Cupertino Matters
- News
- UPCOMING – City Council, Tues., May 20, 6:45 p.m.; 6:00 p.m., Closed
- RECAP – City Council, May 15, 2025, Special Meeting
- RECAP – Planning Commission, Tues., May 13, 2025
Can it really be that Memorial Day is this coming weekend? Festivals continue as families celebrate the end of the school year and graduations. Sponsored by the Cupertino Library Foundation and Asian American Parents Association (AAPA), the 2025 AAPI Multicultural Festival will be held this Saturday, May 24, 2025, from 12:00 PM to 4:00 p.m. at the Cupertino Library Plaza, with cultural performances, live music, community art exhibitions, and interactive arts and crafts activities for all ages.
Participation in city meetings has evolved over years. Council and Planning Commission meetings have been recorded and posted online for many years, but remote participation didn’t occur until COVID and the widespread use of Zoom meetings. During COVID, all city commission meetings were completely online. Once in-person meetings resumed, remote access became harder to manage on a hybrid basis for the city’s many commissions due to the complexity of managing on-site and online access simultaneously as well as combatting the abusive practice of “Zoom bombing.” Participation in commission meetings other than the Planning Commission remained scarce. This eventually led to a return to in-person only meetings for all but City Council and Planning Commission meetings.
On May 1, 2024, livestreaming and recording of all commission meetings was re-initiated but without remote comment access. This was a positive move in improving access and transparency, particularly being able to selectively view agenda items both live and after-the-fact. However, viewership has remained modest, which is consistent with pre-Zoom commission attendance rates. On average, each meeting garners approximately 3 live viewers and 24 on-demand views. The current implementation is relatively low-cost technology. A handful of residents have lobbied to implement fully hybrid meetings, so staff has produced an informational memo Hybrid Commission and Committee Meetings Update analyzing the additional staffing, training, and technical resources required to ensure consistent implementation and legal compliance—especially under the Brown Act. Given the demonstration of history, will fully hybrid meetings actually be utilized by the community?
For research, past issues back to January 2020 of Cupertino Matters are posted on the website. Encourage your friends who would like to become better informed about our community to subscribe to our email newsletter at CupertinoMatters.org.
UPCOMING – City Council, 6:45 p.m. Regular, 6:00 p.m., Closed Session
Closed Session: 6:00 p.m.
Item No. 1: Conference with legal counsel – anticipated litigation; California Government Code Sections 54954(c) and 54956.9(e)(1): (1 case)
The city’s exposure to litigation here is not known to the public per the notice. That said, exposure to litigation has seemingly been on the rise in recent months.
Open Session
Closed Session Report
The sole Ceremonial Item is Item 2 Recognition of Public Works Week from May 18-24, 2025. Oral Communications from the public on non-agenda items precede the Consent Calendar, which contains fifteen routine items. Members of the public may speak on any or all consent calendar items when the mayor asks for public comment on the Consent Calendar. If an item is pulled from the Consent Calendar, council’s procedural rules require it to be addressed after all regularly scheduled action items, unless council votes to reorder items on the agenda. Members of the public may comment on that item when it is considered.
Item No. 18: Modification to a previously approved Development Permit and Architectural & Site Approval for the Westport Development including, but not limited to, dwelling count and ground floor retail, Park Land Dedication Fees and minor changes to Building 1. (Application No(s): M-2024-003, ASA-2024-003; Applicant(s): Related California (Cascade Zak); Location: 21267 Stevens Creek Boulevard; APN #326-27-048) (Continued from May 6, 2025). The Planning Commission spent nearly three hours considering this modification, which addresses the final unbuilt piece of the Westport project at the corner of Mary Avenue and Stevens Creek Boulevard. The project was first approved in 2020, and after review by over 60 lenders, the original plan has to be modified in order to get the project built. The developer, Related, submitted a modified design that (1) increased the number of assisted living units from 123 to 136 units, with no change to the 35 memory units, (2) reduced the retail component from 17,600 square feet to 4,000 square feet, and (3) eliminated the underground parking by 146 stalls, due to the reduction of retail space and reliance on a new state law, AB 2097. San Jose Spotlight summarized the hearing in an article entitled Cupertino development adds homes, shrinks retail space.
The Planning Commission unanimously approved the staff recommendation, with a request to condition the waiving of the parkland dedication fee based on (1) the establishment of a TDM (transportation demand management) program for employees and (2) an increase in retail space to 8000 sq. ft. of retail. If this item is not approved, and the developer is unable to move ahead, the parcel will remain vacant with no shared parking. The 2400 sq. ft. of retail in the BMR senior housing building is unleasable without parking. In addition, the city may find itself in legal trouble with the state, housing advocacy organizations, and the developer.
There are other consequences. The successful construction of the assisted living building (Building 1) is closely tied to the ability of the BMR senior housing (Building 2) operator to finance affordable housing costs, because, when completed, the users of Building 1 will pay for a share of on-going site maintenance costs of shared infrastructure with the Building 2 operator. If Building 1 is not constructed, all of the maintenance costs will fall on the affordable housing at Building 2.
Item No. 19: Introduce an Ordinance amending Municipal Code Section 2.04.010 pertaining to Removal of Closed Session Start Time and Clarification that Meetings Rescheduled Due to Holidays or Elections Retain Regular Meeting Status (Continued from May 6, 2025). This is a housekeeping item. Currently, the Municipal Code sets a fixed start time of 6:00 p.m. for City Council closed sessions held as part of a regular meeting, which is both unnecessary and overly restrictive under current conditions. Historically, the city has handled this problem by noticing a separate special meeting for closed sessions occurring on the same day as regular council meetings. In addition, the recommendation is to update the Municipal Code to consider meetings moved because of a holiday or a regular Cupertino election be considered regular meetings of the City Council, rather than special meetings. Interestingly, this was written by unknown contract attorney, Brendan Browne, Special Counsel.
