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September 9, 2025 Newsletter

by | Sep 9, 2025 | Council Recap, Newsletter, Planning agenda | 0 comments

Cupertino Matters

The autumn festival season is underway. Be sure to attend the annual Silicon Valley Fall Festival this Saturday, September 13, at Memorial Park–a longstanding community event for all ages.

The community turned out in force to pay tribute to Hung Wei who passed away August, 28. Wei was a uniquely outstanding community leader who touched innumerable lives in her journey, which included service on the city council–to which she was elected with the highest ever vote total by far in 2020–on the governing board of trustees of the Fremont Union High School District, as Rotary President and District Governor, as YMCA Board Chair and Member, as a board member of the Fremont Union High Schools Foundation, and on the boards or as a member of countless other community-based organizations. Here are some of the tributes to her:

In contrast, the councilmember who replaced Hung Wei on the city council with a mere 63 vote margin, doesn’t spend the time and effort of his predecessor. As reported in Cupertino Today, Cupertino residents criticize Councilmember R Wang for remote meeting participation and the San Jose Spotlight, Cupertino residents split on official’s lack of in-person attendance. Councilmember Wang has  missed multiple meetings to interview candidates for city commissions, supposedly an important role for council. His remote participation has led to multiple meetings being cut short, and his participation has not been in accord with Brown Act noticing and accessibility standards because he routinely appears from exclusive airport lounges. It’s also hypocritical given his criticism of Councilmember. Mohan’s remote appearance for medical reasons, and a number of people–including Santosh Rao, now the Chair of the Planning Commission–demanded that Mayor Hung’s seat be declared vacant because she wasn’t there in person.

Poor governance was in full display at the Sept. 3, 2025 city council meeting. Mayor Chao did not start public hearings and the action calendar until 8:00 p.m., after calling the meeting to order at 6:45. Then the council spent an inordinate amount of time second-guessing the recommendations of the Planning Commission and Bicycle-Pedestrian Commission (BPC). Then at 11:08 p.m., she attempted to ramrod a proposal to effectively eliminate the very effective BPC, at the instigation of the Planning Commission Chair in coordination with Councilmember Wang. Surprisingly, there were 11 speakers still awake to contest this proposal, so the council ran out of time, even with time extensions. There were twenty letters supporting retention of the current BPC with a name change–including a multi-signature memo supported by Assemblymember Ahrens and other members of the Silicon Valley delegation in Sacramento; there were two letters of opposition  authored by the aforementioned Planning Commission chair and a council gadfly, who double-dipped in speaking and submitting letters. Ultimately, the Mayor closed public comment and continued the item to a later council meeting, rendering no decision on the matter at all.

After many iterations over the past months, Council did pass an oversize RV parking ban, with the caveat to revisit in a year, and, per a friendly amendment from Councilmember Fruen to include outreach to the impacted residents, as described by Cupertino Today, Cupertino Council Unanimously Approves Oversized Vehicle Parking Ban.

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 – Planning Commission, Tues., July 22, 2025, 6:45 p.m., Regular meeting

Agenda and Presentations

Item No. 2: Consider Municipal Code Amendments to multiple chapters of the Municipal Code to make minor edits for clarity and consistency. (Application No.: MCA-2024-004; Applicant: City of Cupertino; Location: Citywide). Periodically, language in the Municipal Code is reviewed for consistency and to adapt to changes in state law, as well as to make clarifications and corrections to generally improve the administration of City business. In October 2024, a number of state bills were signed into law affecting the City’s review process for residential projects in the upcoming year. In particular, Senate Bill 450 (“SB 450”) limits, in part, the City’s ability to apply development standards to Senate Bill 9 (“SB 9”) projects (i.e. duplex development and two-lot subdivisions in single-family zoning districts) that are not generally applied to development in the same zoning district. Cupertino’s existing, highly restrictive SB 9 implementation ordinance runs afoul of SB 450 because it treats SB 9 duplex developments too differently from the underlying permissible standards for ordinary single-family home developments. Therefore, updates to the requirements for both single-family residential development and SB 9 projects have been incorporated to address this update to State law which went into effect on January 1, 2025.

Item No. 3: An update on the development of the Active Transportation Plan, including a summary of Phase 1 activities and an overview of what to expect during Phase 2.

The city has made substantial progress in recommended projects from the 2016 Bicycle Transportation Plan and the 2018 Pedestrian Transportation Plan. The city then embarked on a new, comprehensive Active Transportation Plan (ATP) to build on those improvements to address evolving community needs. Staff recognized the importance of creating a unified, citywide plan to align bicycle and pedestrian initiatives while accounting for the needs of motorized vehicles and public transit access. This coordinated approach ensures consistency across policies and projects, avoids duplication, aligns initiatives, and addresses overlapping concerns.

This item is an update on the development of the Active Transportation Plan and provides feedback on the draft project prioritization criteria. There was extensive community outreach on Phase 1, and the project will move into Phase 2.

