Muni - Vote against Vallco Specific Plan on Sept 18, 2018.

From: Munisekar 

Date: Mon, Sep 10, 2018 at 11:21 PM
Subject: Vallco Specific Plan on Sept 18, 2018.
To: <svaidhyanathan@cupertino.org>

Hello Council member Ms.Savita Vaidhyanathan,

My name is Muni Madhdhipatla and I am a Cupertino resident. I have been very concerned about the way our city council has been handling Vallco shopping mall issue. You are one of the 5 council members and hence my appeal to you.

Vallco is a regional shopping mall zoned for retail only and should not have been allocated with 2 mil SFT office space and unlimited heights in Dec 2014 General Plan amendment. Nevertheless, it was done late night of Dec 5, 2014 despite massive protest from the residents. I understand it was only one month on the job for you at that time.

In 2016, the developer tried to maximize profitability by taking advantage of the allocations by proposing 2 mil SFT of office space and 900 units of apartments and measly 16% of the build out for shopping. Basically, Vallco went from 100% shopping mall to only 16% shopping. I don't need to remind you that the residents rejected their plan in 2016 elections by voting down Measure D.

It is my understanding that Dec 2014 GPA allocations were conditional upon the developer having an approved plan for Vallco by May 2018. That means, those allocations should have expired automatically after May 2018; to make things clear, the city council could have voted to remove those allocations in early June 2018. Given the residents repeated concern about traffic congestions and lack of shopping experience in Cupertino as evidenced in city Godbe surveys, you had an opportunity to revert this space to original zoning of shopping; but failed to do so.

Cupertino is a suburban community without any mass transit capability; highway 280 is the 3^rd worst congested highway in the bay area. With the addition of 2.8 mil SFT Apple Campus II, roughly 10,000 more daytime workers are likely to enter and exit Wolfe exit from 280. With the latest Vallco proposal of 2400 to 2900 housing units and 1.8 mil SFT office space, we are likely to see additional 9000 daytime office workers and 5000 residents overloading that same exit. Our freeways and backroads cannot handle that load.

As a mayor in 2017, you sent a letter to San Jose city [attached here] on our behalf of residents opposing their plan to build 180 feet tall buildings along Stevens Creek Blvd adjacent to Cupertino. Now, our city will be considering approving seven towers of 22 story tall buildings [230 to 240 feet height] at Vallco. We don't want to be getting a letter from San Jose reminding our city's double standards. BTW, even the cities like Sunnyvale with CalTrain are not building such tall buildings in residential areas.

Except for Regnart and Blue Hills elementary schools on west side, all other schools are overflowing with kids; 252 portable class rooms across 25 CUSD schools are a proof that we have overcrowding of our schools [attached doc]. BTW, these portables are built at the cost of open playing space for the kids. Adding 2400 to 2900 housing units at Vallco will exacerbate this problem by adding more than school going 800 kids; I arrived at this number based on 0.32 kid per household from CUSD demographer.

Moreover, adding 1.8 mil SFT office space will create housing to office imbalance in our city. As per ABAG guidelines, we are supposed to build a housing unit for every 1.4 jobs created. With 9000 jobs created out of that office space, we will be forced to build 6500 units of new housing. Cupertino does not have infrastructure to handle such housing and office growth. Also, please take into consideration the water shortage and overloading of sewage pipelines.

As an elected representative of residents, I request you to vote against the most egregious plan being presented by the developer for Vallco on Sept 18, 2018. I understand they are trying to maximize profitability; but it is your job as our representative to safeguard the interests of residents. 

I am writing to you as you will be one of the key votes on this matter. I am writing to you so that my silence is not interpreted as supporting of Vallco Specific Plan. I hope common sense prevails.

Thank you.

Muni Madhdhipatla

Cupertino Resident.