In this post we cover two topics: 1. Valley Church of Cupertino land being included in the Housing Element Site without informing them 2. Rod Sinks’ campaign misleading residents about retail at Westport
Valley Church: Designated Housing Element Site Without their Permission
A resident made us aware of a situation where four parcels of land owned by the Valley Church of Cupertino were put on the Housing Element Priority Site List, without ever consulting the Church!
The church had to write to the city to ensure that their lands, which were being used to provide community resources like tennis courts, were not converted for private profit.
This is illustrative of the lack of transparency and notifications about the change in zoning proposed in the housing element development process carried out by the Builder’s Controlled council since the November 2022 election. Any open space in Cupertino was at the risk of being rezoned for builders to profit from.
Residents of Linda Vista drive have expressed similar concerns of the rezoning of Evulich Ct. site from R1 (1-5 units/acre) to R3 (20-35 units/acre), where they did not receive any notifications. In the case of the Valley Church, even the property owner was not notified or consulted about the city’s plan to add their land to the Housing Element
Rod Sinks’ Campaign: Misinformation About Westport
Rod Sinks’ campaign sent out text messages and email claiming that the Westport development (Oaks Redevelopment) only provides homes, but not retail. He is also claiming he can negotiate a better deal. As usual with the politicians aligned with builders, the facts do not justify the claims.
20,000 sq ft of Retail Space at Westport
The Westport development has approval for 20,000 sq ft of commercial retail space, 37,601 square feet of common open space and 2,400 square feet of common retail outdoor space. For context, a typical Starbucks store is between 1500-2000 sq. ft. So the Westport development has plans for about a dozen stores of the size of the typical Starbucks.
Westport has a combination of owner occupied townhomes, senior housing, and assisted care facilities, and the retail spaces will open as different segments are built and occupied.
And it is important to remember that the original plan for Westport was based around giant towers with more than 800K sq ft of buildout with bulk of it as office space which would have significantly worsened the traffic at the Stevens Creek/Hwy 85/Hwy 280 junction (see picture below)
The plan being built is traffic neutral with the previous Oaks Plaza, provides valuable senior housing which our aging population needs, and helps address the housing shortage by providing more choices at a price point lower than single family homes..
Rods Record of Negotiation
Rod Sinks has a record of conceding every demand of developers, especially Sandhill Properties, in spite of massive protests by residents impacted by them. Most residents in neighborhoods near Vallco have a deep mistrust of Rod Sinks based on their bitter experiences lasting almost a decade.
Any successful negotiation and agreement, requires an element of trust between the parties involved. Rod simply lacks the trust of the residents most impacted by future development at Vallco, and his claims of being able to negotiate are specious at best.
One big part of the disinformation network run by the Builder-Politician complex is to stifle voices which provide an alternative perspective. They achieve that by removing content or banning users who disagree with their narrative on Nextdoor, a social media network for neighbors..
In the lead-up to the election, the following people have had their content removed or their accounts suspended.
1. Steven Scharf: Former Mayor of Cupertino 2. Muni Madhdhipatla: Planning Commissioner & former Vice Chair 3. Vikram Saxena: Former Vice Chair of Planning Commission 4. Rhoda Fry: 2022 Crest Award Winner for Public Safety 5. Seema Swamy: Parks & Recreation Commissioner 6. San R: Safe Route to Schools.
7. James Murasighe: Nextdoor Lead for Inspiration Heights
All of the people whose voices were stifled, support resident focused candidates, Ray Wang and Kitty Moore for the City Council, and Long Jiao for CUSD.
We include some of the posts which were deleted; these posts attempt to reproduce the deleted post since the authors can not access them any more. These posts reflect the authors personal opinions and not as of any city official
Ray Wang and Kitty Moore: Will take Vallco Forward
Rod Sinks is highlighting his negotiating skills and saying he will make Vallco happen.
