribution to CUSD for Tier 1 also.

Vallco could have been such a great opportunity for a community-friendly center for many residents to enjoy. But you have allowed it to morph into something that's much bigger than anyone could have even imagined for Cupertino. Who do you represent? Cupertino residents or some outside forces?

Liang Chao

Cupertino Resident