Cupertino Matters
- In the News
- UPCOMING – Planning Commission, Mon., Mar. 9, 2026, 6:45 p.m.
- RECAP – City Council, Tues., Mar. 3, 2026, 5:30 p.m. Special; 6:45 p.m. Regular
It’s the season for festivals and fundraisers providing opportunities to meet the community and support local causes. The Big Bunny 5K and Kids Fun was held at Memorial Park on Sat., Mar. 7. Then on Mar. 28, Holi Festival will also 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 Fri., 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 Fri., March 27, 6 p.m.
The annual State of the City address by Mayor Kitty Moore is now available on the city website, providing an overview of city accomplishments over the past year, and looking forward to the challenges of this next year. The finances will be challenging. To that point, Mayor Moore, in a joint op-ed with the mayors of Los Altos Hills and Saratoga, protested the proposed hike in the sheriff’s contract for law enforcement services: Local mayors: We can’t accept Santa Clara County’s attempt to hike our policing costs 36%: ‘If these proposed changes are not meaningfully reduced, our cities will have no other option than to explore alternative approaches to providing law enforcement’
The public is very concerned about ICE and surveillance. Many cities as well as the county had rolled out a program of automated license plate readers using Flock technology, with assurances that the data could only be accessed by local public safety agencies. Indeed, California law has barred police departments from sharing license plate reading camera data with out-of-state or federal agencies for any reason since 2016, under Senate Bill 34. The law has been invoked in debates about the cameras’ use and their role in federal immigration enforcement. However, there was a major breach of security by Flock which was covered at length in the press: Out-of-state police access Silicon Valley license plate readers. As a result, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors cancelled the contract, which impacts Cupertino, Los Altos Hills, and Saratoga, which all contract with the sheriff rather than having their own police departments. Other Bay Area cities have also cancelled their contracts with Flock.
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, Mon., Mar. 9 24, 2026, 6:45 p.m. (Rescheduled due to Planning Commissioner Academy)
Item No. 2: Update to the Health and Safety Element of the Cupertino General Plan: 2015 – 2040 Community Vision. This is a State-mandated element of the General Plan that addresses the threats posed by natural and human-caused hazards to Cupertino and establishes goals and policies to reduce risk to the community. The current Health and Safety Element was adopted in 2014. Since that time, State law has expanded requirements related to wildfire, flooding, climate change adaptation, and evacuation planning. The California Government Code requires all local jurisdictions to review and, as necessary, update their Safety Element upon each revision of the Housing Element or Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP), or at least once every eight years. The City adopted updates to the Housing Element and the Santa Clara County Multijurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan, including the City-specific LHMP section, in 2024, triggering this update.
In 2025, City and PlaceWorks staff presented the broad policy areas that the Health and Safety Element Update would cover to the Planning Commission and Public Safety Commission during scheduled study sessions. Now, the project team seeks input from the Planning Commission, and subsequently from the City Council, prior to submission for state agency review.
Item No. 3: 2025 General Plan and Housing Element Annual Progress Report (APR). This is a state-mandated report due by April 1. While an overall General Plan APR is required, the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) provides separate guidance for the Housing Element with extensive data requirements. The APR provides local legislative bodies and the public with information regarding the progress on implementation of the General Plan for their city. Overall, with the exception of the Housing Element, the city is making satisfactory progress on various Elements of the General Plan. With regard to the Housing Element, in 2025, the city issued 46 ADU permits (an increase from previous years) and 34 non-ADU building permits. The city has entitled 2,929 units but building permits for only 368 actual units have been approved to start construction. Though this is a significant increase over the prior RHNA cycle, this progress still leaves a shortfall of 4,220 units to meet RHNA numbers. The entitlement numbers are better with a shortfall of 1,291 units, but the largest shortfall is in the Extremely Low/Very Low category with 882 units, which has very challenging financing.
The Planning Division staff is stretched thin. In addition to review of planning and building permits, which involve meetings and outreach and phone inquiries from members of the public, Planning staff has responded to over 1,600 public counter inquiries in person, over 175 virtual appointment inquiries, 2,700 phone inquiries and over 2,000 discrete email inquiries from members of the public.
