Director's Report
CITY OF CUPERTINO
10300 TORRE AVENUE, CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA 95014
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Subject: Report of the Community Development Direct~~
Planning Commission Agenda Date: Tuesday, December 11, 2007
The City Council met on December 4, 2007, and discussed the following items of interest
to the Planning Commission:
1. Declaration of November 7, 2007 election results: The City Council adopted a
resolution accepting the declaration of election results for the November 6, 2007
general election. The oath of office was administered to the newly elected Council
member Gilbert Wong and reelected Council member Kris Wang.
2. Election of Mayor and Vice Mayor: The City Council elected Dolly Sandoval as
Mayor and Orrin Mahoney as Vice Mayor. Council members and members of the
audience were invited to say farewell to outgoing Council member Richard
Lowenthal.
3. Retirement of Eileen Murray: Assistant City Attorney, Eileen Murray announced
her retirement effective December 29,2007. Eileen has served as Assistant City
Attorney since 1998. She will be greatly missed.
4. New Assistant Planner hired: Leslie Gross will be joining the Community
Development Department as an Assistant Planner, beginning on December 10,
2007.
Enclosures: Newspaper Articles
Joint Venture calls for better valley cell phone coverage - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:
Page 1 of 2
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal. December 3, 2007
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SILICON VALLEY I SAN JOSE
BusinessJournal
Friday, November 30. 2007
Joint Venture calls for better valley cell phone
coverage
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal
Few things about Silicon Valley frustrate the locals more than spotty cell phone service. The level of
discontent is incongruous with the valley's stature in the technology world. The cell phone companies claim
that the problem is because they have been unable to get local governments to allow the construction of cell
phone towers where they are sorely needed. Now Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network has entered the fray.
It is collecting reports from angry cell phone users on where the dead zones are. It's putting the information
on its Web site: ~~jQ~~!Y.~.~~!:,:~.~.Q~g.
Russell Hancock, the president and CEO of Joint Venture, a business, labor, government, university and
non-profit forum for problem solving, spoke with the Business Journal's Timothy Roberts about what the
organization is doing.
Q: Why all the fuss over cell phones?
A: We don't have very good cell phone coverage in Silicon Valley. Some places just can't hold a signal. My
favorite is Sand Hill Road. We can do better than this. Other places, even far-flung places like Asia, have
figured it out.
Q: Why haven't we figured it out?
A: It comes down to towers. You have to site the transmitters and receivers. Cell phone use is increasing
exponentially. We are experiencing a sea change as people replace land lines with cell phones. But cell phone
companies have a hard time siting the towers. They get stalled in the approval process. We have a process in
which it is easy for anyone at any point for some reason to object. Democracy is our best friend but
sometimes it's also our worst enemy.
Q: How can Joint Venture help?
A: We will try to insert ourselves in the siting process. We want to be on the record in favor of more cell
towers when these issues come up before government. This is more than a local decision. There is a regional
interest, too. Bad cell phone service makes us less competitive. It's harder to do business here. There are also
security concerns. People want to be able to call for help. People don't want to be without their cell phones
anymore.
We are also asking people to report dead zones to our Web site. And we want to equip the decision-makers
with all the information that they need. We want to give them the best information. One thing we'd like to do
is to create a primer that answers key questions and concerns, and provides a lot of evidence. It would show
how other communities have resolved similar issues. It would contain a model ordinance.
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12/4/2007
Joint Venture calls for better valley cell phone coverage - Silicon Valley 1 San Jose Business Journal:
Q: What would be in this primer?
Page 2 of2
A: How to site a tower in a sensitive location, for example. Or the answer to the concerns that always seem to
come up about the health impact ofliving near a cell tower. That issue has been refuted, yet it keeps coming
up. We are trying to take that off the table.
We also want the decision makers to know that they can disguise cell towers. People think the towers have to
be ugly, but they can be built to look like a tree. We will be a neutral party. When the (cell phone) carriers say
that the towers can be disguised, they are pressing a material interest. It's helpful to hear from a third party.
Q: You are going to attend these meetings and hearings?
A: We are actually going to show up at hearings. The classic thing is that all of the objectors will show up and
the politicians will play to the majority in the room.
Q: What are you going to do with the catalog of dead zones?
A: Publish it. It will embarrass any community that is trying to attract business or tout its livability.
