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CC 04-15-2025 Oral Communications (2)CC 04-15-2025 Oral Communications Written Comments From:Kirsten Squarcia To:City Clerk Subject:FW: 4/15/2025 Oral Communications Date:Tuesday, April 15, 2025 3:33:35 PM Attachments:image017.png image018.png image019.png image020.png image021.png image022.png image023.png image024.png image025.png image026.png image027.png image028.png image029.png image030.png image031.png image032.png FHDA LETTER.pdf Kirsten Squarcia​​​​ City Clerk City Manager's Office KirstenS@cupertino.gov (408)777-3225 From: Kitty Moore <KMoore@cupertino.gov> Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2025 3:29 PM To: Pamela Wu <PamelaW@cupertino.gov> Cc: Kirsten Squarcia <KirstenS@cupertino.gov> Subject: FW: 4/15/2025 Oral Communications Hi Pamela, Will this email automatically go to written communications for oral communications now or do I need to make a special request? I think the rules changed on this matter but I cannot recall. Thank you, Kitty Kitty Moore​​​​ Vice Mayor City Council KMoore@cupertino.gov (408) 777-1389 From: Rhoda Fry <fryhouse@earthlink.net> Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2025 at 3:05 PM To: City Clerk <CityClerk@cupertino.org>, City Council <CityCouncil@cupertino.gov> Subject: 4/15/2025 Oral Communications CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Dear City Council, Please do what you can immediately to prevent the removal of the Terrace Apartments from our City. This complex with 94 homes is the only large complex that serves the Monta Vista tri-school area. This promotes diversity in our community. Many of the folks are immigrants who are not yet citizens and given the current political climate, it is understandable why you might not be hearing from them. Please find a letter attached that I have sent to the board and to you previously. Additionally, this is a remarkably poor use of our tax dollars. For every $1M assessed, we are paying nearly $300 a year in supplemental taxes to fund bonds, which are being used to displace our own residents. This is unthinkable. I sincerely hope that you can talk some sense in to the college board as there are better solutions. In addition to the attached, the Villages at Cupertino Apartment Complex has just been sold for $207M or $433K per apartment. “On a per-unit basis, the price that the Rockpoint Group affiliate paid for the recent transaction points to a per-unit value that is about 2.8% less than what was paid for the 110 units about two years ago.” By comparison, the Terrace is proposed to sell for $713K per apartment! Similarly, Villages has 27 acres (sold for $7.6M per acre). Terrace has 5.4 acres (proposed to sell for $12.4M per acre). Prometheus paid $52M for a complex that was in much poorer condition than it had expected and is hoping to sell at $67M. Terrace does not look like a good deal. In my opinion, it is a mis-use of public funds. See: https://www.siliconvalley.com/2025/04/03/cupertino-home-economy-apple-property-real- estate-apartment-jobs-tech/ If it is turned into student-housing, Cupertino will not receive property taxes on that property but will be on the hook to provide services. Will the College District also force the City to install traffic lights so that students going to De Anza College can also cross McClellan Road? Keep in mind that there is an intention to also bus students to Sunnyvale and Los Altos Hills campuses, 8.6 and 6.5 miles away. Somehow, the district is saying what they’re doing is human-centered. They’ll provide relocation services and residents will be able to find “comparable homes” within a 10-mile radius!!! Evicting people 10 miles away is wrong and cruel. The district is fine kicking them out of our schools, our school district, our college district, and our City. Please use any and all measures possible to prevent this significant change-in-use. Regards, Rhoda 1 RE: Proposed Community College Student Housing Purchase Gone Awry Dear Foothill-De Anza (FHDA) Board of Trustees, In 2020, your constituents voted for an $898M bond to provide “local students an affordable education” which contained a line item to “plan, construct, acquire or contribute to affordable employee and student housing units.” I applaud the district for considering the cost of housing as part of providing an affordable education. Unfortunately, after countless studies and expenses, the Board has been misled by its consultant in entertaining the purchase of the McClellan Terrace Apartments on 7954 McClellan Rd, Cupertino, presently owned by Prometheus. The consultant failed to