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Director's Report CITY OF CUPERTINO 10300 TORRE AVENUE, CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA 95014 DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Subject: Report of the Community Development Directo~ Planning Commission Agenda Date: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 The City Council met on April 18, 2006, and discussed the following items of interest to the Planning Commission: Under Oral Communications: Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer, announced that Apple has bought 50 acres in the North Vallco Planning Area to create a second Apple campus. Miscellaneous: Steve and Ciddy will be attending the American Planning Association Conference in San Antonio, Texas from April 24 - 26, 2006, and will not be attending the Planning Commission. Enclosures: Newspaper Articles . G: \Planning \ SteveP \ Director's Report \ 2006 \pd04-25-06.doc DII2.-\ "This is a future trend that's just getting rolling." _ DAVE DOCKTER. PALO ALTO ARBORIST ". . .., TRANsMISSION 'TREES' , e' ~ SPROUT ON HILLSIDES 'Stealth towers' serve to mask ubiquitous cell~phone antennas By Kim Vo MemnyN= A new crop of trees is sprouting throughout the ur- ban forest: the falœ pii:Je, the fooled-you paJm and the sorta~1m. . ..: 'They're actuaJ1ý cell phone towers. A ~ num- ber of cities, weary of dropped calls as well as ugly, util- itarian towers, are making cell phone companies install "stealth towers," some co¡nplete with bark and forever~ green leaves to camouflage antennas. "'This is a future trend that's just tting rolling." said Dave Dockter, a city arborist in ~ Alto who has been inspecëng the tree towers to make sure they look like the real ~ or close to it. So far, there are three such towers in Palo Alto, with two more on the way. 'There's also. a falœ Ø,¡¡:;, in CamI>' bell and another in Mj]pitas. Los Altos a notori- ous1y poor-signal town, recently approved two pines, irwJnclin¡¡ one at City Hall. . Stealtñ towers are also bidden in church steeples and flagpoles. There are even falœ water towers. "It's making it more palatable for citizens," said .Tun Sullivan, dh-ector of engineering and operations for T- Mobile in Northern CaliforIrla, where the stea1th pr0- jects account for nearly a quarter of the new towers in See CELl. PHONES, Page 7B ..~ RlCKEMARTIN-~NEWS A cßII phone tower disguised ;¡s a tree goes up in Palo Alto, just one of many cities embracing the concept ~_. [! I UinlíirrLir~ ~ ; r 1\._- j~ f, . n¡¡w·:"1~ r j,~l ~ - - .".,,.-,.. I .i!liÎL. . f ~II .,J.!. {ìJJJ.~ fM! /12 'V(¡:(,~ ()/l-iJ.i1h f»2f,) :?í Local News· THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2006 SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS .,., :f' n, !" ; , , ~ i:r. ,,," ; ,,~ . ~t. :.90 ¡iJ." '\II : ~- ..:¡ . ,~¡ RlClCE....ARON-MERCtRVNEWS Forever-green leaves are just one feature of cell phone towers camouflaged as trees, like this surprisingly convincing one in Palo Alto. .;~CELL PHONES I Fake trees mask iluglytowers; no leaves to rake -,.. j~~Continued.fromPage IB ~ :"Í some communities. City officials say the trees address the most common , complalDt about conventional , : towers - they're ugly. The ; :: problem is e~ acute in : the wooded fõotbiD communi- " ties. where people don't want : their vistas iroUed by industri- : ., al towers. ~nsequent1y, the , ceD phone reception is lousy because radio frequencies, which travel in sIrsight lines, keep bumping against nature. "The reason the Bay Area bas bad cen pbone services is , the providers can~ put"il tow- ~ era due to NIMBY"~ said : : Los Altos Hills (Jounc\Iman 0: Dean WIII"I!hawal<r, refening :"': to cries of not m my back '.:. yard." warshawsky, who has :. ~ been pushing for better ceD : ¡, phone , . Iûs town, ~ .'. coverage m ; ¡¡ gets D.1DOl"O ..maDs demañding ': _ ¡,-.. coverage tIum OD ¡my : ": other issue. ; ;,; Some residents say the tow- ': t en are unnecessary since new ..,;;: teehnoiogy to improve recep- tûoL:o: _." tiOD is a few years down the o .; ; pike. They aJso worry shout : t, possible heaJth problems from : ,; the rsdio frequencies, despite ::; studies sayiDg the frequencies are safe. Then there's the ef- fect OD real estate vaJues if s tower - of ¡my shape - is Dear their miIliOD-dollar homes. But resident Tœn Bsttle doeBIl't mind the new mono- pine - s play off the industry term "mono-pole" - that has been N'Proved near Iûs house. Too o!f.