Cupertino Matters
- Election
- UPCOMING – City Council, Tues., Nov. 4, 6:45 p.m.; Closed, 5:30 p.m.
- RECAP – Planning Commission, Tues., Oct. 28, 6:45 p.m.
Vote centers remain open until 8:00 tonight on the final day to vote on (1) County Assessor, (2) Measure A for county funding, and (3) Proposition 50 for state redistricting. If no candidate for County Assessor gets 50% plus 1 vote, there will be a December 30 runoff election, requiring staffing by the Registrar of Voters over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
October closed out the month-long celebration of Cupertino’s 70th anniversary. Celebratory events included the first-ever Restaurant Week and Puzzle Hunt. Cupertino Community Service Awards occurred on October 29, honoring this year’s CREST Award winners and recognizing City Commissioners for their dedication and service to the city. This gathering also featured the “My Cupertino” Art Showcase. Readers can find pictures on https://www.facebook.com/cityofcupertino.
The annual Veteran’s Day Ceremony will be held on Tuesday, November 11, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Cupertino Veterans Memorial in Memorial Park. This ceremony honors veterans, active-duty military, and first responders by recognizing their service and sacrifice in protecting the freedoms we enjoy.
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. Nov. 4, 2025, 6:45 p.m., Regular; 5:30 p.m. Closed. Note: Councilmember Wang will again appear remotely from The W Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada
Closed Session: 5:30 p.m.
Item No.1: Public Employee Appointment Consideration; California Government Code Sections 54954.5(e) and 54957(b)(1); Title: City Manager.
As readers will recall, Cupertino has had an interim city manager since the separation of the last permanent city manager, Pamela Wu, earlier this year. This item demonstrates an intention on the part of the Council to make a regular appointment.
Item No. 2: Conference with Legal Counsel – Anticipated Litigation; California Government Code Sections 54954.5(c) and 54956.9(e)(1); (2 cases).
Open Session: 6:45 p.m.
Closed Session Report
Ceremonial Items include (1) a presentation from the Toyokawa Sister City Association regarding their recent student exchange, (2) a presentation from the Hsinchu Sister City Association regarding their recent student exchange, and (3) a presentation from the Santa Clara Valley Water Valley District on recent updates from the District. Oral Communications from the public on off-agenda items precede the Consent Calendar, which contains five routine items.
Item No. 11: Introduce an ordinance for Municipal Code Amendments to Title 16, Buildings and Construction, of the Cupertino Municipal Code adopting the California Buildings Standards Code and Fire Code, for consistency with Assembly Bill 130 and making local exceptions as mandated by the State of California. This is a routine housekeeping public hearing. The Building Standards Commission (BSC) mandates the California Code of Regulations, Title 24, also referred to as the California Building Standards Code, to be adopted by local jurisdictions. These Codes include California Building, Residential, Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing, Energy, Wildland-Urban Interface, Fire, Historical Building Code, Fire, Existing Building Code, Green Building Standards Code, Referenced Standards Code, Uniform Housing Code, and Property Maintenance Code.
The Code is published in its entirety every three years by order of the California Legislature, with supplements published in intervening years. The local Tri-chapter Uniform Code Committee (TUCC) takes on the responsibility to review and amend the model codes to enhance regional consistency in application and enforcement of the adopted codes. The TUCC develops standardized codes, interpretations, and local amendments to maintain consistency from one jurisdiction to another.
Item No. 12: Introduce Ordinance No. 25-2279: “An Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Cupertino Amending City Code Title Five (Business Licenses and Regulations) to Establish Chapter 5.51 to Regulate Film Production.” Cupertino has consistently received filming-related inquiries from independent filmmakers, commercial production companies, students, and international media outlets. Just in the last year, these inquiries totaled over a dozen, ranging from small student projects to commercial shoots, including inquiries from Yamaha Motor Corporation, El Camino Health, the Italian television network La7, and CBS–which is set to debut a new legal drama entitled Cupertino. A number of neighboring cities and elsewhere in California have adopted film permitting procedures. To date, Cupertino has not adopted such an ordinance, which leaves the City without clear procedures governing how such permits should work. Without a formal ordinance or permit process to regulate film production within the City, staff have handled film inquiries on a case-by-case basis, often involving multiple departments to coordinate safety, parking, traffic, and use of the public right-of-way with no consistent approach leading to duplicative work and additional staff time.