provide you with the data you needed to make an informed decision. I am asking you to abandon this proposal and consider options that would better serve our community. A description of these issues follows: the proposed student rent is too high; the apartments have a large K-12 population that would be permanently displaced; the apartments are more affordable than most in our community and simply replacing residents does not help to improve the issue of affordability in our community; the purchase is likely a bad real estate deal; there are better options that are closer to transit and shopping. Permanently displacing Cupertino residents robs our community of economic diversity and disproportionally impacts non-citizen residents who fuel Silicon Valley’s economy. The venture fails to achieve the goal of providing an affordable education as the consultant has targeted the rent at 30% to 50% of AMI (Area Median Income). Why didn’t the consultant provide an actual target rent? 50% of AMI for a single person is $64.5K. A student working at a minimum wage of $18.20 per hour for 15 hours a week for 50 weeks a year would earn $13,650 (20 hours weekly for 50 weeks yields $18,200). Targeting 50% of AMI per the requirements of the bond is a misuse of public funds. The permanent displacement of sixty-seven K-12 public-school students from the only apartment complex within a half-mile of the Monta Vista tri-school area is wrong. No one told your constituents that the bond measure would result in our neighbors being evicted and permanently displaced from our schools and from our city. Although the consultant proudly announced that De Anza students presently reside at the complex, she ignored that the number one selling point of these apartments is their proximity to our public K-12 schools: Lincoln Elementary and Kennedy Middle in the Cupertino Union School District (CUSD) and Monta Vista High School in the Fremont Union High School District (FUHSD). Prometheus’ tagline for their 94 homes is: “Garden Apartments within Walking Distance to Top Cupertino Schools.” There are 33 CUSD children and 34 FUHSD children who reside in these 94 homes (2 children attend FUHSD at other locations) for a total of 65 students attending the adjacent school sites. What will you tell them? The tri-school area is heavily impacted by school traffic and having sixty-five K-12 students within a half-mile of K-12 schools reduces traffic and pollution. The proposed change-in-use of 2 the Terrace Apartments to student housing would be a significant impact that permanently removes 94 homes that pipeline into the adjacent K-12 public schools. There is no greater good in the concept of permanently evicting grade K-12 students for the benefit of grade 13-14 students who could live elsewhere. Terrace rents are more affordable than others in the area. Yet, the consultant said that residents could be relocated and that Prometheus would assist with relocation to their other properties. According to a Zillow search, as compared with the Terrace’s maximum rent of $3720, there are only fourteen 2 bedroom / 2 bath homes of at least 1000 square feet that rent for under $4000. Prometheus properties, are more expensive and outside of the tri-school area. And the vast majority of other comparable rental properties are more expensive. Residents would be permanently displaced from our community. Prometheus Complex Name 2br/2ba Sq Ft Rent Prometheus Relocation Doesn’t Work All other Prometheus Homes are more expensive than the Terrace All other Prometheus Homes are outside of the tri-school K-12 area: Lincoln, Kennedy, Monta Vista. Terrace 1150 Sq Ft $3570 - $3720 Biltmore 1005 – 1087 Sq Ft $4526 - $4826 City Center 933 Sq Ft $4704 - $4309 Holloway 1147 Sq Ft $4296 - $4321 Markham 981 – 1092 Sq Ft $3806 - $4475 Park Center 1165 – 1186 Sq Ft $4224 - $4229 Sonter 960 Sq Ft $4061 - $4075 Terrace is the only large complex that is in the Monta Vista tri-school area. Families would not be relocated, rather they would be displaced and likely, displaced outside of our community’s school district, which is within FHDA’s boundaries! Evicting future (and current) Foothill/De Anza students is wrong. There are no two-bedroom two-bath (2br/2ba) large complexes that retain all three schools. Following is a table of nearby large complexes with 2br/2ba that retain at least two schools. 