City Council Approves Further Action On General Plan Amendment

Spurred into action by Apple’s Campus 2, and the dwindling available office units, the Cupertino City Council unanimously approved further action towards a General Plan amendment Aug. 21, the plan would provide a unifying vision for the city’s development over the next 15 years.

Mayor Mark Santoro agreed with the idea of city wide foresight and said in the past the city had only reacted to developments as they occurred.

The problem with foresight is it isn’t always 20/20. Planning on what the city will look like in 15 takes time, time that current developers can’t waste.

“We are concerned with the amount of time the wide area General Plan amendment (and in turn the Vallco Master Plan) could take,” wrote Edward Chan on behalf of KCR development in a letter to the counicl, “and thus the impact it would have on the timing of the hotel development on our two acre parcel in the Vallco area.”

(The parcel Chan speaks of is the parking lot between JCPenny and Interstate-280. The lot is currently the weekly home of the Friday farmer’s market.)

However, the city can’t wait either.

“We have since 2000 noted that the General Plan is not sufficient to address this growth,” wrote Cupertino Chamber of Commerce President John Zirelli in a letter to the council. “We are now reaching a point where our ability to promote any possible future growth will be limited without an amendment of the General Plan.”

Under what the city’s staff has proposed, the General Plan amendment will increase office space allocation by 2 million square feet, hotel units by 1,000, commercial allocation by 2 million square feet and to add general commercial zoning to the quasi-public building zones on large sits.

Quasi-public building zones are predominantly places of worship, and the inclusion of general commercial zoning could, as Councilman Gilbert Wong noted, promote church closures.

“Churches might rent-out their land as it is more valuable and possibly even more out of the city,” Councilman Wong said. Wong added that the zoning change could increase the value on the already expensive land, prohibiting more churches, and other places of worship, from moving into the city.

The amendment will also cost between $1.1 and $1.3 million which is expected to be burdened by the contributing sites and the $350,000 given to the city from Sand Hill Property Company.

One of the two main points of discussion focused around what Vice Mayor Orrin Mahoney called “a de-facto moratorium” on construction which the amendment could create.

Under the proposed amendment, all proposals requiring a General Plan amendment would be addressed together linking the plans of South Vallco Master plan and Main Street Master Plan into the city’s General Plan. The community would also provide feedback on a city-wide level, not the current site-by-site basis, followed by the City Council approval of the land use. This process is projected to take between 12 and 15 months and projects within the Vallco area would be subject to a Master Plan approval following approval of the General Plan amendment.

Projects which currently do not need an amendment to the General Plan would, understandably, not be affected by this.

While director of community development Aarti Shrivastava stressed that the General Plan amendment and South Vallco Master Plan process could be done in tandem, the council was still worried that the uncertainty would stifle investment.

A concern that was shared by some of the Vallco owners.

“This is a fundamental flaw,” said Ivor Sampson, who spoke on behalf of Sears. Sampson added that no developer would seriously invest in development if the project’s approval was in question. Furthermore the potential plans Sears is working on would be hampered by the proposed timetable.

However, as Vice Mayor Mahoney pointed out, something must be done since the city is currently under a de-facto office moratorium as all available office unit allocations in the city have been used.

Mayor Santoro agreed and pointed out that while the process might take longer, the leanings of the council would be more visible, dissuading “unnecessary” projects from even being considered and having minimal impact on future development.

The other point discussion of was the timing and price of fees for the General Plan. Currently the General Plan amendment asks applicants to contribute to the $1.1 million fund before the process begins.

“How do we insure fairness,” Councilman Rod Sinks asked, adding that if a potential developer pays upfront they can’t entirely be sure the project will be fairly and without bias.

Counter proposals by members of the council included payment in the form of a final fee or a rebate on future fees following council approval of the project.  

Upon unanimously approving further development of the General Plan amendment, the council asked that the staff propose alternatives to the current fee process and clarification on how the General Plan amendment process would proceed with future developments in tandem with the South Vallco Master Plan.