Habitat For Humanity Project On Cleo Avenue Moves Forward With Council Approval

The four new homes to be built on Cleo Avenue got the go-ahead from the Cupertino City Council Tuesday, under the condition of a few changes.

Habitat for Humanity has accepted applications since April for the four two-story, single-family homes for low-to-very-low-income families.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the Habitat proposal under four conditions: addition of a ninth parking space; landscape screening; increase in the setback to 5 feet from 4 feet; and extending to 65 years the affordability restrictions.

Before Tuesday's council meeting, affordability restrictions on Cupertino's low-income ownership units built by developers with no affiliations with the city was 45 years, meaning the owner, after paying off a 30-year, zero-interest loan, would need to wait 15 years before being allowed to sell the unit for market price.

Councilman Barry Chang was vocal about extending the affordability restrictions, arguing the properties should be reserved for low-income families in perpetuity, but ultimately compromised.

Affordability restrictions vary from city to city, explained Chris Weaver, director of housing development of Habitat for Humanity.

"Cupertino may set a precedence with that," said Weaver.

When Chang learned that there is no precedence in the United States to enforce income restrictions on affordable housing projects permanently, he said he would propose 99 years, the same as the current restrictions on ownership units built through the city's Below Market Rate (BMR) Housing Program.

But to encourage developers to build affordable housing projects outside of the city’s BMR program, shorter restrictions prove to be an incentive to developers, said Vera Gill, senior planner of the city.

After much debate and public comment about the restrictions, the council agreed to the affordability restrictions to 65 years.

While most of the speakers talked in favor of the project, Jennifer Griffin—a Cupertino resident who attends almost every council meeting—raised concerns.

"The 4-foot separation from neighbors is worrying to me," said Griffin. "I've never heard of anything less than 5 feet in Cupertino."

Another Cupertino resident, Zihong Lu, said he lives in the neighborhood of the Cleo Avenue project, and requested trees to be planted around the property to give neighbors more privacy.

The council accepted both Griffin's and Lu's suggestions by including them in the motion.

The council also required Habitat for Humanity to add one more parking space for guest use to the existing planned eight spaces, which equates to two parking spaces per Habitat house.

The project's four units have a dwelling size from 972 square feet to 1,009 square feet. Each will have two bedrooms.

A family of four is the maximum each unit can take, and if it's a couple with two children, the children must be the same sex to share a bedroom, according to Weaver.