3 Apartment Complex Name Address 2br/2ba Rent* Square Footage Website Assigned School (bold = change) Miles to School Terrace FHDA plans to buy 7954 McClellan Rd $3570 - $3720 1150 Sq Ft https://prometheusapartments.com/ Lincoln Kennedy Monta Vista 0.4 mi 0.5 mi 0.5 mi Glenbrook 10100 Mary Ave $4395 1,065 Sq Ft https://www.theglenbrookapartments.com/ Garden Gate Lawson Monta Vista 1 mi 2 mi 1.4 mi Foothill Heights 10210 N Foothill Blvd $3850 - $3895 1050 Sq Ft https://www.foothillheights.com/ Stevens Kennedy Monta Vista 0.9 mi 2.2 mi 1.8 mi Sahara Sands 7373 Fallenleaf Lane N/A Only 2 Bedroom 1.5 Bath | 840 sq. ft. https://saharasandsapts.com/ N/A N/A Siena 7375 Rollingdell Dr $3295 1016 Sq Ft https://siena.eprodesse.com/ Lincoln Lawson Monta Vista 1.8 mi 2.2 mi 2.0 mi Villages 20875 Valley Green Dr $4050 - $4175 (3 br; 2 br only have 1 bath) 1141 Sq Ft https://www.villagesatcupertino.com/ West Valley Cupertino Monta Vista 1.9 mi 2.4 mi 2.2 mi *Rents were found either on apartment website or apartments.com, many have no vacancy Is this a bad real estate deal? The apartment complex is very old; it was built in 1971. There’s a reason why rents are lower there than elsewhere in Cupertino in spite of its proximity to the tri- school area. Prometheus acquired the property in 2022 and has a net assessed value of $52M, per Santa Clara County Assessor Records. FHDA proposes to purchase the property for $67M and remodel it for $28M for a total of nearly $100M. Is spending $100M on a property that was assessed at half that three years ago a good deal? There are better solutions for our FHDA students. Having student housing on the De Anza College campus near Stevens Creek would be closer to the college, closer to public transportation, and closer to shopping. And the College’s surveys indicated that students preferred to be on campus. There are large open areas on the campus’ 112 acres and the college would be able to build a building to modern safety and environmental standards that would meet the exact needs of the student population. Alternatively, the 123-room Aloft Hotel on 10165 North De Anza Boulevard is delinquent in its mortgage and is facing foreclosure. Its valuation is under $40M. Because the local hotels are under financial stress, it is unlikely to be purchased by a hotel. To wit, the construction of two new Cupertino hotels (near Goodyear Tire and at Vallco Village’s Duke of Edinburgh) have been shelved indefinitely. Aloft is just 1 mile from De Anza’s bookstore as compared with 1.2 miles from the Terrace Apartments. The Aloft Hotel is relatively new; it was built in 2013 and is forty years younger than the Terrace Apartments. A few rooms could be converted to communal kitchens as are found in dormitories, the restaurant downstairs could be leased to a local operator, and meeting areas could be converted to study halls. Converting hotels for dormitory use is not a 4 new idea – San Jose State University converted a portion of the Signia Hilton (formerly Fairmont) into housing. In previous Board Meetings, concerns were raised about the cost of providing security for on- campus housing. Does that mean that the College District intends to pass the expense to the residents of Cupertino? This is another impact that we did not anticipate when voting for the bond. By comparison, San Jose State University provides additional security to its off-campus housing at Spartan Village on the Paseo. The Terrace apartments are laid out in multiple buildings which is not optimal for providing security for its residents. And what about the impacts to neighboring single-family homes? We all know that the exuberance of youth invites more noise. A new building on campus or the hotel site are better suited to provide for security. College District staff should have anticipated these issues prior to initiating an offer to purchase the Terrace Apartments. On March 10, staff proposed making trips to California community colleges that offer student housing. Why didn’t staff learn about how student housing long ago? And why is staff considering a junket to community colleges that are far away and in lower- density lower-cost areas when we have San Jose State in our own back yard? Cupertino individual median income is about $118K; eight California community college cities have individual median incomes of $28K to $36K; and the six other California community college cities have individual median incomes of $48K to $54K. There is no comparison. Why wasn’t there any outreach to the major stakeholders – City of Cupertino, K-12 school districts, apartment residents and their single-family home neighbors? While the consultant is talking about the minutiae of filling in the apartment’s swimming pool, the major issues are not being addressed – security, ratio of resident assistants to residents, cost-of-rent, impact on community. Why is the College