What he does not realize is that most residents in the neighborhoods around Vallco, do not trust Rod Sinks at all. This is the result of the favors he has granted to Sandhill over the past 12 years. In fact, any agreement with his fingerprints, will automatically be suspect for a large section of the population in Cupertino.
For those who are truly interested in the redevelopment of Vallco, Ray Wang & Kitty Moore offer a fresh start. They do not bring in the baggage of the past decade which Rod Sinks, Gilbert Wong and Barry Chang bring with them; plus their resident focus approach will help create more trust in the agreement.
History of Builders’ Bullying in Cupertino
Builders Cupertino bullying is at a different level: they bully the entire city
• Using the City Manager to pressure Sears to sell to Peter Pau of Sandhill (2014) • Amend City’s General Plan to add 2M office space since Peter Pau asked for it (2014) • Removing all height limits at Vallco (2014) • Putting residents at risk of cancer by not revealing the toxic contamination and Cortese List listing of the Sears site (2016) • Not putting back height limits at Vallco when SB35 was about to become law (2017) • Forcing the City Attorney out when he did not agree to SB35 approval (2018) • Closing three schools in the middle of a 100 year pandemic when CUSD was projecting its highest ever surplus (2021) • Harassing city councilors and commissioners who were not aligned with their agenda (eg: Grand Jury which was tossed out by the DA) (2023) • Fighting City’s lobbying registration requirements with a lawsuit, and after losing it amending them to not have builder’s lobbyists to register (2022-2023) • Trying to upzone 1600 single family R1 lots to R3-condos to enable 5-story buildings towering over our single family homes. (2023) • Sending each household a hidden tax of $3500 by agreeing to waive $77M in development fees for Vallco
You can build without destroying what already exists.
Pro-Residents is NOT Anti Development
There is a canard spread in Cupertino, that people who want the city council to consider the interests of residents are anti-development. The term anti-development is often used by groups backed by big-real estate to stifle discussion about sustainable development.
A well-functioning city-council will balance the concerns of the residents with the developers’ right to develop their property and earn economic benefit. The developers try to maximize the square footage of what they build, but have little interest in how it impacts the people around their development.
Until the November 2018 election, the Cupertino City Council was in control of politicians who are quite close to developers. KT Urban, which was driving the redevelopment of the Oaks Plaza, a project called Westport, wanted to build more than 800K sq ft of offices. They tried to get the office allocation but were asked to wait. The City’s politicians were focussed on enabling the Vallco project and had already given almost all the allocation added to the General Plan (2 Million sq ft) to Vallco.
Cupertino does not get mass transit like BART, Caltrain, Muni or Light Rail. Being a transit desert means that any new office space will lead to a direct increase in vehicular traffic which will make our commute time traffic jams even worse.
After the resident-focussed City Council took over, KT Urban realized that getting the office allocation was even less likely than before because there was resident opposition to it. They decided to pivot the project to housing.
The Westport being built, was negotiated by the pro-resident council. It consists of townhomes, senior housing, an assisted living facility and retail. It is traffic neutra and provides much needed senior housing in Cupertino, and along with a bike path.
The transformation of Westport from giant office towers to much needed housing is a great example of how a resident focussed city council can enable development in Cupertino in a manner which is sustainable
Unlike what the developers want us to believe, pro-residents means sensible development; it does not mean anti-development.
Giant office towers which would have worsened the traffic situation on the Stevens Creek and Hwy 85 junction
In this post we go into the details of the Builder-Politician Complex controlling Cupertino.
Investors from rapidly growing international economies want to invest globally. Our home, Cupertino, a city with global name recognition, has become a preferred destination of investors, big & small, who want real estate to be a part of their global portfolio
This has created an interesting dynamic where investors buy real estate in Cupertino, with the intent of getting the property rezoned. Their goal is to dramatically increase the built-up square footage to maximize the return on their investment. Without any roots in the city, they do not care about the impact of their actions on the city or its residents.
