SC 07-21-221
CITY OF CUPERTINO SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION
Teleconference meeting without a physical location.
Thursday, July 21, 2022 4:00 p.m.
APPROVED MINUTES
At 4:06 p.m. Vice Chair Weber called the meeting to order. Chair Swaminathan arrived shortly thereafter.
ROLL CALL
Commissioners Present: Chair Vignesh Swaminathan, Vice Chair Anna Weber, and Commissioners Sonali
Padgaonkar, Steve Poon, Meera Ramanathan.
Staff: Matt Morley, Director of Public Works; Andre Duurvoort, Sustainability Manager; Rina Horie,
Sustainability Intern; Karen Chen, CivicSpark AmeriCorps Fellow; Gilee Corral, Staff Liaison.
Guests: Members of the public.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. Subject: Minutes from January 21, 2022 meeting
Draft minutes were amended as follows:
- Under “Staff and Commission Reports,” adjust wording to indicate multiple CREST Award recipients.
- Correction of a typo under “Subject: Earth and Arbor Day Festival planning.”
Vice Chair Weber moved and Commissioner Ramanathan seconded to approve the minutes as amended. The
motion carried unanimously.
2. Subject: Minutes from May 26, 2022 meeting
Draft minutes were amended to add wording under “Subject: Public Review Draft Climate Action Plan 2.0 and
report on outreach and engagement” to reflect Commission’s interest in moving up the carbon neutrality date.
Vice Chair Weber moved and Commissioner Poon seconded to approve the minutes as amended. The motion
carried unanimously.
POSTPONEMENTS
None.
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
- Dr. Gary Latshaw (Cupertino resident) expressed appreciation for the Commission nominating him for
the CREST Award.
- Members of the Wildfire Awareness Initiative, Niranjana Sankar and Madeleine Ischo, gave a
presentation on their organization, wildfire causes and local impacts, and disaster preparedness.
Commissioners gave supportive comments and suggestions on potential ways for the group expand
their messaging, e.g., Block Leaders Program, post presentation to City website, continue advocacy
with other groups/commissions. WAI will provide a flier for Commissioners. Staff suggested
connecting with Ken Erickson for possible inclusion in a future newsletter.
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- Aryan, representing Students for Society, requested the Commission to come to their Recycling Day
event on July 30 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Homestead High School and to promote the event.
Commissioner Padgaonkar indicated interest in attending.
WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS
Written communications received from the Wildfire Awareness Initiative, Students for Society, and Gary
Latshaw.
STAFF AND COMMISSION REPORTS
Staff updates: Andre Duurvoort, Sustainability Manager, gave the following updates:
- Introduced the City’s new Director of Public Works, Matt Morley.
- Fiscal Year 2023 budget and City Work Program adopted; Sustainability Division leading a project to
develop a comprehensive electrification strategy for existing buildings.
- Launch of GreenBlocks: initiative to add climate resiliency and disaster preparedness curriculum to the
Block Leaders program. Staff contact: Marta Drowns, Office of Emergency Services.
- Climate Action Plan (CAP) 2.0 scheduled for City Council adoption hearing on August 16.
Duurvoort answered clarifying questions from Commissioners:
- If opening privately owned electric vehicle (EV) charging stations for public access addressed
(Swaminathan). Duurvoort: CAP 2.0 goal to add 700 public and private charging ports by 2040, noted
City project in the scoping phase to add more charging in public parking lots and street.
- Additional questions / comments on fees for EV chargers and citing in school parking lots
(Padgaonkar), clarification on the number of ports planned (Poon), status of non-functional charger at
City Hall (Swaminathan). Duurvoort will return to the Commission with an update on the City’s EV
charging installation project.
Public Comment:
Dr. Gary Latshaw (Cupertino resident) thinks the emission factors in the draft CAP 2.0 were understating the
natural gas emissions, wants this to be reviewed. He wants to know if the emissions factors will be discussed
further.
- Duurvoort briefly explained the City’s approach to reporting greenhouse gas emissions and aligning
calculation methods with protocols and industry practice. He noted that the next GHG inventory
update process will be another opportunity to discuss emissions factors.
- Dr. Latshaw wants the emissions factor to follow science rather than be related to consistency with
other cities. He explained the difference between the methane emissions factor, which is provided by
PG&E, and the leakage rate, responding to a clarifying question from Commissioner Ramanathan. Dr.
Latshaw noted that an adjustment in the leakage rate to 4.8% could change the emissions estimate in
the CAP 2.0 by a factor of 2.4.
