Cupertino Matters
- Local News
- UPCOMING – City Council, Tues., July 15, 2025, 6:45 p.m.; Closed Session, 6:00 p.m.
- RECAP – Planning Commission, Tues., July 8, 6:45 p.m.
Summer is passing quickly. Readers are encouraged to enjoy the Parks and Recreation Department summer camps, activities for all ages and events. Free Summer Concerts occur on Thursdays, until August 21, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Memorial Park Amphitheater. The popular free Shakespeare in the Park is also scheduled for three weekends starting July 19.
More major facility upgrades are coming to De Anza College, with the announcement of improvements to the physical education complex. The complex has not been updated since it was built in 1967, so this upgrade is long overdue. The Mercury News describes the improvements in De Anza College physical education complex to undergo $53 million renovation: Planning for the overhaul will begin next month, with construction expected to start in 2027.
In housing news, Sand Hill Properties issued an update on progress at Vallco June 2025: Soils and Grading Nearing Completion. In addition, an article in Silicon Valley Business Journal entitled Cupertino’s long-awaited project to begin building construction in 2026 provides more details:
“Reed Moulds, Sand Hill Property’s managing director and project executive for The Rise, said the team is currently in the building permit phase. Site preparation and other horizontal construction activities have been underway since late 2024.
“He noted that soil import and grading work to form roadways and development parcels is nearing completion, with utility infrastructure installation scheduled to begin later this summer.
“Moulds shared they are ‘advancing the program as quickly as possible,’ with vertical building construction slated to begin in fall 2026.”
On the agenda for the current council meeting is a study session on restricting oversized vehicle parking on city streets. The Planning Commission considered this issue at two separate meetings, with no clear solution. Now the Council agenda has a study session that was already postponed once. The simplistic approach originally proposed by the interim city attorney focused on punitive actions which impact both residents with recreational vehicles as well as unhoused residents. The current report by two interim city attorneys is an improvement over the initial proposal, but still seemingly inadequate in addressing the issue of “vehicle lodging”.
The data provided focuses on the number of citations (about 200 annually), with approximately 21 being issued for RV’s, and only $1,700 collected. But how many unique vehicles are involved? How big is the problem? There seems to be only one primary problem area–roughly 15 RV/trailers in the Alves/Saich area, and about 7 on Bandley. There are different types of RV owners: (1) Recreational vehicles owned by residents, but not used as a primary home, (2) Lifestyle RVers who may be able to afford housing, but choose a mobile lifestyle for personal or work purposes, and (3) RVers who can’t afford fixed location housing and likely to need social services. How many are “working poor” staffing minimum wage jobs in our community? Why do they choose to park in Cupertino? What alternatives do they have if Cupertino severely restricts RV parking in public right of way? Shouldn’t the city be addressing the core issues? Some changes in parking regulations may be needed, but is requiring permits for resident recreational vehicles overkill?
In addition, the legal staff neglected to reach out to neighboring cities for their approaches i.e. Mountain View and Sunnyvale There is no mention of Mountain View’s Safe Parking programs which differentiate between cars/vans which can be accommodated in church parking lots, and RVs in commercial areas which can provide more space and waste disposal services.
UPCOMING – CITY COUNCIL. July 16, 2025, 7:00 p.m. Non-Televised Special Meeting (Housing Commission and Public Safety Commission Interviews)
Item No.1 Interview and appoint to fill vacancies on the Housing Commission (Business Representative) and Public Safety Commission.
UPCOMING – CITY COUNCIL, Tues., July 15, 2025, 6:45 p.m. Regular; 6:00 Closed Session
Closed Session: 6:00 p.m.
Item No. 1: Conference with Labor Negotiators pursuant to Government Code § 54957.6 (Kristina Alfaro and Christopher Boucher).
Open Session; 6:45 p.m.