<i¡¡ be has doDe the ceD phone dance - a constant foot shuffte - as he tries to loeste a sb-ong signal At bome, he has to wsJk up the billy driveway totaJk. He says his Deighbors aJso want the mODo-pine, though he understaDds that some people ere spprehensive when t!iey first hear the term f'tree tow- """ '1t sounds a bit like s tin Chrimnas tree," he said. The tecImolnav is imnmv- in& though oBÏ~ ~- the trees ere only intended to pass s cursory gIaI1ce. Stare too hard aruI 0.. sees the ðaws: Jeaves, intended to hide panels. ~ in sn unDãturaJIy sIrsight column: s large box at the base to hide .pment. No Alto has ~~ up d.. tailed guidelines for trees. down to the f1ßIð.e for redwood hraIlches (60 ðegrees 00 the "It will never flower. This magnolia, I'm sad to say, is sterile." - DAVE DOCKTER. PALO ALTO ARBORIST top third, e;raduating to 45 de- grees) snð the color of hark (mott1ed reddish bl"OWll). Doekter urges other cities to take the same care. He has seen bsd trees, where the leaves have faded blue or the trunk is just s metal pole psinted brown or green Tree towers cost sig:niftcant- ly more - shout $1,000 per foot coml""""'! with $800 to $850 per foot for com>enäonal poles, according to T-MobUe's SulIivsn. The trees tend to stand between 60 arullOO feet tall. It takes a lot of ingenuity to huUd a good fake tree, ssid VI- to MUsno, vice president of Preserved TreeScapes in Oeesnside. The compsny started out møJd¡¡g fa11X trees for casinos, hoters and air- ports, but has hrsnched out in- to stea1th towers. They now ae- coW11: for half of the firm's business. So far, the company has made piIles, ItsJiWl cypress snd two types of palms. It aJso makes a tree with hrosder leaves that can be used to mimic an e1m, oak. avocado or other t;ype of tree. Other com- . ,'!isve made faux cacti, = are more popular in the Southwest. The trees ere crsfted so they WOIl~ fade under CO!lstant sun- light snd tested to enaure th~ can endure 126 mpb winds. Mi- lano's comp8!lY. is experiment- ing with sdding arms Wld brimches - purely ornamen- tal - so it can better make trees with umbrella canopies. Still. there ere limits. De- spite requ-' the compsny can't create trees that change with the seasons or suddenly bloom in spring. That's Olle way to tell that the tree near a Palo Alto Blockbuster video store is fake. Though the ceD ,phone company says it's an elm. Dockter claims itls a magDolia _ slheit s rather skirmy, verti- cal one. "It wiD never flower." he said. 'ørhis ~olia. I'm sad to 88Y,is steri1e. ' Contact1üm Vo at kvo@mercurY1'eWs.com",(650) 68IHfl1J. PIR-:, Valley Briefing MERCURYNEWSCOM F SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS FRIDAY, APRIL 14'JÔ~6 ,.;.¡ 38 . ---"0-.-------· CUPERTINO Head planning commissioner pushing for North Vallco plan With a passel of controversial buildillg pro- jects behfud them, Cupertino planners are worldng to ~~:gd of dprn.nd from develop- ers on new . in town. . . Case in point is what the city dubbed "North Vallco" - at least 100 acres surroundillg a Hewlett-PacJœrd campus opposite Vallco Fashion Park at Interstate 280 and Wolfe Road. North Vallcoæto see high demand . from potential . for zoning changes to buîld housing. but city's planning com- mission is taking up the topic anyway. "We're trying to get ahead of the train," said MartyMillèr. chairman of the pl.nnmg com- . mission. North Vallco is zòned for light indus- trial and retail right now.. Miller WIUlts amaster plan for the city's de- velopment hashed out ahead of time by plan- ners and cnrnrn1]T1ity DJeJnbers, hoping to avoid another three years Jj]œ the past three, which he s¡Jent mecliating strife among city factions over height, setbaCks and density of néW con- struction and whether developers could con- vert office space to housing. Miller's approach has received the City Council's support, and last Tuesday the plan- ning C{m1m;"';nn considered some of the first steps in looking at the higger picture for North Vallco, which is about 92 acres with L5 million square feet of office spacè. OfJiCÏIÙs are looking at 25 residential units per acre, according to city documents. - Knight Ridder * .