RECAP – CITY COUNCIL, Wed., Sept. 3, 2025, 6:45 p.m. , Regular; 6:00 Closed Session

YouTube: Part 1: 1 hr. 2 min:  Part 2: 3 hr. 36 min.

Agenda and Presentations

Item No. 16: Introduce amendments to Municipal Code Chapters 19.08 (Definitions), and 19.112 (Accessory Dwelling Units) and Associated Environmental Review. (Application No. MCA-2025-001; Applicant: City of Cupertino; Location: City-wide).

Cupertino is required to update their Municipal Code to conform to state laws. These changes were pre-approved by the state Housing and Community Development (HCD). This item was fully vetted and approved by the Planning Commission on July 8, 2025. Nonetheless, the council spent approximately an hour quibbling over hypothetical details, with Mayor Chao (who has no legal training) questioning the legal conclusions of the state HCD, as well as city planning staff and the City Attorney.  Council finally approved 4-1 with Wang voting nay, following an incomprehensible rant.

Item No. 17: Introduce Municipal Code amendments to Cupertino Municipal Code, Title 11, Vehicles and Traffic, Section 11.24.130, Section 11.27.050, Section 11.28.010, and Section 11.28.020, pertaining to the overnight parking of oversized vehicles on public streets. This item was the subject of a council study session on July 15, and had been considered by the Planning Commission in two other sessions  The proposal approved by council includes the following:

  1. Conduct first reading of Ordinance 25-____: “An Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Cupertino Amending Title 11, Vehicles and Traffic, of the City of Cupertino Municipal Code Sections 11.24.130 (Prohibited for more than seventy-two hours), Section 11.27.050 (Issuance of permits to residents and members of designated groups), Section 11.28.010 (Definitions), and Section 11.28.020 (Parking of oversized vehicles restricted)”;
  2. Request staff to report back to Council one year post implementation regarding impacts of new rules and possible suggested revisions;
  3. Request staff to install oversized vehicle parking restriction signage in areas staff deems to be disproportionally impacted by oversized vehicle parking, including on Bandley Drive, Alves Drive and Saich Way, adjacent to the local Target store, and approve funding of $10,000 for such signage;
  4. Request staff to update the City’s website to allow residents to obtain parking permits for their oversized vehicles online.
  5. Approve an additional $25,000 for signage at City entrances. Staff will deploy the funds and install such signs once it determines that the new Ordinance is workable and effective;

Other cities are grappling with the same issues with imperfect solutions. Costs are estimated to be $51,000 for the first year for signs and administration. Residents need to apply for a no fee permit. The ordinance was passed 5-0.

Item No. 18: Acceptance of the Stevens Creek Boulevard Corridor Vision Study (Continued from July 15, 2025). Though time-critical, council failed to consider this item previously, leading to a month-and-a-half delay. 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.

Consideration of the item started at 9:40 p.m. and ended at 11:08, an hour and a half of dais time. The study had been considered by both the Planning Commission and Bicycle-Pedestrian Commission; both unanimously accepted the study. Other jurisdictions have already unanimously approved the study. So why second-guessing in Cupertino? Mayor Chao and Vice-Mayor Moore had competing proposals, and neither was willing to fully defer to the other. Both sought to impose unactionable or untenable conditions on mere acceptance of the study–an essential move to maintain a “place at the table” with regard to transit issues along the corridor. The final motion directed the city manager to return to council with a revised, conditional acceptance resolution.  Approved 4-1 with Fruen voting nay in protest of the additional conditions and delay.

Item No. 19: Options on Commission Oversight of Transportation Matters. Traditionally, the city of Cupertino has relied on the Bicycle Pedestrian Commission (BPC) to aggregate public feedback and provide input on most street-related or transportation matters. The Planning Commission has authority over land use. This practice mirrors that in surrounding cities and is a commonplace arrangement throughout the state. Recently, the chair of the Planning Commission, Santosh Rao, has agitated to bring transportation within the power of the Planning Commission, requiring significant changes to the City Municipal Code.

After poor time management on previous agenda items, at 11:08, Mayor Chao asked the council to extend the council meeting to 11:40 requiring two motions.  She then went directly to public comments, instead of allowing the normal process of council question time prior to hearing from the public. Moreover, she then unilaterally limited each speaker to 1 minute, instead of the usual 3 minutes. This shortchanging of time still did not allow a vote before the motioned 11:40 cutoff, so the item will be continued to a later council meeting. However, she arbitrarily closed public comment, meaning residents who didn’t stay up until midnight won’t have an opportunity to have their voices heard.

CUPERTINO COURIER:  September 5, 2025

The front page photo  and Community Brief  on page 5 is entitled Find your voice: Poet Laureate leads a Teen Poetry Workshop on Sunday. The additional  community briefs are (1) Get out the voters and (2) Gold Medal Pianist. There are no legal notices.

Warm regards,
Jean Bedord
Cupertino Matters
Publisher and Editor