The most well-known of such entities is Sand Hill Properties (SHP), which includes Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi as an investor. SHP bought the Vallco Mall zoned for retail in 2014 for $320M, with the sovereign fund as an equity partner.
With recent changes related to rezoning of single family home lots to allow multi-family homes (condos/townhomes), home owners have also started receiving buyout offers from developers.
TheBuilder-Politician Complex
An industry has sprung up in Cupertino to guide investors on how to navigate the process: which we call the Builder-Politician Complex. Along with local politicians, the complex includes astro-turf YIMBY groups whose takeover of the Cupertino City Council we covered in this article.
The Builder-Politician Complex works to enrich the investors by facilitating high density infill construction, without regards to the impact on existing residents, many of whom spent their life-savings. In return politicians get favors including big campaign donations and PAC support to win elections.
SHP leveraged the politicians it supported to change the zoning to construct real estate which could be worth $6-7B, almost a 20x multiple to their original investment. Even though there was enormous opposition amongst residents, especially to new office space, the City Council (Rod Sinks, Gilbert Wong, Barry Chang) was too beholden to SHP to effectively represent the will of the people.
SHP Gets 2M Square Feet of Office Space
One of the most controversial decisions was to grant SHP the right to build 2M sq ft of office space at Vallco. To do that, the city council amended the city’s General Plan to create a new allocation of 2M sq ft of office, and then also decided to grant almost all of the new allocation to SHP’s Vallco project (December 2014). Communication between SHP and the City Council showed Peter Pau demanding 2M sq ft of office space from the city council, and the council lacking the spine to stand up to him.
During the City Council meeting on Dec 3, 2014, then Mayor Rod Sinks agreed to not discuss office space allocation in the General Plan amendment, but late at night Rod Sinks, Barry Chang and Gilbert Wong bring it up, and voted on it after most residents had left. You can watch key excerpts from the meeting in thisYoutube video
City Council Gives SHP More Density in Special Plan than they Asked for in Measure D
Between 2014 and 2017, SHP negotiated with the City to come up with a Vallco Specific Plan (VSP). While they were in the middle of the negotiations, they also tried to bypass the city by going directly to the voters in the 2016 election under Measure D, which did not pass.
After Measure D failed, the city negotiated a Vallco Special Plan (VSP) with SHP which was passed in 2018. The VSP negotiated by the politicians had even higher density than the Measure D plan originally proposed by SHP but rejected by the voters!
SB35: The Alternate Plan with NO Height Limits
In parallel, SHP also started work on an SB35 project which bypassed the city council, needing just ministerial staff approval. The city had removed height limits on Vallco in 2014.
In Fall of 2017, when SB35 was close to becoming law, City Council members Darcy Paul and Steven Scharf brought attention to a loop-hole which would allow SHP to have unlimited height under their SB35 proposal. Rod Sinks agreed that this was an area of concern and supported them stating that “I am personally OK with special meetings, extra meetings or whatever it takes” to ensure proper limits are put. Two weeks later, when the topic was being discussed in the next city council meeting, Rod Sinks decided not to support it along with Barry Chang and Savita Vaidyanathan.
As a result the city did not put any height limits on Vallco; in principle SHP can build a Burj Khalifa on that land.
You can watch a 7 minute video covering both the meetings below.
Builders Dominate in the Builder-Politician Complex
This event is illustrative of how local politicians’ relationship with the developers impacts their decision making. Rod Sinks served in the Cupertino City Council from 2012 to 2020, and is also running for Cupertino City Council election again in 2024.
Rod’s U-Turn to not put any height limits on Vallco illustrated how once our politicians are beholden to the developer, they lose their ability to act in residents’ interest. It was clear that Rod felt that having no height limits on a project not requiring a council approved plan, was not appropriate. However, the developer lobby pressured him, and he yielded to their pressure two weeks later.