-, 'p \K. -5 <llSFElD suppoJ'I..·· said lhe commander Ifi chief. me glooal war ulI 'C!JUI, U'C l""~IUC'" ..~ .. fLos GATOS DAILY NEWS !\.i:-c '.."rving Campbell, Cupertino, Saratoga anrf Monte Sereno . . Cl2006~_~~·n:.AI~IU8MCI."""""'\he"""'MO~- COMBINED DNLY NEWS CIRCULATION: 67,808 'Yblume 4. Number 287 "'M'":: ~.:: OAQ: 2,326.11 +11.4.3 .-.-..---.. .."j'.:':.:.+:.6f', (d,OB\ 264-U01 School district wants edge in cheap housing Housing Commission to weigh fairness of propOsal ""-- llA/l.yltEWSCCIfIR£SJ'OIŒNf To help staff buy afford- able housing in Cupertino, !be school district has asked the housing commission for 8 foot up in their eligibility for below.markeH8te housing. The plan would include school district employees who work. outside Cupertino city limits. Currently. emp10yees who work at sçhools jn the neighboring cÎûes of Sunnyvale. Santa Clara, Los AltoS. Saratoga and San Jose have a harder time qualifying for the hous- ing prognun. "The complication (is) that our name is Cupertino Union School District, but we bave schools in six different cities. of which one is CUpertino," said Jeremy Nishihara. dis- trict spokesman. The district has two schools in Saratoga, one in Santa Clara, one in Los Altos, six in West San Jose, four in SUlUlyvale and 11 in Cupertmo. ''Not all of our employees come to Cupertino, but tech,. nicaUy they all work for the . CUSD," said Mary Jew, the school district's human '~ço_ "~~_~:'progmh/~~;~:l~;'!] :.œveloperstDallotate a percentage of horoe,5'fur ::,~~m;~~b 'one~--'for~-a, _ . -;',:', 'resident\tWö.,fÕt,,'f!.IU4ime - '~~, e - ~for 'be .,'.. "," 'U resources director. On March. 7, schools Superintendent Bill Bragg spoke to the City Council and the Redevelopment Agency about additional below-mar- ket-rate points for employ· ee8. On Thursday, the district met for a second ûme with the council and the agency, but the parties took no action. The Cupertino Housing Commission wiD review the request next week, and any decision will likely go to the City Council for a vole. See HOUSING, page 23 April 15, 2006 HOUSING FROM PAGE 1 "", The issue of more eUgibility "points" for affordable housing for school employees was fIrSt broached in February. At that lime, Cupertino Senior Planner Vera Gil said the housing program is not a teacher-housing program, but a program for Cupertino workers who cannot otherwise afford to live in the city, The program requires developers to allocate a per- centage of homes for affordable housing. Affordable- home applicants are awarded one point for being a res- ident, two painls for full-ûme employment in Cuperti- no and one point for being a public service employee. Those with four points ¡m considered top priority and the priority ranking decreases as points decrease. Jew said teachers and other district scaff members receive one point for being public service employees, whether or not the school at which they wodc is within . Cupertino city limits. If they bappen to rent a home or apartment in Cuper- tino, they receive another point Those who work with- in the city receive two addiûonal painls for being employed full time, while !hose who work in schools outside the city do not This means those district employees get two fewer points. which m~ them less lilœ1y to qualify for affordable housing. The district wants its emplO)'«ß to be awarded addi- ûonal points for having fuIl·ûme employment in the city, which wou1d give them a "decent chance" to buy, Jew said ''We want (them) to receive points for being full-time employees in Cupertino and have asked to consider the school district itself as the propertY of employment rather than the school sites where our employees actually work," Jew said. Cupertino Housing Conunissioo Chair Kim Musich said. 