Cupertino Matters
- In the News
- TONIGHT – City Council, Mon., Dec. 1, 7:30 p.m.
- TOMORROW – City Council, Tues., Dec. 2, 6:00 p.m.
- RECAP – City Council, Tues., Nov. 18, 2025
I hope all of you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving with family and friends. Enjoy December with the many city holiday events sponsored by the Parks and Recreation Department, as well as other community celebrations.
City council meetings this week do not follow the usual schedule. The December 1 meeting is a Special Meeting continuation of the November 18 meeting, which had to be terminated due to Zoom instability. The December 2 meeting is the regularly scheduled council meeting–the last before the annual council reorganization on December 11, when council will choose a mayor and vice mayor for 2026.
The news front has been generally positive recently:
(1) The city council voted unanimously to appoint the interim city manager, Tina Kapoor, as the permanent city manager as detailed in a San Jose Spotlight article entitled Cupertino City Council appoints familiar face as new city manager.
(2) There is progress at the former Vallco mall site with the submission of a revised development plan for The Rise, according to a Mercury News article entitled Construction of buildings starts next year in Cupertino mall revamp: Mix of housing shifts as project is about to go vertical. The Vallco owner’s letter to the community provides more details.
(3) Finally, the high quality of our streets received recognition in a Mercury News article entitled This city has the smoothest roads in the Bay Area. Where does your city rank? New report finds the typical stretch of roadway in the region likely needs repairs soon. Kudos to our capable Public Works department!
Those concerned about wildfires, fire safety, and wildfire impacts on home insurance rates will want to be sure to attend Fire Wise Cupertino, a session where Cal Fire and CERT experts explain how fire maps are made and what they mean for your safety. This event occurs Saturday, December 13, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Cupertino Library. What actionable steps can readers take to prepare before wildfires strike and how to respond when they do? Attend, learn, connect, and take action for a safer 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, Tues. Dec. 2, 2025, 6:00 p.m.,Special Meeting followed by 6:45 Regular Meeting
Special Meeting
Item No. 1: Submit comments for Draft Plan Bay Area 2050+ and the Draft EIR; Adopt a resolution authorizing the Mayor to sign and transmit the comment letter to MTC and ABAG. Plan Bay Area 2050+ serves as the Bay Area’s federally required regional plan and outlines long-range strategies intended to guide transportation investments, housing needs, economic development, and environmental resilience through mid-century. The Mayor asked for this item in order to submit a letter in comment.
Regular Meeting
Ceremonial Items include (1) Proclamation recognizing the work of the City Manager’s Office and (2) Proclamation recognizing Dr. Darrel Lum, followed by a Presentation from Solving Fun on the First Cupertino Puzzle Hunt Month-Long Event. Oral communications from the public on off-agenda items precede the Consent Calendar, which contains six routine items. Item No. 5, the Second reading and enactment of amendments to the Municipal Code, Title 5 (Business Licenses and Regulations) to Establish Chapter 5.51 to Regulate Film Production adds this permit to the Municipal Code to allow collection of fees for this type of business activity.
Item No. 10: Amendments to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025-26 Fee Schedule to establish a new fee for Film Permit Applications and Film Production. Agenda Item No. 5 allows the fee, then this item adds various categories of permits and fees to be collected. The fee schedule is revised annually, whereas the Municipal Code is modified less frequently. By approving these two items, the city establishes an efficient mechanism for entities desiring to undertake commercial filming in the City, authorizes the City to collect permit fees to recover administrative and operational costs associated with the processing, review, and issuance of film permits.
Item No. 11: OpenGov Budget Format Review Presentation and Finalize Recommendations. As a best practice, major changes to the City’s budget document and format have historically been presented to the City Council for their review and feedback. During the last round of budget preparation for FY 2024-25 review, staff collected feedback on the budget document from City Council, residents, and the public generally through budget sessions, community outreach and internal budget meetings. Additionally, the City’s internal auditors identified the need to improve and streamline the annual budget process. That feedback also indicated a need to reassess the City’s Performance Measures to focus on outcomes that reflect the City’s priorities rather than workload indicators. This item received extensive prior review in the Audit Committee.
Item No. 12: Conduct Study Session on the Mary Avenue Project (“Project”), including project history, project siting, the conditional transfer of City-owned property rights, affordability restrictions, and remaining steps prior to entitlement and closing on the Project; and 2) Consider Appointing Negotiator(s) for the possible transfer of certain rights to City-owned property (APN: 326-27-053), in the form of a ground lease or a sale with the City’s future right to repurchase. Cupertino is required by the state to plan for and facilitate the construction of housing for all income levels. While the city has been moderately successful in producing market rate housing, it severely lacks low income housing. Over five years ago, through the City Work Program, the City Council initiated a housing project to accommodate the Intellectually Developmentally Disabled (“IDD”) population with Extremely Low Income (“ELI”) homes. The City subsequently issued a Request For Proposal (“RFP”) for such development. The Cupertino Rotary Housing Corporation, Housing Choices Coalition, and Charities Housing were collectively the sole respondent to that RFP. In April 2025, the City authorized just over $4 million in funding for the Project. In July 2025, the City received an Article 34 allocation from the County of Santa Clara, satisfying the State Constitutional requirement that voters approve the use of public funds for such housing.