District ignoring its own surveys and not building student housing on campus when the funds have been available since 2020? Within a few minutes of due-diligence the College District’s consultant would have known that initiating the purchase of the Terrace apartments was a bad idea. Please don’t throw good money after bad and stop the purchase process now. Sincerely, Rhoda Fry, 40+ year Cupertino resident Further Information: Full Bond Text: https://go.boarddocs.com/ca/fhda/Board.nsf/files/BJ52PW03336F/$file/Resolution_No_2019- 36_Ordering_Election.pdf San Jose Spotlight Article on McClellan Terrace: https://sanjosespotlight.com/silicon-valley-foothill-de-anza-community-college-district-to-add- student-housing/ 5 CBS News: Cupertino apartment residents stunned after complex set to become student housing: https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/cupertino-mclellan-apartments-sold-foothill-de- anza-student-housing-residents-move/ County Assessor: https://www.sccassessor.org/ SV@home Income & Rent Limits in Santa Clara County: https://siliconvalleyathome.org/resources/finding-affordable-housing/ Aloft Hotel facing foreclosure: https://www.siliconvalley.com/2025/01/08/cupertino-apple-tech-property-south-bay-hotel- economy-travel-build/ ABC News: San Jose State University transforms historic luxury hotel into college dorms: https://abc7news.com/post/san-jose-state-university-transforms-historic-luxury-hotel-college- dorm-rooms/15191678/ San Jose State Spartan Village describes security concerns: https://www.sjsu.edu/housing/housing-options/our-buildings/svp/index.php Foothill/De Anza College Crime Reports https://police.fhda.edu/_resources-top- menu/security_reports/2024%20FHDA%20Annual%20Security%20Report%20Final%20v2.pdf March 10 Foothill/De Anza College Board Meeting: Agenda and documents https://go.boarddocs.com/ca/fhda/Board.nsf/Public March 10, 2025 meeting on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/live/XorJDacQ6Vs Email to FHDA Board of Trustees, FHDA Presidents and Chancellor: landsbergerpeter@fhda.edu; casaslaura@fhda.edu; chengpearl@fhda.edu; godfreyterry@fhda.edu; gvatuaalexander@fhda.edu; dastudenttrustee@fhda.edu; zaraainge@gmail.com; torresomar@fhda.edu; whalenkristina@fhda.edu; chancellor@fhda.edu; maitlandcarla@fhda.edu CC to Cupertino City Council: CityCouncil@cupertino.gov CC to CUSD Board and superintendent: board@cusdk8.org; yao_stacy@cusdk8.org CC to FUHSD Board and superintendent: naomi_nakano-matsumoto@fuhsd.org; stanley_kou@fuhsd.org; rosa_kim@fuhsd.org; pat_carpio-aguilar@fuhsd.org; danny_choi@fuhsd.org; asinghal051@student.fuhsd.org; Rachel_zlotziver@fuhsd.org; graham_clark@fuhsd.org; From:Rhoda Fry To:City Clerk; City Council Subject:4/15/2025 Oral Communications Date:Tuesday, April 15, 2025 3:03:49 PM Attachments:FHDA LETTER.pdf CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Dear City Council, Please do what you can immediately to prevent the removal of the Terrace Apartments from our City. This complex with 94 homes is the only large complex that serves the Monta Vista tri-school area. This promotes diversity in our community. Many of the folks are immigrants who are not yet citizens and given the current political climate, it is understandable why you might not be hearing from them. Please find a letter attached that I have sent to the board and to you previously. Additionally, this is a remarkably poor use of our tax dollars. For every $1M assessed, we are paying nearly $300 a year in supplemental taxes to fund bonds, which are being used to displace our own residents. This is unthinkable. I sincerely hope that you can talk some sense in to the college board as there are better solutions. In addition to the attached, the Villages at Cupertino Apartment Complex has just been sold for $207M or $433K per apartment. “On a per-unit basis, the price that the Rockpoint Group affiliate paid for the recent transaction points to a per-unit value that is about 2.8% less than what was paid for the 110 units about two years ago.” By comparison, the Terrace is proposed to sell for $713K per apartment! Similarly, Villages has 27 acres (sold for $7.6M per acre). Terrace has 5.4 acres (proposed to sell for $12.4M per acre). Prometheus paid $52M for a complex that was in much poorer condition than it had expected and is hoping to sell at $67M. Terrace does not look like a good deal. In my opinion, it is a mis-use of public funds. See: https://www.siliconvalley.com/2025/04/03/cupertino-home-economy-apple-property-real- estate-apartment-jobs-tech/ If it is turned into student-housing, Cupertino will not receive property