'We strive to ensure that available resources are allocated as fairly aIì possible. A point of preference is given to those who work in Cupertino. We are strong advocates for teachers and want to provide as much affordable housing as possible for them. but we have to have some way (0 prioriûze who is most eligible for the BMR housing available." If the Housing Commission grants points to school employees working outside the city, Mosleb said, "any other company that has employees that work outside the area but where the company itself is located in Cupertino might raise the same question for discus- sion." People ineligible for the program may take advan- tage of similar programs offered by other cities. Oil had ¡ueviously suggested that teachers in the process of pur- chasing an affordable home ask the school district not to tranSfer them outside Cupertino until they have cinched a deal on a home. Last year"an elementaI)' school teacher in Cupertino submitted an application and was selected to_ buy a home.' , '.. ' ;'. .. . While waiting to close ~i:m)bc hoole" sbev.:as panted a transfer from the schOOl' to a district middle school oul8ide of Cupertino: " . When it came time W·~ she cou1dn'tbecause she_ no longer wOtked in, the city. To help her pun:haSethe house._the district found _~ œacbenvilling to swap jobs untillhe end of the-year to keep her in the city's school , She pin to go back to her middle school positión next school year. ., " "Our priority is the education of our children, and we wou1dnotli1œ to haye artificial movement of our teach- erB for a ~ like this if diat,causes the children's education to suffer," said-George 1)'IOß, st:hool board vice president. '. I R h fi n a: " o i, p v o a p o li I v e F o . . þ(Q--<o ~ , ~ Ç> GATOS DAILY NE Also serving Campbell, Cupertino, Saratoga and Monte Sereno e2006(¡11f11Fi1dde1Cor1--*r~Inc.""'/WU_IO!Id.Me(I__c/Ih&"""AIIoDally_ 11,137.65 +7.68 (408) 264-1101 Aplil14, COMBINEÐ DAILY NEWS CIRCIAA1\ON: 67,808 Volume 4, Number 286 ws , 2006 P~a"'l1ers k~p'åbeªd of developers BY JEAN wtmNEY . DAIlY NEWSSTAffWfllTfR " to DOW: . iDAQ: 2,326.11 +11.43 With a ,number _ of controversial" build- ing projects, behind' "them. Cupertino city planpers >'are 'worlring tp . get ahead of 'demand from developers on new.building in town. Case in point is' what the city dubbed "North VaUco"'- at least 100 acres sur:, rounding an HP campUJ.,opposite Valleo Fashion Park at Highway 280 and Wolfe Road., , " "North Valko, is ,yet: to have high . demand:ftom potential"developers for zoning--changesto build housing, but tbe city's planning':conunission is taking up See DEVELOPERS. page 34 FROM PAGE the topic anYway. ,public it appears developers are driving the town, off Castro Street, and the community Ciddy Wordell, city planner. 'We're trying to get ahead of the train," plan,!' 'Miller said. accepts it," Miller said. . Planners will be hiring a consultant tc said Marty Miller, chainnan of the Planning Miller wants to avoid another three more Luxury condominiums replaced the old detemûne office vacancy rates. at, the site, Commission. years like the· past three which he spent medÏ- Mountain View High School campus a market demand.for housing. retail and office. North Valleo is zoned for light industrial ating strife among city factions over height. decade ago and pricey townhouses have and whether existing buildings are function- and retail right now. .setback and density of new building and sprung up in the neighborhoods around the ally obsolete.· . "We should be more proactive in w.hat the whether developers could convert· office Calttain station since then. . A different, vacant Hf campus· in Cùperti- city wants to have done with tht;se, areas," space to housing.. ,Currently, Cupertino's North VaUcoarea is, DO'S "South Valleo" adjoining the,mall, will Miller said. " Miller has got support from the City Coun- about 92 acres with 1.5 million square feet of convert to 380 condominiums under Toll Miller wants a master plan for the city's cit for his approach, and last Tuesday the office space. . Brothers developers. development hashed out ahead by plaÌ1ners Planning Commission considered some of the Officials were looking at 25 residential The shopping mall is undergoing renova- and community members, so .tough battles first steps in looking.at the bigger picture for units per acre, according to city documents. tion to become a hub of entertainment with aren't fought over every project b.rought to North Valleo. The·active lIP campus is not included in the bowling and a 16-screen cinema. the city. "Other cities .do this - Mountain View, for planning. Reach Jet;Jn Whitney at jwhitney@dai· "Cities tend to.be very passive, and to the example. They have nçw housing right down- "'This isn't just about conversion," said lYf.lewsgroup.com or (650) 327-9090,exI. 343. DEVELOPERS