Item No. 2 is a Presentation from Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) regarding ongoing services and projects update
Postponements are Item No 3: Award of a design professional services agreement to DIALOG Design LP for the City Annex Improvements project (420-99-248) for the renovation of an existing building located at 10455 Torre Avenue for a total not-to-exceed amount of $493,243. (Continued from July 1, 2025.)
Oral Communications from the public on non-agenda items precede the Consent Calendar, which contains six routine items. Item No. 9: Budget Adjustments related to the Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation and the Assistant City Manager and Deputy City Manager positions in the City Manager’s Office resulting in net savings of $62,586 for the City annually is likely to be pulled.
Item No.10: Approval of lien assessment and collection of fees on private parcels resulting from abatement of public nuisance (weeds and/or brush) for the annual Weed and Brush Abatement Programs. This hearing allows property owners to contest assessments against their property.
Item No.11: Study Session to review an application to develop new ELI (Extremely Low Income) and BMR housing units for Developmentally Disabled individuals (IDD) on City-owned property along Mary Avenue (APN: 326-27-053). This is the Mary Avenue Villas project which has been underway for many years and addresses the lack of housing for this special-needs population. The development itself can be ministerially approved, but as the development is on city-owned public land, council has an opportunity for input. The site is a Priority Housing Element site in the current RHNA cycle, meaning that the state expects Cupertino to allow affordable housing to be built at this location.
Item No.12: Study Session regarding possible updates to oversized vehicle parking restrictions in the public right-of-way (Continued on July 1, 2025). This is more complicated than a simple revision of parking regulations. As mentioned above, these regulations were developed by interim staff attorneys without consideration of the underlying issues and without any apparent direction from council to do so.
Item No. 13: Acceptance of the Stevens Creek Boulevard Corridor Vision Study: Recommended Action. The Stevens Creek Boulevard Corridor Vision Study is a multi-agency planning study between the Cities of Cupertino, San Jose, and Santa Clara, as well as the County of Santa Clara, and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). This Study outlines a 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 recommended action is to adopt this study including the additional qualifications recommended by the Cupertino Bicycle Pedestrian Commission and Planning Commission, and directing City staff to work through the multijurisdictional working group and Steering Committee to further assess the Study’s recommendations and opportunities for implementation.
Item No. 14: City Manager Report, (now submitted in written form).
Item No. 15: Council Reports, (now submitted in written form) are provided by Mayor Chao, Vice-Mayor Moore, Councilmembers Fruen, Mohan.and Wang.
Item No. 16: Future Agenda Items
RECAP – Planning Commission, Tues., July 8, 2025, 6:45 p.m., Regular meeting
YouTube: 2 hr. 38 min.
Item No. 2: Study Session on a state law mandated update to the Health and Safety Element. (Application No(s): GPA-2025-001. Cities are required to update the Safety Element (called the Health and Safety Element in the Cupertino General Plan) concurrently with an update to their Housing Element. The current Element was last updated in 2014. The City has contracted with Placeworks, a planning consultancy, to assist with the preparation of the statutorily required updates. The staff memo outlined topic areas for input for a public draft. Commission discussion centered around fire safety. A draft Health and Safety Element will be presented for consideration in late fall 2025.
Item No. 3: Proposed amendments to Municipal Code Chapters 19.08 (Definitions), and 19.112 (Accessory Dwelling Units) and Associated Environmental Review. This was a technical discussion of updates to City code to remain compliant with state law. Commissioners expressed concern about the staff time required to comply with continually changing state laws. The Commission approved the staff recommendation, with minor modifications, 4-0 with Fung absent.
CUPERTINO COURIER: July 11, 2025
The front page and community brief on page 5 is entitled Buzzworthy:Cupertino Historical Museum mounts a honey of an exhibit. An additional community brief is entitled Open seat for Open Space, an oversight committee. The sole legal notice is a notice that the City of Cupertino will submit a request to HUD for release of funds.
Warm regards,
Jean Bedord
Cupertino Matters
Publisher and Editor