Firing the City Attorney: Randy Hom
In 2018, when the SB35 plan was being reviewed by the city, the City Attorney Randy Hom stated that in his opinion, the plan submitted by SHP did not meet the criteria for ministerial approval by the City. Rod, Barry and Savita collectively acted to fire our city attorney, Randy Hom due to his opposition to the SB35 approval. SHP’s SB35 plan was approved ministerially after the City Attorney’s firing.
Rod Sinks: SHP’s Face to the Opposition of the Referendum
The city residents were so upset with the VSP negotiated by our city-council that they organized a petition to demand a referendum in the city to revisit the Vallco Special Plan. SHP used Rod’s pictures and statements on flyers to ask residents to not support the referendum to vote down the VSP.
The flyers being passed around stated that since the alternative SB35 plan had very high towers, opposing the VSP was against residents’ interests.
The irony is that the reason the SB35 plan had high towers was because Rod yielded to the developers to not put any height limits on Vallco! Further, the SB35 plan would not have received ministerial approval if Rod had not conspired to fire the City Attorney whose legal opinion was against approval.
Cupertino’s residents also organized a change.org petition to censure him, bringing up six years of Rod’s actions benefiting SHP.
Politician’s $77 Million Gift to SHP
Recently Cupertino City Council granted Vallco a $77 million waiver of impact fees they were supposed to pay to the city for their giant project. Cupertino’s finances are already in trouble since changes in sales tax law will reduce our income from Apple’s sales in California.
From Vallco to Single Family Lots
The Builder’s control over the city’s politicians is now impacting single family neighborhoods. The City Council led by builder-supported members (JR Fruen, Hung Wei and Sheila Mohan) tried to change the general plan to allow all corner lots in single family neighborhoods to be converted into R3 multi-family (condos/apartments) (Strategy HE-1.3.6). Earlier, their decision to not adopt a Housing Element, which was ready in October 2022, also led to the city accepting Builder’s Remedy projects in 2024.
More Office Imply RHNA Ask for More Homes
The number of new homes the city is expected to build in every 8-year RHNA planning cycle also depends on the number of workers in the city. The city is already reeling under the impact of the upzoning facilitated to build the 4588 homes required in the 2023-2031 cycle. With 2M more sq ft of office space, even more homes will be required in the next cycle, starting 2032.
Rod Sinks: Poster Boy of the Builder-Politician Complex
Rod Sink’s actions illustrate how politicians beholden to developers, are unable to effectively serve the interests of the residents of Cupertino. Rod not only facilitated a massive office allocation which Cupertino did not need, he also put a gun to our heads by lifting all height limits on the Vallco Property. The Builder, SHP, then used his picture and letter, in their failed attempt to abort the referendum
Cupertino deserves transparent decision making which considers the interests of all the stakeholders, especially the residents. We should not vote for those who have a record of striking back-room deals with developers.
Reclaim Cupertino from the Builder-Politician Complex
Rod Sinks, Barry Chang, and Gilbert Wong have a long, well documented track record of serving developer interests. They are a core part of the Builder-Politician Complex ignoring the residents’ quality of life. All three of them are standing for the two seats up for election in 2024. It is up to Cupertino voters to reclaim our beloved city from the Builder-Politician Complex by not voting Rod, Barry and Gilbert back to the City Council.
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:
This is going to be our last email before the elections.
1. The Vallco Obsession
2. Opt-In Email List
The Vallco Obsession
The coterie of ex-mayors sent out another email showing the Vallco lot. We wanted to set the record straight.
Vallco SB35 Plan: Stuck due to Toxic Contamination
The SB35 plan approved by the previous city council (Rod Sinks, Barry Chang and Savita Vaidhyanathan) after firing the City Attorney isstill valid.
However, the Vallco site is contaminated, and the County of Santa Clara Department of Environment Health (SCC-DEH) is supervising the cleanup. The City of Cupertino or the City Council is not involved. The city will issue the permits after SCC-DEH gives clearance.
The developer knew of the contamination as far as 2016, but neither they, nor the previous City Councils listened to the residents who expressed concern about the potential impact on the workers who are working on the contaminated site, and nearby residents, without adequate mitigation efforts.