Moreover, without such a permitting procedure the City has no means of collecting fees to recover costs in supporting the commercial efforts of film production activities within the City. Addressing film-related inquiries has resulted in significant staff time and ambiguity regarding insurance, liability, and the use of City resources. Establishing a clear, standardized framework to manage filming requests will establish clear process and expectations, protect the City, improve efficiency of operations and staff resources, and allow for the recovery of the benefits offered by City.
Item No. 13: Study Session: 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 made substantial progress on implementation of recommended projects from the 2016 Bicycle Transportation Plan and the 2018 Pedestrian Transportation Plan, but a new, comprehensive Active Transportation Plan (ATP) was necessary to build on those improvements, address evolving community needs, and to create more coherent guidelines for improving such infrastructure. Staff also recognized the importance of creating a unified, citywide plan to align bicycle and pedestrian initiatives while accounting for the needs of motorized vehicles. This coordinated approach ensures consistency across policies and projects, avoiding duplication, aligning initiatives, and addressing overlapping concerns. After Council approved the ATP in the city work plan, city staff then identified Transportation Development Act Article 3 (TDA3) funds as an external funding source to support the development of the Plan.
Phase 1 resulted in a Vision, Goals, and Objectives Memo which captured the shared vision that Cupertino should be a community where walking, biking, and rolling are easy, safe, and comfortable for everyone. Community engagement efforts resulted in the following ranking of those goals in order of importance:
- Safety: Consistent with the Vision Zero Action Plan, pursue an active transportation network that reduces the number of serious and fatal crashes involving pedestrians, bicyclists, and other active transportation users to zero. Enact measures to anticipate human error and minimize the impact of traffic crashes for all roadway users.
- Accessibility: Provide a well-connected multimodal transportation network that offers comfortable and convenient walking and biking options to key destinations for all residents and visitors in the City.
- Maintenance: Active transportation needs should be considered and integrated in all City roadway maintenance activities.
- Sustainability: Advance environmental quality and economic prosperity for the City by providing inviting active transportation facilities that encourage frequent usage and improve adoption of all non-vehicle modes of travel, resulting in a reduction in Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) and Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs).
- Multimodal Balance: Consider multimodal priorities and impacts of all projects to improve sustainable transportation options throughout the City. Limit impacts to all other modes whenever possible, including transit and personal vehicles.
- Fairness: Provide a multimodal transportation system that is equally distributed across all neighborhoods in Cupertino.
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, and Councilmembers Fruen and Mohan. There was no report from Vice-Mayor Moore nor one from Councilmember Wang.
Item No. 16: Upcoming Draft Agenda Items Report
RECAP – Planning Commission, Tues., Oct. 28, 2025, 6:45 p.m., Regular meeting
YouTube: 1 hr. 18 min.
This was a short meeting since the sole agenda was Item No. 2: Study Session: Objective Design Standards. Commissioners reviewed the ODS from Sunnyvale, San Mateo, Palo Alto, Foster City, and Los Gatos and provided staff with feedback on the formats. Placeworks–the City’s consultant for this project–provided context of the adoption of each ODS given the recent changes in state housing laws. Discussion centered around the actual applicability of these standards, given that most developers of new multifamily housing projects in Cupertino utilize waivers and concessions under the Density Bonus Law.
CUPERTINO COURIER: Oct. 31, 2025
The front page photo with additional photo and article on page 5, is entitled The secret to success: Young hopefuls engage panel of music industry professionals. Additional community briefs include (1) Pathway champion and (2) Tavern talk. Legal notices include (1) Public hearing for Toll Brothers for 55 townhomes at Estates Drive and Stevens Creek (Idlewild shopping center) at Planning Commission, Nov. 12, (2) Public hearing amending the FY2025-26 Fee Schedule scheduled for City Council, Nov. 18, (3) Notice of Second Reading of an ordinance governing small wireless facilities, and (4) Notice of Second Reading of ordinance amendments to comply with state laws.
Warm regards,
Jean Bedord
Cupertino Matters
Publisher and Editor