Item No. 20: Accept the City Manager’s Third Quarter Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2024-25. This is an important financial milestone. Only minor budget adjustments are requested, which bodes well for the upcoming budget sessions.
Item No. 21: Study Session regarding possible reactivation of and appropriate scope for the Environmental Review Committee (“ERC”) and the Legislative Review Committee (“LRC”), and possibly amending the scope of the Audit Committee. The city already has eleven commissions; each one requires scarce staff time. In 2023, all commissions were reviewed, and the ERC and the LRC were dissolved due to overlap. The recommendation was to have the Planning Commission assume the responsibilities of the ERC. The LRC Committee overlapped with the work contract lobbyist. Moreover, the LRC produced very little in the way of tangible results. The Audit Committee reviewed its charter, which is different from an investment committee or a finance committee or a budget committee. This item revisits those decisions. Interestingly, this was written by another unknown contract attorney, Vrunda Shah, with the title of Deputy City Attorney.
Item No. 22 City Manager Report (now submitted in written form)
Item No. 23: Council Reports, (now submitted in written form) are provided by Mayor Chao, councilmembers Fruen and Mohan. Vice-Mayor Moore and councilmember Wang did not submit reports.
Item No. 24: Upcoming Draft Agenda Items Report. These are known agenda items for city council. Many items which will appear on future agendas are not scheduled in advance.
RECAP – CITY COUNCIL, Thurs., May 15, 2025, 6:00 p.m., Special Meeting
YouTube: 3 hr. 56 min.
City council failed to complete the published agenda on May 6, so a special meeting was called to make progress on time critical agenda items.
Consent Item No. 1: Accept City Council Subcommittee recommendation regarding the 2025 July 4th fireworks. This was a majority council vote to continue staff effort and expend $140,000 on a nice-to-have amenity. Approved 4-1 with Mohan voting nay.
Item No. 2: Public Hearing Pursuant to Government Code Section 3502.3 to Receive a Report on City of Cupertino Vacancies, and Recruitment and Retention Efforts. (Continued from May 6, 2025) Public agencies are now required to hold a public hearing to address the status of job vacancies in bargaining units prior to the adoption of the upcoming final budget. This is a routine hearing to comply with state law. Council received the report.
Item No. 3: Per the Council’s direction, review potential Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) projects to be defunded from the current approved list. (Continued from May 6, 2025) Six projects were considered for defunding primarily by Councilmember Wang. After extensive public input and council discussion, this item was bifurcated to consider the Bollinger Road Corridor separately from the other five items since Councilmember Fruen owns property on this corridor. The vote to defund this project was 3-1-1 with Mohan voting nay and Fruen recused. The Silicon Valley EV Parking project was also defunded, primarily in response to objections from Sports Center users. This leaves Cupertino dependent on De Anza College permission to charge 13-15 vehicles in the Hopper vehicle fleet. Council did not vote on the three Stevens Creek Bike Boulevard projects and the Photovoltaic Systems, all of which have significant outside funding, so these projects will continue to be funded.
Item No. 4: Initial Study Session on Fiscal Year (FY) 2025-26 Proposed Budget and FY 2025-26 Capital Improvement Programs. This was a session to get council feedback on the budget which needs to be approved by June 30. This was a remarkably brief affair. Staff took input from Council and the public.
RECAP – Planning Commission, Tues., May 13, 2025, 6:45 p.m., Regular meeting
YouTube: 3 hr. 21 min.
Item No. 2: Multifamily and Residential Mixed-Use Objective Design Standards. The Cupertino Planning Department is preparing new residential design standards, known as objective design standards (ODS), to adapt to changes in State law. The City is currently performing outreach to residents and elected officials to inform the ODS. This session provided background on relevant state laws and a progress report on this effort. The Planning Commission provided feedback and recommendations regarding objective design standards for new multifamily and residential mixed-use development.
Item No. 3: Stevens Creek Boulevard Corridor Vision Study. This is a multi-agency planning study between the Cities of Cupertino, San Jose, and Santa Clara, together with the County of Santa Clara, and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). It outlines a shared vision for the future of the nine-mile Stevens Creek Boulevard/West San Carlos Street Corridor, emphasizing the need for coordinated planning and transportation improvements across the participating jurisdictions. The Study builds on prior local planning efforts and incorporates extensive community input to develop recommendations for future infrastructure and policy changes that reflect community priorities. After strong public support and discussion, the Commission approved 5-0 a recommendation to accept the study with minor suggestions on future implementation.
CUPERTINO COURIER: May 16, 2025
The front page and photo on page 5 is entitled Student showcase: More than 160 works from 70 artists featured at Euphrat Museum of Art at DeAnza College. Community briefs are (1) Open studios and (2) CPR class. Page 7 is a previously published Mercury News article entitled Council opts to place city manager on leave. Legal notices include (1) Foreclosure of Foothill Crossings property at 10625 Foothill Blvd., Cupertino (former Foothill Market), (2) Public Notice of Unclaimed Funds, and (3) Renewal of Existing Storm Drain Fees and Renewal of Storm Protection Fees to be considered on June 3, 2025 by City Council..
Warm regards,
Jean Bedord
Cupertino Matters
Publisher and Editor