No Height Limits: The Empire State Building
We also wanted to reiterate that the previous councils removed height limits at Vallco in 2014 and refused to put them back in 2017 when Steven Scharf and Darcy Paul requested them, due to the upcoming SB35 legislation. In principle, the developer could have built something as high as the Empire State Building at that development since there were no restrictions in place.
The resident focused city council, in place after the 2018 election, put reasonable limitson the development for any future plans which come up.
Cupertino Top Issues:
We feel that the top issues facing Cupertino are the CUSD school closures and the potential of 14 units being permitted on a single lot in our single family neighborhoods under SB10.
While we would all like to see Vallco developed, it is up to the developer to clean up the site, and start construction on the SB35 plan or discuss an alternative with the City if they prefer.
VOTE WISELY
To save our schools and preserve home values, please VOTE for Govind Tatachari, Liang Chao, and Steven Scharf for Cupertino City Council, and Darcy Paul, Satheesh Madhathil & Jerry Liu for CUSD Board. They have taken a public stand to keep school closure off the table and roll back past mistakes. These city council candidates are opposed to SB10 becoming a law in Cupertino. They are not funded by external special-interests and will keep the interests of residents foremost.
Please do NOT vote for JR Fruen, Sheila Mohan for Cupertino City Council, and Ava Chiao (CUSD). They have been supportive of school closure and giving the land to developers, and have strong endorsements from the three CUSD trustees who closed the schools. They have also received extensive funding from construction interests, who covet the land our schools stand on, and have not signed the City of Cupertino voluntary spending limit on election expenses.
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Sign up for our Email List
With the election season coming to an end, we are going to move to an opt-in subscription list. Our goal would be to send quarterly or as needed (without exceeding once a month) updates on issues of importance to our fellow residents, and also dispel any new FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) being shared by vested interests.
You can also contribute to help us inform our residents. The financial declaration about us is available here
We end with a video showing how the previous council gave the Vallco owner a carte-blanche to build as high as they want at Vallco; a reminder of what can happen if the investors backed candidates take control again.
Article was updated in September 2024 to add more pictures of the original proposal for Westport which was negotiated down by the resident oriented council to have one third square footage of the original proposals. Many of the concerns expressed in the article have unfortunately come true after JR Fruen's election in 2022. The city is dealing with many plans for large multi-story condo/townhome complexes in the middle of single family neighborhoods.
This email is about two different visions about new development in Cupertino
– The balanced approach which considers the impact on the residents, the city infrastructure especially traffic & schools, and the viability of the project.
– The unbalanced approach which focuses on maximizing investors’ profits without regards to impact on the quality of life of residents.
What Balanced Development Looks Like
Westport is the name of the redevelopment of the Oaks Plaza on the corner of Hwy 85 and Stevens Creek Blvd opposite De Anza College. The project had been in the pipeline since 2016, and the original proposal was to build a mixed-use gateway with office, hotels and some homes or a large mixed use residential.
The two drawing below are visualizations of the two proposals which were under consideration.
The resident oriented city-council elected in November in 2018, collaborated with the developer to redo the project to a combination of market rate homes, senior care, affordable homes and retail. You can see renderings of the project on the developer, KT Urban’s website.
The density of the approved project is less than one third of the original proposal, and it is traffic neutral.
Another mixed-use redevelopment project is Canyon Crossing on the corner of McClellan Rd and Foothill Blvd which is a mixture of housing and much needed retail. The developments approved by the resident oriented council elected in 2018, balance various competing goals and many are in the process of being constructed..You can read more about the new developments approved by the city here.
What Unbalanced Development Looks like
The contrast with the coterie of ex-mayors approach could not be more stark. Lets consider the the Vallco project which they often refer to while denigrating the resident oriented city-council the voters chose.
What the coterie of ex-mayors fails to mention is that the Vallco SB35 plan was approved when the coterie (or their proteges) were a majority in the city-council (2018) over the objections of the City Attorney whom they fired.