RECAP – City Council, Tues. Mar. 3, 2026, 5:30 p.m., Special Meeting; 6:45 Regular Meeting, Council Chamber, and Teleconference Location Boca Raton Resort, Hotel Lobby, 501 E Camino Real, Boca Raton, FL 33432
YouTube: Special Meeting 1 hr. 24 min. Regular Meeting: 3 hr. 15 min.
Special Meeting
Item No. 1:Parkland Ballot Measure – Mapping, Zoning, Legal Review, and Election Considerations (Continued on February 19, 2026). Council was divided on this subject. Councilmembers Fruen and Mohan favored rezoning to provide additional protection to parkland in conjunction with state law, instead of a ballot measure. This would be more cost effective than spending over $300,000 on a ballot measure with questionable benefits.
Item No. 2: Study Session on options to comply with state law related to No Net Loss (SB166) due to the lack of adequate capacity to accommodate the City’s moderate and lower-income Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA). The staff presentation gave a very detailed explanation of the situation that the city now faces with the state required No Net Loss finding. Realistically, the city can’t meet the 180 day deadline to correct this deficiency and will have to modify the approved Housing Element, a year long process which involves environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Discussions with HCD are underway, and the city is in the process of hiring a consultant with costs estimated between $100,000 to $300,000 depending on the extent of the environmental review and community outreach processes, and funding available from the Vallco Property Owner, who will pay into the fund based on its most recent project modification.
Regular Meeting
Item No. 7: Public hearing on the abatement of public nuisance from weeds or other fire hazards pursuant to provisions of Cupertino Municipal Code Chapter 9.08 and Resolution No. 25-101. Only one property owner requested exemption from this citation since the property has been cleaned up and the County has changed its noticing process. Council granted the exception, and approved the rest of the list unanimously.
Item No. 8: Consider Adopting a Resolution Declaring the Mary Avenue property (APN 326-27-053) Exempt Surplus Land under the California Surplus Land Act. There was extensive public comment both pro and con for this administrative procedure for the city to declare the designated portion of the public right-of-way as surplus property–a necessary step in allowing the Mary Avenue Villas to move forward. Approved 3-2 with Wang and Chao voting nay.
Item No. 9: Consider Adopting a Resolution Declaring the Mary Avenue property (APN 326-27-053) Exempt Surplus Land under the California Surplus Land Act. There was more public comment on this second administrative procedure to enable the Mary Avenue Villas project for IDD and low income families to inch forward. Approved 3-2 with Wang and Chao voting nay.
Item No. 10: Acceptance of City Manager’s Mid-Year Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2025-26; Approval of Budget Modification increasing appropriations by $663,616 and revenues by $149,578. This report states the city’s financial position as of Dec. 31, 2025 and the results are as expected. The forecast, however, is problematic. As originally projected, the city would not have had a structural deficit until the FY2032-33 fiscal year. The 36% increase in the sheriff’s contract immediately catapults the city into a structural deficit in the next fiscal year, so the city will need to make additional cuts in expenditures, negotiate down the sheriff’s contract, and (or) find new revenues to close the gap. One additional adjustment was the expenditure of $7,400 from the city manager fund for an appraisal of the Finch property under negotiation. Council provided minimal input to the financial report, and approved it unanimously.
Item No. 11: Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Capital Improvement Programs and Five-year Plan. The council chamber was empty as the proposed five year plan was presented. There are 22 projects which prioritize rehabilitation of aging infrastructure, investments that extend asset life cycles, and capital improvements that support public health, safety, and overall community well-being. Approved 4-1 with Wang voted nay due to opposition to a low budget pickleball sound project.
CUPERTINO COURIER: March 6, 2026
The front page photo and article on page 4 are entitled Delivering assistance: Nonprofit receives $200K federal grant for roaming services van. Community briefs on page 4 are (1) Artnow artists and (2) Children’s concert. Page 5 has previously published Mercury News articles entitled (1) License-plate reader use ends in Cupertino, Saratoga and (2) Cupertino mayor describes challenges and resilient city. Legal notices include (1) Public hearing for on Tues., Mar. 17 for an application by SummerHill for a 51-unit townhome development on Linda Vista Drive, (2) Public hearing on for 2026-27 Annual Action Plan at the Housing Commission meeting on Mar. 28, (3) Notice inviting bids for 2026 pavement maintenance Phase 1 Project, and (4) Notice inviting bids for 2026 pavement maintenance Phase 2 Project.
Warm regards,
Jean Bedord
Cupertino Matters
Publisher and Editor