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12/4/2007
Sources: HP enters deal to sell Cupertino site to Sand Hill- Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:
Page 1 of 2
Silicon Valley I San Jose Business Journal - December 3, 2007
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SILICON VALLEY I SAN JOSE
BusilessJournal
Friday, November 30, 2007
Sources: HP enters deal to sell Cupertino site to
Sand Hill
Silicon Valley I San Jose Business Journal.. by Sharon Simonson
.!!.~~!.~!!.::.~~~~.~~~...~~.~. has entered into a contract to sell 17.4 acres in Cupertino once contemplated as the
site for a large retail and housing mixed-used development that the city's voters rejected in a ballot
referendum late last year.
While the valley-based computer-equipment maker is not disclosing the potential buyer's name or the
anticipated purchase price, according to commercial real estate sources, it is Sand Hill Properties and its
principal Peter Pau. Pau also declined comment.
The deal, assuming it goes through, would close a long and convoluted chapter in the history of the property,
which remains vacant and undeveloped despite its excellent location in one of the region's most sought-after
cities. Besides boasting frontage along busy Stevens Creek Boulevard, the property is a stone's throw from
Cupertino Square, the former Vallco Fashion Park, which is undergoing massive redevelopment and recently
traded to a well-capitalized international turn-around firm.
Former Cupertino Mayor and long-time city councilman Richard Lowenthal, who leaves office this month
after eight years in public service in his hometown, says he could not be happier with Pau's decision. It is
widely believed at Cupertino City Hall that Sand Hill and Pau are the buyers, he says.
"It's a wonderful thing. Sand Hill gets the community on board, which is probably the most important thing
with that property, and they have a track record of (commercial) success," he says.
For example, he cites Cupertino Village at Wolfe and Homestead roads in Cupertino. Pau acquired the
conventional neighborhood center and redeveloped it in the late 1990S, transforming it from a "dead duck"
to the city's busiest and most prosperous retail complex, Lowenthal says. The property, which now has an
Asian theme, includes a hotel, which Pau built, and is anchored by 99 Ranch Market, a chain of grocery
stores that specialize in Asian foods.
"Cupertino Village is always mobbed," Lowenthal says. "Our worst problem there is that it does not have
enough parking."
Sand Hill sold the center, which has 114,000 square feet, for more than $65 million to an affiliate of :J.g.~.~~...
~~~!!Y..~.~.~P.~. in early 2006. Based in New York, Kimco is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that
specializes in owning neighborhood shopping centers.
Pau and Sand Hill hit another home run with a new Whole Foods grocery store, which opened earlier this
year, also on Stevens Creek Boulevard, Lowenthal says. That store also has proven extremely popular with
Cupertino shoppers, he says.
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Sources: HP enters deal to sell Cupertino site to Sand Hill - Silicon Valley 1 San Jose Business Journal: Page 2 of 2
At present, Pau's company is developing of 60,000-square-feet of offices in Cupertino dubbed Cupertino
Landing. The three-story building, which was developed without signed tenants in hand, fronts North De
Anza Boulevard across from the ~PP.!.~..!.!!~.~. headquarters. It is expected to be complete early next year.
Pennsylvania home builder !~.!.!..~!..~!.~~.!:~...!.!!~.~. and local development partner Keenan & Bariteau had
sought to build 380 condominiums and 113,000 square feet of new shop space on the 17-acre H-P site and a
neighboring eight acres also owned by ;!!g.
But after the council approved the project in March 2006, enraged Cupertino activists gathered sufficient
voter signatures to put the project before the town's electorate. Some Cupertino residents are extremely
sensitive to new-home construction in their community because they fear too many new school children will
damage the town's respected school districts. Voters turned down the development, 63-37 percent, last
November, overturning the ordinance that would have changed the zoning to allow it.
Zoning now allows retail, offices, light industrial and hotels but no housing, according to public record.
By law, the Cupertino city council was prohibited from entertaining a project akin to Toll's for the same site
for the last year.
In May, Apple acquired a portion of the property, the eight-acre parcel at 19191 Vallco Parkway that includes
a nearly 150,000-square-foot office building. That building, which HP argued was functionally obsolete, had
been slated for demolition under the previous plan. Public record of the sale to Apple does not include a
purchase price though the property carried an assessed value of nearly $27 million for the 2006 tax year.
Sand Hill also is redeveloping the Sunnyvale Town Center.
SHARON SIMONSON covers real estatefor the Business Journal. Reach her at (408) 299-1853.
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