Or how they amended the City General Plan to add 2M sq. ft of office space, right after SHP bought the mall, while removing height limit (2014) in spite of overwhelming resident opposition.
The Vallco project needs site-cleanup to remove toxic waste and contaminants which is being supervised by the County of Santa Clara. The builder sponsored council (Rod Sinks, Barry Chang, Savita Vaidyanathan) ignored residents’ pleas on this topic even though the developer was aware of the contamination as early as 2016, two years before the approval of the plans (2018)
Hopefully, you now have a better idea of what balanced vs unbalanced development looks like.
Unbalanced Development: 14 unit buildings on Single Family Lots (SB10)
A new state law, authored by Sen. Scott Wiener (real-estate industry favorite), SB10 gives local city councils the authority to permit the building of 14 housing units (10 + 2ADU/2JADU) on a single family lot, as long as the home is in a transit priority area,
A transit priority area is defined as the region within one-half mile of a major transit stop that is existing or planned. In the map below, the blue circles represent the current areas in Cupertino which would become eligible for 14 unit buildings on single family lots under SB10. In the future, more areas can be included due to a change in the route of the existing VTA bus-lines or a new route being added (even if it is just planned).
For example, Rainbow/De Anza, Stelling/McClellan, Stelling/De Anza or Foothill/Stevens Creek can be the centers of new half a mile circular zones (red circles) which will then permit 14 unit homes on single family lots if an eligible service is planned connecting De Anza College to Los Gatos via 85/Prospect or De Anza College to Foothill College via Foothill Expressway/280.
The silver lining is that local city councils can decide whether to allow such construction under SB10. Unlike other state laws like SB35 or SB9 (lot-split) the law is not mandatory for cities. JR Fruen: Endorsed by SB10 Author, Sen. Scott Wiener
One of the candidates for Cupertino City Council, who has the strong financial and endorsement support of the coterie of ex-mayors, endorsements by the three CUSD trustees who shut down CUSD schools, and a long association with construction related interests is JR Fruen. JR has been endorsed by Sen. Scott Wiener, the author of SB10, on his twitter feed.
For residents who are interested in preserving the character of their single family homes, a vote for JR Fruen would be a step in the wrong direction, increasing the chances of SB10 approval.
Vote SmartTo preserve home values and our suburban life, please VOTE for Govind Tatachari, Liang Chao, and Steven Scharf for Cupertino City Council, and Darcy Paul, Satheesh Madhathil & Jerry Liu for CUSD Board. They have taken a public stand to keep school closure off the table and roll back the past decisions. They are not funded by special-interests and will keep the interests of residents foremost, supporting balanced growth.
Please do NOT vote for JR Fruen, Sheila Mohan for Cupertino City Council, and Ava Chiao (CUSD). They have been supportive of school closure and giving the land to developers, and have strong endorsements from the three CUSD trustees who closed the schools. They also receive extensive funding from construction interests, who covet the land our schools stand on.
JR Fruen is running again as a candidate for Cupertino City Council. The questions for voters to ask is:
Whose Interests does JR Fruen Represent?
This election is primarily a battle between
Those who want to preserve their neighborhood, and vote out those who support school closures
Those who want to serve investor’s interests which include closing schools to free up land for construction.
Who Funds JR’s Campaign?
JR has had close ties with the investor community. In 2018 he ran a PAC which received tens of thousands of dollars from investors and construction related entities:
Plumbers Steamfitters & Refrigeration Fitters (Worker’s Union PAC) $1000
Real Estate Broker (Milpitas) $1000
People who advocated for School Closures:
Richard Lowenthal who sponsors and nurtures a lot of the anti-resident candidates ($4900)
Hung Wei the Cupertino Council Member who opposed the City Council writing to CUSD to reconsider school closure ($4900)
Rod Sinks who made a U-Turn to not put height limits on Vallco ($1000)
Lorien Cunningham the CUSD Trustee who spearheaded the campaign to close schools
Sheila Mohan who is standing for the Cupertino City Council because others asked her to un
Ava Chiao the CUSD candidate who wants to shut down more schools and construct over the land
Who is Endorsing JR’s Campaign?
