Cupertino General Plan update, 3 years to complete

Silicon Valley Business Journal?Donato-Weinstein, 5/21/15. "Cupertino general plan will stand as-is, restricting office expansion except in Vallco district."

City Hall at Cali Mill Plaza

OMG, a 6-lane highway widening

On Tuesday night, as residents packed into council chambers to blast development, council opted not to make any modifications to the December-approved plan. That means there remains just 17,000 square feet of office space available to be built throughout the city, except at Vallco. (See note at bottom of story for an important caveat.) And building heights will remain capped, for the most part, at 45 feet.....  Cupertino’s council did approve the city’s new “housing element” early Wednesday — a state-mandated requirement that specifies where Cupertino would conceivably approve additional residential units. That paves the way for up to 1,400 additional housing units, though developers now must submit formal plans.

.... So what’s the good news, from development’s perspective? Atthe meeting, council members asked city staff to explore a way for developers to come in with specific projects on a case by case basis — essentially holding the door open to projects. This idea would see a “competitive” process in which new development could still get through the gate if council decided that the project was attractive enough to merit a general plan amendment — for instance, by providing significant “community benefits” and mitigating its impacts on the

Main Street project planning 

Open for business: Apple, HP, etc.

neighborhood. First, though, council members want to gather community input on the process, something that should take about 90 days. ....  Matt Wilson, writing for the Cupertino Courier, has a good snapshot of what this new process could look like, here. 

....  The outcome of the years-long general plan update in Cupertino is still a good one for Sand Hill Property Co., which spent hundreds of millions of dollars to buy the various pieces of Vallco Shopping Mall last year. The December council decision allocated 2 million square feet of office, 600,000 square feet of retail and 389 housing units for the Vallco area. That doesn’t mean anything is approved; Sand Hill is right now undertaking a huge public-opinion-gathering effort before submitting a formal project for processing.  Read article.

Related - Milpitas Post/Matt Wilson, 5/20/15. "Cupertino: Council votes to not make any updates to General Plan."  The Cupertino City Council has put on the brakes of a General Plan amendment nearly three years in the making, but city leaders are still interested in exploring a new method for tackling General Plan requests from developers. In separate votes May 19, the council decided to make no further changes to the city General Plan and instead investigate a city staff proposal to create a General Plan review process that city staff describes as "competitive."

Note photographs/graphics:  City limit road sign from Yelp, (6 of 20). Cupertino City Hall from  Yelp.  Apple, HP, etc. from Hike this blog/Tech trek, 8/28/12. City Hall from San Jose Team Real Estate. Main street rendering from City of Cupertino

Posted by Kathy Meeh