Do you rent a home you suspect to have exposed lead or that may harbor other conditions that could endanger life, limb, health, property, safety, or welfare for yourself, other residents, or the public? Have complaints to your landlord about unsafe conditions in your home gone unanswered or resulted in deferred or only partial resolution?
Thanks to the 2021 passage of Assembly Bill (AB) 838, cities and counties will now respond to complaints of substandard housing conditions with inspections, inspection reports, and citations, as needed, to remediate unsafe conditions in rental homes.
During the 9/19/2023 Council meeting, Council Members unanimously approved amendments to the Cupertino Municipal Code to expand existing property maintenance requirements in accordance with AB 838 changes to California Health and Safety Code section 17970.5. The 2021 AB 838 mandates that cities and counties must:
Receive any complaint of substandard building or lead hazard violations;Investigate the complaint and make findings through a reasonably competent and diligent visual inspection of the property;Conduct an inspection at least as promptly as the agency’s Building Department responds to requests for building permit final inspection;
Produce an inspection report;Advise the property owner or operator of violations and of corrective actions required to remedy the violations; and
Provide free, certified copies of an inspection report and citations issued to any involved or potentially affected party.
2021 AB 838 states that cities and counties shall not collect fees from property owners for inspections or inspection reports, unless the inspection reveals one or more lead hazards, or code enforcement officers identify the property as substandard pursuant to California Health and Safety Code sections 17920.3 and 17920.10.
If you have alerted your landlord to an observed or suspected hazard condition in your home and your landlord has failed to correct the issue in a timely manner, submit a request for a home inspection at Cupertino 311 (https://www.cupertino.org/our-city/advanced-components/cupertino-311) or by using the Cupertino 311 mobile app.
Five years have passed since Cupertino employees approved the 2018 Vallco Town Center SB 35 project (Vallco SB 35 project, located on Stevens Creek Blvd and N. Wolfe Rd) under ministerial approval provisions of the 2017 SB 35 bill. The last project updates published on the City of Cupertino’s website and on the property owner’s “The Rise” website are dated May 2023.
Empty Vallco Site, as of September 2023
Background
Several areas of Vallco land were found to be contaminated by toxic waste. In April 2021, the supervision of the soil contamination cleanup was transferred to Santa Clara County’s Department of Environmental Health and Safety (DEH). After significant testing and reporting, a site cleanup plan was approved in December 2022. Cleanup efforts began around May/June 2023 with the hauling away of some contaminated soil, but since then activity at the site appears to have stalled.
In 2018, Kitty Moore unearthed the contamination at Vallco via her thorough analysis of EIR and Geotracker reports from California’s State Water Board. Since becoming elected, Councilmember Moore has worked to ensure the developer remains accountable and does not build atop contaminated ground.
Proposed building blocks with their uses and soil/vapor probing areas. Each color designates a different investigation. Not all the dots indicate areas of concern. The areas of particular concern are indicated within the dashed blocks. In some probes, the deeper they went, the more they found. Source: Geotracker
New Changes to Plan
Based on information inferred from a 8/22/2023 DEH letter to the property owner, representatives for the property owner met with DEH representatives sometime after the May/June 2023 cleanup effort began. From the letter, the property owner considers “significant deviations from the development plan” associated with the Site Management Plan (SMP) to clean up the site. The changes discussed in the letter include:
“Site development and occupancy in phases. (The approved SMP does not consider phasing the Site development and occupancy).“
“Construction of 6 additional buildings…for a total of 12 buildings to be located west of Wolfe Road. (The approved SMP considers construction of only 6 buildings in this location, referred to as Blocks 1 through 6).” It is unclear where these 6 new buildings would go.
To note: With its submission of the Vallco SB 35 project, the property owner bypassed Cupertino’s parkland requirement for new developments (3 acres of parkland for every 1,000 new residents) by ignoring the “land” in parkland and designing a sloped, contiguous rooftop canopy it labeled a park. However, it has never been made clear how public access to the rooftop amenity would be maintained and enforced.Will there be well-lighted and adequately ventilated spaces below the canopy safe for gathering and strolling?With 6 additional buildings considered for the west parcel of the Vallco property, it remains to be seen how the canopy and the environmental conditions below it will change.
“Elimination of subterranean parking garages beneath some or all of the buildings. (The approved SMP includes mechanically ventilated parking garages beneath every building).” Would there be sufficient parking for residents, employees, and visitors if underground parking were eliminated from the site?
The elimination of the underground parking likely means the property owner abandons plans to excavate the contaminated soil, which would leave the contamination on the site. Upside, nearby neighborhoods would be spared the particulate pollution from the contaminated dust and vehicle exhaust from truckloads that would not be removed from the site, and another community would not be burdened with dumped hazardous waste it did not create.
Screening levels for contamination vary depending on the proposed use of the buildings. Commercial buildings are allowed higher levels of contamination because less time is spent in commercial buildings. Whereas, residential areas, daycares, and schools have stricter guidelines. This is very important because prolonged exposure to various contaminants can impact children’s development and public health and wellbeing. Once these contaminants enter our water supply, they can spread, impacting a greater number of people.
While the Court dismissed the 2018 petition filed by Friends of Better Cupertino to challenge what residents perceived as an unlawful approval of the Vallco SB 35 project, the Court’s decision could not disappear the substantive problems identified in the petition that persist with the project to this day. These include but are not limited to the continued presence of hazardous waste and disregard for the Cupertino General Plan requirement that residential developments shall include 3 acres of parkland for each 1,000 new residents forecast from each new residential development. Lost ground level parkland surrendered by the City to the property owner at the Vallco SB 35 project site is estimated to be 12.96 acres.
What’s Next
If the developer decides to go ahead with these changes, they will be required to notify the DEH in writing. The DEH would then decide if a whole new SMP is required along with possible additional reports. If contamination is left on the site, the DEH may put a permanent use restriction on the property along with long-term monitoring and inspections. As a result of these possible changes, the construction may be delayed.
References
Friends of Better Cupertino’s First Amended Petition, October 16, 2018:
At the busy headquarters of one the world’s most iconic companies, a new oasis beckons to contemplate the diversity of our planet. Mirage is a new glass sculpture commissioned by Apple and created by artist Katie Paterson and architectural studio Zeller & Moye. It is located adjacent to the Apple Visitor Center in Cupertino.
Paterson and architectural studio Zeller & Moye partnered with UNESCO’s International Geoscience and Geoparks programme, sand experts from around the world, and local glass artisans to create the artwork.
Mirage is free to the public, and is accessible 24 hours a day. At night, the pillars are lit with a gentle glow. Parking is available at the Apple Visitor Center parking lot. Learn more at mirage.place.