NEW BUSINESS
3. Subject: Staff update on Climate Victory Gardens pilot
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Rina Horie, Sustainability Intern, and Duurvoort presented on the background, results to date, and key
takeaways for the Climate Victory Gardens pilot:
- Climate Victory Gardens objective is to provide customers with technical assistance to walk through
the complex process of replacing turf with climate appropriate landscaping. Contracting with Ecology
Action, local nonprofit, to design and implement the program.
- Serves residential, nonprofit, and institutional properties. Most of the initial goals have been achieved;
16 projects completed and 89 on the waiting list.
- Reviewed cost effectiveness to the City. Initial findings indicate it is more cost effective to focus and
recruit sites with larger square footage of turf area to convert to drought-tolerant landscape.
- Though larger sites are producing better results on water savings, there is a clear need to support all
types of customers, both large and small. May consider splitting the program to cater to large sites and
smaller residential sites separately.
- Contractor availability remains a key challenge. Increased set price to recruit more contractors. Ecology
Action also worked with landscape contractors to train them on the finer points of doing climate-
appropriate landscape conversion projects.
- Proactively selected sites to ensure coverage of the city and other factors to produce more favorable
results, e.g., cultural effect, highly visible sites, variety of neighborhoods.
- Customer drop-outs are costly, considering adding a deposit or commitment in the future to reduce this.
- Discovered fees in permitting to remove lawns and removed this barrier via a request to Council to waive
these fees. Large HOA took advantage of this waiver and saved $4,000, enabling project to move forward.
- Positive feedback from customers overall, with some concerns on timeline due to contractor availability,
supply chain issues for plant availability.
- Drafting a proposal to make part of this program permanent, now seeking Commission feedback.
Duurvoort answered clarifying questions from Commissioner Padgaonkar: explained how the pilot was
advertised via various City channels, and that replacing lawn with artificial turf is not incentivized in the
program.
Public Comment:
Dr. Gary Latshaw suggested approaching exterior lawns managed by central agreements for the program.
The Commission discussed the topic and gave feedback, topics raised included:
- Support for the program generally and for the focus on highly visible lots to increase visibility on water
conservation (Weber).
- If neighboring cities are part of the pilot, e.g., Saratoga and Sunnyvale (Ramanathan). Duurvoort: this is
a one-of-a-kind pilot specific to Cupertino, but growing interest from other cities throughout the Bay
Area, hoping the program will grow and develop economies of scale. He will present the pilot results
to members of Valley Water’s Water Conservation Subcommittee.
- Interest in drought resistant park approach, how to report water waste on City property (Ramanathan),
if drought response was part of the parks master plan (Swaminathan). Duurvoort: use Cupertino 311 to
report water waste. He noted some municipal actions in response to a declared drought are in the
municipal code. Development of park specific plans are other opportunities to get public feedback on
these issues.
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- Suggestion for signs at Climate Victory Garden projects with QR code to drought webpage as outreach
opportunity (Swaminathan, with Padgaonkar supporting).
- Questions re project budget: funding source, reason for waiting list, if tied to funding availability
(Poon, Weber). Duurvoort: clarified the funding for Climate Victory Gardens project administration is
City General Funds, with approved budget through Fiscal Year 2023. Backlog of customers is due to
demand exceeding current budget. Costs reflected in the presentation are City costs and do not include
customer-side costs.
Suggestion to offset administrative cost by charging some portion to the customer, e.g., customer may be
willing to pay 50% of the service costs (Padgaonkar).
4. Subject: Staff update on approach to the all-electric reach code for new residential and commercial
buildings
Duurvoort briefly reviewed the history of the reach code’s development, lessons learned in implementation
phase, and plans to continue the all-electric building and electric vehicle reach codes into the next building
cycle. Staff will recommend continuing the reach code “as-is,” covering all building types with exemptions for
emergency services, or if no reasonable electric alternatives exist. Generally, the reach code is covering new
construction and tear down-rebuilds. Staff desires to make small changes to the attached accessory dwelling
unit (ADU) exemption language to address a loophole: the Building Department observed that new
construction applicants are including an attached ADU in site plans in order to qualify for an exemption and
install a gas line. Staff plan to bring the reach code to Council in September as part of the overall building code
update process, ahead of the January 2023 enforcement date.
Duurvoort answered clarifying questions from Commissioners:
- Difference in cost for gas vs electric (Padgaonkar); Duurvoort: studies found at new construction, not
much difference in construction cost, with a potential cost savings by not adding a gas line.
- If outreach to applicants putting in gas lines for ADUs (Weber); Duurvoort: noted that Building
Department can only enforce a requirement at the time of permit application.
- If City does not allow natural gas lines, how PG&E would be affected (Poon); Duurvoort: noted PG&E
submitted a support letter for the reach code. Topic is complicated, infrastructure costs and entity that
bears this cost will vary depending on the scale of the upgrade.