taxes on that property but will be on the hook to provide services. Will the College District also force the City to install traffic lights so that students going to De Anza College can also cross McClellan Road? Keep in mind that there is an intention to also bus students to Sunnyvale and Los Altos Hills campuses, 8.6 and 6.5 miles away. Somehow, the district is saying what they’re doing is human-centered. They’ll provide relocation services and residents will be able to find “comparable homes” within a 10-mile radius!!! Evicting people 10 miles away is wrong and cruel. The district is fine kicking them out of our schools, our school district, our college district, and our City. Please use any and all measures possible to prevent this significant change-in-use. Regards, Rhoda From:Peggy Griffin To:City Council Cc:City Clerk Subject:2025-04-15 City Council Meeting - ORAL COMMUNICATIONS Date:Tuesday, April 15, 2025 2:38:02 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. PLEASE INCLUDE THIS EMAIL AS PART OF WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS FOR THE ABOVE MEETING AGENDA ITEM. Dear Mayor Chao, Vice Mayor Moore and Councilmembers, There are several items not on the agenda that I would like to bring to your attention: 1-Please stop requiring people to indicate that they want their emails included as part of written communications. We are lucky to have people wanting to send in their comments. Do not add barriers to having their voices heard. 2-Please return all commissions to the hybrid meetings and return them to their original locations. 3-Please discuss SB 79 as soon as possible and send a letter opposing it! Sincerely, Peggy Griffin From:S B To:City Council; City Clerk; City Attorney"s Office; Cupertino City Manager"s Office Subject:Topics not on the agenda Date:Tuesday, April 15, 2025 2:12:26 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. To the city clerk and City Council Please include the following email as part of Written communications for the City Council meeting of April 15th 2025. To the Mayor, Vice Mayor and council members, I request that the City Council consider adopting the following procedural changes regarding the handling of written communications and commission meetings. Written Communications: Either in 2022/2023, the majority on the then Council—comprising JR Fruen, Sheila Mohan, and Hung Wei—implemented a change requiring residents to explicitly request that their written communications be included in the public record. While this may have been done with procedural intent, it has unfortunately had the effect of limiting public voices and reducing transparency. In a healthy democracy, open communication between residents and their elected representatives is essential. Written comments from the public are a vital part of civic engagement and should be treated with the same respect as in-person testimony. Requiring residents to add a specific statement to ensure their voices are included in the public record creates an unnecessary barrier to participation. I urge the Council to reverse this policy and restore the default practice of including all written communications in the public record—unless the sender explicitly requests otherwise. Doing so would demonstrate the City’s commitment to transparency, accountability, and inclusive public dialogue. Commission meetings: In 2022, citing logistical or operational reasons, all commission meetings—except for the Planning Commission—were moved to the Quinlan Community Center, removed from the hybrid format, and, at times, not even recorded. While meetings are now recorded, public participation requires in-person attendance, and some of the rooms used at Quinlan are often too small to accommodate residents effectively. These changes have significantly reduced transparency and public engagement. During this period, the conduct of a former commissioner raised serious concerns about a lack of accountability—concerns that were brought to the attention of the City Manager but, unfortunately, not meaningfully addressed. This lack of oversight was particularly troubling given the absence of recording or broadcasting during that time. While I am willing to provide further details about this matter separately, my primary request is that commission meetings be relocated back to Cupertino Community Hall and returned to a hybrid format. Doing so would provide adequate space, restore accessibility, and help ensure transparency, respectful conduct, and public trust in our civic processes. Thank you for your attention and for supporting open, inclusive governance. regards Sashi