JR is endorsed by all the three CUSD trustees who voted to close CUSD schools in spite of strong opposition by the residents.
SB10: Scott Wiener endorses JR!
Senator Scott Wiener who authored SB10 which gives cities the choice to allow up to 14 units on a single family lot, has endorsed JR Fruen. JR is much more likely to to support SB10 than resident oriented candidates. Learn more about SB10 here.
What is JR’s Past Record?
As part of the Citizens’s Advisory Committee he was supportive of closing schools (and hence endorsed by all the three CUSD trustees who led the campaign to close schools)
He runs an organization called Cupertino For All, which endorsed Prop-16, the proposition which was soundly defeated by the voters of California, and would have led to more discriminatory practices against Asian students.
Please do not vote for JR Fruen if you do not want more schools to be shut down
Please do not vote for JR Fruen if you do not want investors to control your city and SB10 construction permitted
Please vote for Govind Tatachari, Steven Scharf & Liang Chao for Cupertino City Council
Please vote for Darcy Paul, Satheesh Madhathil & Jerry Liu for CUSD Board.
The SB10 law allows a 10 unit apartment building (upto 14 units including ADUs/JADUs) [1] on a single family lot located within half a mile of transit. Most of Cupertino is within half mile of public transit (VTA) on Stevens Creek Blvd, De Anza Blvd, Foothill Blvd etc.
Unlike other laws like SB9 and SB35, SB10 is not mandatory. Local cities can chose to implement it or not.
City Council Ordinance
To permit the construction of 14 unit buildings on single family lots, all the City Council needs to do is to pass an ordinance permitting such construction. The ordinance will override any restriction due to voter approved resolutions.
SB10 effectively allows the City Council to enable construction of multi-story, 14 unit buildings in a lot currently occupied by a single family home. [2]
Flashback: Height Limits at Vallco
During the Fall of 2017, Cupertino Council Members Darcy Paul and Steven Scharf had proposed that the city enact height limits on buildings in commercial areas. The proposal was welcomed by Rod Sinks.
However, when it came to vote two weeks later Rod, Savita & Barry voted against it.
You can watch the video below to understand how, in November 2017, the City Council ignored residents’ interest to permit buildings without height limits.
That failure to not put any height limits, allowed Vallco investors to propose a design with 26 story high towers in their SB35 proposal. [3]
Why does it Matter: History Can Repeat Itself
Like the Vallco case, an investor friendly council can also relax height and Floor Area Ratio limits in our single family neighborhoods,
That would allow the construction of multi-storied buildings with 14 residential units, on the lot next to your single family home!
For investors buying a lot for $2M and building up to 14 units, each selling for $1-$1.5M+ is a windfall.
JR Fruen: Whose Interests do you think he will represent?
Endorsed by the Author of SB10
Senator Scott Weiner, who gets the highest amount of funding from real estate interests, and is the author or co-author of SB9, SB10 and SB35 bills has endorsed JR Fruen.
Note that Cupertino is well ahead of most nearby cities when it comes to housing obligations; something Scott Wiener failed to mention.
Funded by Vallco
J R Fruen, used to run a PAC which received $29,000 [4] from Vallco investors in 2018. He represents the same investor interests’ who influenced the city to not put any reasonable height limit on the Vallco property.
Cupertino For All: Support for SB Laws
JR Fruen is the co-founder of Cupertino for All.
Cupertino For All is very supportive of state laws like SB9/SB35 which take away local control. How do you think he will vote on SB10 approval related ordinances?
Please do not vote for candidates like JR Fruen, who will be inclined to permit SB10 projects; it can mean the end of Cupertino’s Single Family Home Districts.