Public Comment:
Dr. Gary Latshaw supports eliminating all exemptions to the reach code, noted worsening heat waves and risk
to public health, asked why eliminating gas lines is an infrastructure issue.
- Duurvoort responded to Dr. Latshaw’s question, noting that existing gas lines would become stranded
assets. Dr. Latshaw wants exceptions to be eliminated based on worsening of the climate crisis, would
like to see if exemption for Vallco could be reversed, glad to see a new development was all-electric.
Duurvoort noted that so far the only exemptions have been limited to the ADU issues mentioned.
The Commission discussed the topic, gave feedback and comments:
- Interest in electrifying own home (Poon).
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- Clarify if any part of the Vallco project could fall under the reach code, what developments so far have
fallen under the codes (Swaminathan); Duurvoort: the original application for Vallco was submitted
prior to the reach code, and Sustainability staff has no additional information about future project
phases at this time. So far, over 100 single family homes have gone all electric. The Oaks will be the
largest development to be subject to the reach code.
- If Sustainability Division is involved in Housing Element discussions re plan for 4,500 new units
(Padgaonkar); Duurvoort: Most impact will be through new building codes, electrification, and the
green building ordinance. The Climate Action Plan 2.0 includes the creation of a sustainability checklist
that will guide review all developments requiring CEQA documents.
- Interest in offering alternatives to diesel and gasoline generators as backup power (Ramanathan),
concerns re additional electric load and need for prompt response from utilities during black outs
(Padgaonkar, Swaminathan).
5. Subject: Highlights from the CivicSpark AmeriCorps service year in Cupertino
Karen Chen, CivicSpark AmeriCorps Fellow, presented highlights of her service year:
- Core member of the project team for CAP 2.0: conducted outreach, supported stakeholder meetings,
conducted data analysis, wrote the adaptation chapter to the Public Review Draft CAP 2.0.
- Conducted a vulnerability assessment to assess climate change impacts and potential vulnerabilities.
Incorporated expertise from the Office of Emergency Services (OES) and County of Santa Clara.
- Collaborated with OES to create GreenBlocks.
- Earth and Arbor Day Festival: co-managed over 50 day-of volunteers and the Lead Volunteer crew.
- Next steps: continue building resilience, integrate data and planning into City operations. Strengthen
OES relationship and connect adaptation to emergency management. Adopt and implement CAP 2.0.
Commissioners thanked Chen and offered congratulations on the accomplishments of her service year.
6. Subject: Commission tabling opportunities at community events
Gilee Corral, Staff Liaison, briefly outlined upcoming tabling and outreach opportunities. The Sustainability
and Environmental Programs Divisions are organizing tables at two events happening on September 24:
Cupertino Bike Festival and the Rotary Club’s Day ‘n Night Fun Fest. She asked the Commissioners if they are
available to table on September 24 and if they have a preference for one event over the other. She also
mentioned upcoming events to promote: Environmental Recycling and Shredding Day on August 20, Free
Home Composting Workshop on August 27, Creek Clean-up Volunteer Event on September 17, and Citywide
Garage Sale on September 17.
The Commission discussed the tabling options briefly, expressed general interest in tabling at either festival on
September 24. Comments and questions raised:
- Prefer the Day ‘n Night Festival, suggestions to have a banner and simple message at the table, e.g.,
recycling (Padgaonkar).
- Would be good to include all Commissioners in tabling (Ramanathan).
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Interest in tabling at the Kennedy Fall Festival, requested support from staff to provide supplies and
information, could also do a waste audit on the Fall Festival (Padgaonkar). Duurvoort: will consider this
request and determine staff capacity. Vice Chair Weber offered to serve as a resource for waste audits in
general.
FUTURE AGENDA SETTING
Corral requested Commissioners’ availability for a potential joint commission meeting with the Parks and
Recreation Commission, Bicycle and Pedestrian Commission, and Sustainability Commission on the subject of
the Blackberry Farm Golf Course feasibility study. Commissioner availability for September 8 at 6:30 p.m.:
- Commissioners Padgaonkar: yes.
- Vice Chair Weber and Commissioner Ramanathan: yes, and more likely if virtual meeting.
- Chair Swaminathan: tentative no (will be out of town), asked if Commission could send a
subcommittee to attend. Corral can ask if this is a possibility.
- Commissioner Poon: no (will be out of town).
ADJOURNMENT
A motion to adjourn was made by Commissioner Ramanathan and seconded by Vice Chair Weber. The
motion carried unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 6:33 p.m.
SUBMITTED BY:
__________________________
Gilee Corral, Staff Liaison
Minutes approved at the 10/20/2022 regular meeting