Liang - Comment on Vallco EIR - impact on civic services should be based on real data

From: Liang-Fang Chao

Date: Mon, Sep 10, 2018 at 6:57 PM
Subject: Re: Comment on Vallco EIR - impact on civic services should be based on real data
To: "City of Cupertino Planning Dept." <planning@cupertino.org>, City Council <citycouncil@cupertino.org>

I have sent the enclose EIR comments for the NOP of Vallco project.

However, none of the issues I raised were studied. The impact on civic services, like police, firefighter, libraries etc. are still based on off-record phone communication.

Now the proposed Vallco Specific Plan development will be even denser Measure D.

Please at least provide some real data on the impact for police, emergency services and firefighter services, especially for high-rise buildings of 14 stories tall.

It's a matter of life and death when you do not provide solid data to back up your claim.

Below is a recent report where Police and Firefighters say they can't get through traffic

Rapid Growth in Sunnyvale Spurs Concerns in Public Safety

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Rapid-Growth-in-Sunnyvale-Spurs-Concerns-in-Public-Safety-492660451.html

Police officers and firefighters in Sunnyvale are going public with their concerns that the city is allowing business to boom without enough consideration for public safety.

On Thursday, the public safety officers union sent a letter to City Council members formally requesting they take a closer look at the Sunnyvale's looming development plans, especially the proposed massive Google campus.

It's yet another sign that Sunnyvale is losing its small-town atmosphere to Silicon Valley growth.

For the city's public safety officers, who alternate between being cops and firefighters, it's becoming more than they can handle

In one national survey, Sunnyvale has been hailed as the country's safest city for the past three years. It's probably one reason Google has applied to build massive projects there, including a reported 1 million square foot campus as well as another 400,000 square foot project, adding thousands of new employees.

Google is also asking the city to consider building new high density housing.

The president of Sunnyvale's Public Safety Officers Association, made up of 200 cops, firefighters and dispatchers, is worried.

"I'm sure they're kind of star struck with some of these big companies wanting to come to the city to do business, which we're all for," union President Frank Bellucci said. "But we just want to make sure that type of growth is done wisely."

So, the union sent the letter to City Council members, formally requesting impacts to public safety be specifically analyzed. The letter points out the city last year saw a 13-year high in some major crimes, including rape, aggravated assault, robbery, larceny and vehicle thefts.

"We are also seeing huge problems with traffic in our city,' Bellucci said. "That will add response time to our being able to get to you when you call 911, and it's also causing some problems with some of our pedestrian collisions that are occurring in the city.

A union consultant and adviser said the focus is on protecting public safety but added litigation has not been ruled out.

I urge you to specifically analyze the impact on public safety, response time, ambulance trip delays with real numbers for both residents at Vallco site and residents in surrounding areas who will be impacted by the added traffic volume.

Thank you.

Liang

On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 2:03 PM, Liang-Fang Chao <lfchao@gmail.com> wrote:

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

The impact for civic services should be based on real data, not personal communications that cannot be verified or quantified, such as done for the EIR for 2014 GPA.

Specifically, the emergency response time for ambulance and fire station should be quantified.

How the response time has changed in the pas 4 years as the traffic is getting worse? How the response time will become with increased residential or working population?

What's the response time of other cities with denser population for comparison?

What's their investment in police forces per capita? Would we get reduced police services as the population increase?

(I have heard of comments that San Jose police department doesn't have resource to come to schools to give students safety instructions as in Cupertino schools because San Jose police has to deal with a lot more incidents due to their population density.)

The 2005 General Plan used to have noise level data. Please use quantitative analysis for noise and pollution.

Please refer to the enclosed email for more details.

Thank you.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Liang C <lfchao@gmail.com>Date: Sun, Nov 15, 2015 at 9:22 AM
Subject: Comment on Vallco EIR - impact on civic services should be based on real data
To: "City of Cupertino Planning Dept." <planning@cupertino.org>

RE: Comment for Vallco EIR

Please study the impacts on civic services, such as library, police, fire station, medical emergency services based on real data.

Please study the impact on medical services, emergency and otherwise. The non-resident population would increase the demand for medical services since medical offices are open mostly only during working hours.

Even though the city doesn't provide any service for ambulances, the response time of an ambulance often means life or death even by just one second. Please study the response time of emergency vehicles to various points in Cupertino since traffic congestion could delay an emergecy vehicle to reach a residence on the other side of the town.

Please study not only facility and personnel needs, but also the impact on level of service. Especially, the response time for medical, police, fire emergencies. And the response time during peak hours in average and also worse case scenarios. Any delay in response time could mean life or death for both the resident and non-resident population. Please study the realistic impact supported by real data.

Please please study the impacts of non-resident population on these civic services since the employees do spend more than 8 hours a way in Cupertino and they need the parks and recreation services, police, fire and medical services as any other resident.

Please include cummulative impact, including ongoing projects like Apple Campus 2 and Main Street, and also proposed projects, like Marina, Hamptons, Oaks.

Please provide real data and statistics to support your claim or conclusion, instead of any undocumented personal communication, as it has been done for the EIR of GPA.

If any personal communication is documented through email, it should be provided in the appendix for reference.

e.g. Personal communications between Ricky Caperton (PlaceWorks) and Derek Wolfgram, Deputy County Librarian for Community Libraries, April 4, 2014.)
e.g. Personal communication between Ricky Caperton (PlaceWorks) and Cheryl Roth of the Santa Clara County Fire Department on April
24, 2014.

e.g. Personal communications between Ricky Caperton (PlaceWorks) and Captain Ken Binder, Division Commander, West Valley Patrol,
April 11, 2014

Please do not make assumption that employees generated do not add any impact without providing sufficient data to back it up, such as the following:

e.g. EIR of GPA states: "Although the proposed Project would result in an increase in employees throughout Cupertino as well, only residents within Santa Clara County can apply for a library card; therefore, the following analysis considers expected population increases, and not employment generation as a result of implementation of the proposed Project."

Most of the employees in Cupertino are probably Santa Clara County residents also. If the EIR would claim that most residents are NOT Santa Clara County residents, statistics should be given to support that claim. In fact, even non-resident of Santa Clara County can hold a library card, according to an official from Santa Clara County Library:

"All public libraries in Santa Clara County allow free reciprocal borrowing regardless of address.  Currently 45,312 non-resident have a library card from our system.  This is 18% of our total library cards.

In the EIR for GPA, the impact level for fire station and police are also derived without any data. With 30% increase in residence population and 50% increase in non-residence employee population, the EIR concludes that there will be no additional staffing needs for fire station or police. But the conclusions were only based on "personal communication" with no document and no data to support it.

For example, based on personal communications, the EIR concludes that there is no need to expansion for police for 30% increase in residence population and 50% increase in non-residence employee population.

e.g. "However, the West Valley Patrol Division has confirmed that future development

under the General Plan would not result in the need for expansion or addition of facilities." (Personal communications between Ricky Caperton (PlaceWorks) and Captain Ken Binder, Division Commander, West Valley Patrol,
April 11, 2014.)

If there is no need to expand, a written letter should be provided so that whoever makes the statement would be responsible for the claim. And attempt should be made to estimate the realistic impact of population increase and to explain using data why there will be no significant impact.

Thank you.

Liang Chao