Cupertino Matters
- In the News
- TONIGHT – City Council, Tues., Mar. 17, 2026, 5:45, Special; 6:45 Regular
- RECAP – Planning Commission, Mon., Mar. 9, 2026, 6:45 p.m.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
There is good news in retail this week. The city manager’s newsletter announced that Barnes and Noble will be occupying the vacant Party City building in the Crossroads shopping center 20740 Stevens Creek Boulevard. The 19,200 square-foot space has been vacant since early 2025, following Party City’s bankruptcy and closure. In the same shopping center, Hashi Market, a Japanese supermarket signed a lease in late 2025 for the former Sprouts location at 20558 Stevens Creek Boulevard and has officially submitted its tenant improvement plans to the City. This is an excellent location for both businesses adjacent to restaurants and coming townhomes on the Staples/Pizza Hut/Fontana’s site.
The League of Women Voters – Cupertino Sunnyvale invites readers to a Meet & Greet Your Elected Officials event on Sunday, March 22, 2026, 2:00 PM until 3:30 PM Pacific Time at BJ’s Restaurant, 10690 North De Anza Boulevard, Cupertino. This is an opportunity to meet some of the elected officials who represent Cupertino and Sunnyvale, our representatives at the local level on issues that affect our day-to-day lives. Sign up at this link
As wildfire season approaches, the Santa Clara County Fire Department (SCCFD) is hosting a series of community workshops to help residents protect their homes and families. These sessions provide actionable strategies based on the “Ready, Set, Go!” model. The Cupertino workshop will be held on Wednesday, July 15 | 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM (Cupertino Community Hall). Each workshop features a resource fair with representatives from CAL FIRE, American Red Cross, PG&E, and local law enforcement to answer your specific safety questions. Registration is required. To reserve your spot, visit sccfd.eventbrite.com or call 408-378-4010.
In community matters, Dr. E. Lara Lash is the next speaker in the Science and Technology Speaker Series sponsored by the Cupertino Chamber of Commerce, which will be held on Wednesday, March 25, 6:30 – 8 in Community Hall, 10360 Torre Avenue. She will be speaking on “Unsteady Pressure Sensitive Paint” at NASA Ames Research Center. Please RSVP.
Festivals and fundraisers to support local causes continue through March. On March 28, Holi Festival will be held at Memorial Park, organized by the Chamber of Commerce. The Fremont Union High Schools Foundation is holding their annual Spring for Education 2026 on Friday, March 20, 5-8:30 at Quinlan Center, to showcase FUHSD students and raise money to support their activities. West Valley Community Services will hold their Chefs of Compassion benefit at the Computer History Museum on Friday, March 27, 6 p.m.
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. Mar. 17, 2026, 5:45 p.m., Special Meeting; 6:45 Regular Meeting, Council Chamber, and Teleconference Location: The Rosewood Hotel Lobby, 2825 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025
NOTE: Why will Councilmember Ray Wang be on Zoom just for the beginning of the regular meeting (not the Special Meeting) so he is not recorded as absent, then leaving the meeting, and rejoining for item #12, the Evulich hearing. His remote noticed location is just up the peninsula at the Rosewood Hotel in Menlo Park. There is no precedent for a councilmember simply choosing which parts of a meeting to join. Is this responsible behavior for an elected official?
Special Meeting
Item No. 1: Study Session on the Housing Development Project at 10333 N. Wolfe Road. Santa Clara County acquired property that was owned by Apple in exchange for a smaller property at 10591 N. De Anza Blvd (former Outback Steakhouse), located across the street from Apple’s Infinite Loop campus. It is located between The Rise/Vallco property and I-280, an area formerly used as the Emporium/Macy’s overflow parking lot. The project will provide affordable educator (teacher and staff) housing, identified as a critical need by local school districts, and will be funded by the 2016 Measure A Affordable Housing Bond (nearly ten years since passage!). The county selected Eden Housing as the development partner. There were 27 engagement sessions with stakeholders and the community resulting in a well thought out project.
This site is included in the state-approved Housing Element. The proposed project will be in two phases: 1) 94 homes for Educator + School District Employee Housing, and (2) 157 homes for Affordable Housing for Low Income Families. The Fire Department requires two emergency access routes. One access route is the main entrance to the project. The other proposed access through public right of way on Auburn Drive through a wall originally designed to separate the Vallco shopping center from the neighborhood, with questionable legal ownership. A pocket of North Portal neighbors object to this cost effective and straight forward route which could provide not only access for emergency vehicles, but also pedestrian and bike access (Safe Routes to Schools) to an elementary school, park and the under development Tamien Innu trail. Instead, they have proposed a convoluted alternative route which requires permission from Caltrans– and has been rejected at least once and consumed an inordinate amount of justification. Should a handful of residents be allowed to block a public property development with so many significant benefits to the community?
Regular Meeting
There are no Ceremonial Items. Oral Communications from the public on off-agenda items precede the Consent Calendar, which contains nine routine items, including approval of the 2025 General Plan and Housing Element Annual Progress Report debated by the Planning Commission as referenced below.