Now, various additional City approvals are required to enable the development, including entering into an agreement to transfer certain real property rights to the developer via a sale or ground lease, potentially vacating certain interests in the City right-of-way, filing a declaration with the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s (“HCD”) stating that the property is exempt surplus land owned by the City that will be used for below market rate housing, and issuing the entitlements under the State’s housing laws and the City’s Municipal Code. Delays by city council have endangered this project, due to impending new 2026 building code requirements and increased construction costs.
Item No.13: City Manager Report, (now submitted in written form).
Item No. 14: Council Reports (now submitted in written form) are provided by Mayor Chao, Vice-Mayor Moore, Councilmembers Fruen and Mohan. There was no report from Councilmember Wang.
Item No. 15: Upcoming Draft Agenda Items Report
UPCOMING – CITY COUNCIL, Mon., Dec. 1, 2025, 7:30 p.m., Continuation of Nov. 18 meeting
Item No. 1: Amendment to FY 25-26 Fee Schedule to establish fee for ministerial two lot Urban Lot Split Applications. When enacted in January 2022, SB 9, which allowed lot splits of single-family zoned parcels, was generally controversial. However, no applications were received in 2022 or 2023. Since the passage of another bill, SB 450, which further streamlined the SB 9 application process and curbed city abuses in regulating such projects, became effective in 2024, 13 applications have been received. Originally, the Community Development Department considered the lot split to be a type of Parcel Map and imposed a $30,247 fee. With experience, staff is recommending a new SB 9 Lot Line Split with a substantially lower fee of $10,885 which more accurately reflects the nature of the staff time involved. This change would reduce the burden on property owners considering such lot splits and facilitate gentle density increases in Cupertino.
Item No. 2: City Manager’s First Quarter Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2025-26; Budget Modification No. 2526-419, decreasing appropriations by $674,221 and increasing revenues by $503,628 resulting in a $1,177,849 increase to unassigned fund balance. This report outlines the City’s financial status as of September 30, 2025. It is a critical tool for the City to evaluate its current revenue outlook and make adjustments to the budget in response to changing spending priorities. It provides an overview of the City’s budget status, including its revenue outlook, expenditure patterns, and other key financial metrics. Additionally, the report helps the City stay on track toward achieving its goals and objectives by providing valuable insights into the City’s financial performance.
The First Quarter Financial Report shows the City is positioned as anticipated. City staff recommends decreasing appropriations by $674,221 and increasing revenues by $503,628 resulting in an increase of $1,177,849 to unassigned fund balance. Revenue and expenditure trends will continue to be closely monitored.
Item No. 3: Review first quarterly update for the FY 25-27 City Work Program and make modifications with items from the TBD list. Staff spend 90% of their time on operations, with 10% of their time directed toward new projects established by the city council in a City Work Plan. This item details progress made on these projects and provides the council an opportunity to supply feedback.
RECAP – CITY COUNCIL, Tues. Nov. 18, 2025, 6:45 p.m., Regular meeting
YouTube: 1 hr. 38 min.
The Consent Calendar had ten routine items. Notable items were Item No. 15 Approval of City Manager Employment Agreement; Proposed Amendments to the Appointed Employees’ Compensation Program, appointing the Interim City Manager, Tina Kapoor, as City Manager and Item No.16 to consider the potential sale of and appoint a negotiator for City-owned property along Mary Avenue (APN: 326-27-053)(“Property”). With the exception of Item # 16 which was pulled, the Consent Calendar was approved unanimously.
Item No. 17, Item No. 18 and Item No. 19 were continued to Dec.1 Special Meeting referenced above.
CUPERTINO COURIER: Nov. 28, 2025
The front page photo and article on page 5 is entitled Vision for the Future: Cupertino interim city manager named to permanent position. Community briefs are (1) Community tree lighting, (2) Volunteer hopefuls for West Valley Community Services and (3) Band concert on Dec. 14. The sole legal notice is a Public hearing scheduled for Dec. 9 Planning Commission for an application by Dividend Homes to build townhomes replacing three office buildings on Stevens Creek Blvd between Randy Lane Blaney Avenue.
CUPERTINO COURIER: Nov. 21, 2025
The front page photo and community brief on page 5 is entitled Living safely with coyotes: Presentation at Cupertino Community Hall to educate community. The additional community briefs are entitled (1) League meetup and (2) Native American celebration. The sole legal notice is a Public hearing scheduled for Dec. 2 city council meeting to amend the FY 2025-26 Fee Schedule to add a Film Production permit.
Warm regards,
Jean Bedord
Cupertino Matters
Publisher and Editor