Item No. 10: Follow-Up Analysis of Potential Revenue Ballot Measure Options (Continued on February 19, 2026). Cupertino faces tough financial times, particularly with the unexpected 36% increase in the law enforcement contract. At this earlier meeting, the City Council requested further analysis of business tax, Utility Users Tax (UUT), and sales tax options; to evaluate reductions to the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) budget and staffing; and measures to enhance Cupertino’s business competitiveness. Each one of these has significant tradeoffs, which the council needs to address. A decision on whether to go for a ballot tax measure would have to be decided in the next few months with an estimated $300,000 cost to the city and no assurance that such a measure would pass. The business license fee is lower than surrounding cities, but increasing it could be detrimental to economic development. Reduction of expenses is currently under way as part of the annual budget process.
Item. No 11: Blesch Property Study on Opportunities for Optimal Use. This Blesch Property located at 22050 Stevens Creek Boulevard, was acquired by the City in 2014. The approximately 28,000 square foot site is zoned PR (Parks and Recreation) and designated for park and recreational uses under the City’s land use framework. It currently has a single family home.which would have to have significant renovation, including ADA modifications, to be usable for public use. It is also located in a flood zone. The staff recommendation is to tear down the existing structure and repurpose the property for passive recreational uses.
Item No. 12: Consider a Tentative Map, Architectural and Site Approval, and Tree Removal Permit for the construction of a 51-unit townhome condominium development on Housing Element Priority Housing Sites 25 through 28. The project utilizes Senate Bill 330 and provisions of State Density Bonus law. (Application No(s): TM-2024-009, ASA-2024-015, TR-2024-044; Applicant: SummerHill Homes, LLC; Location: 10857, 10867, 10877, and 10887 Linda Vista Drive; APNs: 356-06-001, -002, -003, and -004). Known as Evulich Court, this project is a Priority Housing Site included in the state-approved Housing Element primarily for townhome-style development. There has been neighborhood opposition to townhouse development, but the city is bound by state law. As such, review of the project is limited by several laws including the Housing Accountability Act, the Housing Crisis Act (SB 330), and the Density Bonus Law, among others. Five waivers and one concession are requested under the Density Bonus Law, which allows applicants to trade affordable housing built on-site for waivers of development standards that would otherwise apply. The alternative for the site is a higher density apartment style development which would be inconsistent with the existing single family family homes. The townhomes are large family units ranging from 2356 to 2727 sq. ft. with 4 bedrooms, comparable to or larger than existing adjacent residential properties. These townhomes are the lowest density allowed, which contributes to the “No Net Loss” shortfall that the city faces with lack of enough Moderate Income units across all approved projects.
The 51-unit development will include 10 deed-restricted below-market-rate (BMR) homes, which will increase the number of affordable housing units in the city. Rather than shoehorning a small park into the project which is immediately adjacent to existing parkland, staff is recommending a parkland in-lieu fee of $1,998,000 for the 37 market rate units (the parkland fee is waived for BMR units).The applicant is proposing reducing the required in-lieu fee to $1,621,000 by building a pedestrian trail connection between the project property and the adjacent Linda Vista Trail at a cost to construct, not to exceed $377,023, thus reducing the in-lieu fee to $1,621,000. This modification would significantly improve access to the city’s existing parkland and open space for the entire neighborhood.
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 Moore, Councilmembers Fruen and Wang. Vice-Mayor Chao and Mohan did not submit reports.
Item No. 15 :Upcoming Draft Agenda Items Report
RECAP – Planning Commission, Mon., Mar. 9, 2026, 6:45 p.m. (Rescheduled due to Planning Commissioner Academy)
YouTube: 2 hr. 24 min.
Item No. 2: Update to the Health and Safety Element of the Cupertino General Plan: 2015 – 2040 Community Vision. The Planning Commission spent nearly two hours providing comments, a discussion dominated by Commissioner Rao who moved to bring revisions back to the commission for another go-round. Staff indicated that no budget is available so the motion failed, and the item will now go to city council.
Item No. 3: 2025 General Plan and Housing Element Annual Progress Report (APR). This should have been a pro forma review of a state-mandated pre-formatted report due by April 1. However, there were audio difficulties on Zoom with the staff presenter, who was not able to be in-person. Commissioner Rao was irritated and moved to continue the item to the next meeting. Motion carried 3-1-0 with Lindskog voting nay and Fung absent. The matter is moot, since the report is on the March 17 council consent calendar for timely submission by April 1.
CUPERTINO COURIER: March 13, 2026
The front page photo and article on page 5 are entitled Tour to spark interest: Saturday’s event intended to show benefits, challenges in going electric. Community briefs on page 5 are (1) Persian New Year Celebration and (2) Electing to help, recruitment by the League of Women Voters to assist in the Jun. 2 and Nov. 3 elections. The sole legal notice is a Public hearing for an application by Harvest Properties for a 122 unit housing on Stevens Creek Blvd to be held on Tues., Mar. 24 before the Planning Commission.
Warm regards,
Jean Bedord
Cupertino Matters
Publisher and Editor
