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PC 7-22-2025 Written Communications (Updated 7/23/2025)PC 7-22-2025 Oral Communications Written Communications From:Gill Doyle To:Santosh Rao; Tracy Kosolcharoen; Steven Scharf; David Fung; Seema Lindskog; Emi Sugiyama; City of Cupertino Planning Commission Cc:Vic Menon Subject:2023 Council meeting for Tessellations CUP Date:Sunday, July 20, 2025 1:19:28 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. One of the residents here by the school, Vic Menon, has reviewed the 2023 City Council meeting at which Tessellations was granted its CUP to operate at the Regnart site. Vic tabbed some of the more interesting moments in that meeting. In this email I am laying before you two of those moments. Here council member Liang Chao asks Tessellations co-founder Grace Stanat about Tessellations' plans for future expansion. Stanat says that the school will stop at 300 and will move the high school to another site in the fall of 2025. There will never be a high school at the Regnart site, says Stanat: https://youtu.be/rzh1WOHBKxc?feature=shared&t=7324 Tessellations is saying now that it will need another three years to find a high school campus and therefore must ask for permission to add grades 10-12 at its Regnart campus. In 2023 Grace Stanat told the council that finding a campus for its high school was something that the school could do at any time as there are so many suitable sites available: https://youtu.be/rzh1WOHBKxc?feature=shared&t=9890 - Gill Doyle (7952 Folkestone Drive) From:Peggy Griffin To:City Council; City of Cupertino Planning Commission; Cupertino City Manager"s Office Cc:Luke Connolly; Piu Ghosh (she/her); City Clerk Subject:Thank you! Date:Tuesday, July 22, 2025 9:31:25 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. Dear City Council, Planning Commission, Interim City Manager, and Staff, I want to thank you for the change in how meetings are being run. I like the Study Sessions, the discussions and questions and not the chastising of people who ask questions. Also, it is refreshing to have multiple meetings on subjects that have the potential to impact our city the most. Yes, it may cost more in dollars but it may save us later in residents and businesses feeling left out of the process. I realize that there are time and money constraints but a balance was needed and I think you have achieved this! Thank you and thank staff for making this happen. Sincerely, Peggy Griffin From:Vic Menon To:David Fung; Santosh Rao; Seema Lindskog; Steven Scharf; Tracy Kosolcharoen; Emi Sugiyama; Luke Connolly; Piu Ghosh (she/her); City of Cupertino Planning Commission Subject:Neighborhood presentation on Tessellations CUP Date:Wednesday, July 23, 2025 12:50:27 PM Attachments:Tessellations CUP - Neighborhood Views, presented to Planning Commission on 7-22-2025.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. Hi everyone, On behalf of my neighbors, I wanted to thank you for listening last night to our concerns about the Tessellations CUP. I've attached a PDF transcript of our presentation; please post it if possible. It contains important video links dating back to December 2023 when the current CUP was being considered by the City Council. If the PDF is posted, please let me know where I can find it for future reference. With much appreciation, Vic Menon Neighborhood Views on the Tessellations CUP Presented to Cupertino Planning Commission July 22, 2025 Introduction Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to address the Planning Commission. My name is XXXXXX and I’m a resident of Cupertino. The topic is the Tessellations private school, located at the former campus of Regnart Elementary. We represent about 30 neighbors living in a ¼ mile radius of Regnart campus. We live on the streets that are most impacted by Tessellations' current CUP. To the neighbors who are present tonight, please raise your hands. [pause] We want to express our concerns about the current CUP for Tessellations. Also, we understand that the school may soon request permission to revise its CUP by expanding its enrollment cap by over 40% - from 300 to 425. It may also seek permission to complete its high school by adding three grades. We think both of these revisions would further hurt our neighborhood and the broader community, especially parents with kids in nearby schools. Background CUSD operated Regnart Elementary for 60 years as a neighborhood public school. It was originally K-6 but later became K-5 to provide children with a structured transition between elementary, middle, and high school. Regnart closed on June 30, 2022. Beginning in February 2023, Tessellations leased the campus from CUSD and began operating in August 2023. Tessellations opened without the required CUP, but it was retroactively granted by the City in December 2023. The CUP sets an enrollment cap of 300. Under municipal code, Tessellations would have been required to provide 148 parking spaces for its staff, parents, and visitors. However, the school has less than half this number on its campus footprint. So Tessellations negotiated a parking exception from City requirements by including up to 81 spaces at the New Life Church via a shuttle system. Several of us are going to speak today. The next neighbor will cover the initial implementation of the CUP. Initial Implementation of the Tessellations CUP My name is XXXXXX and I am a resident of Cupertino. Tessellations did not have a previous operating history on the former Regnart campus and no one knew what to expect. In the end, Tessellations was given the go-ahead to operate within clear, generous limits. As school began, however, strong neighborhood concerns about staff parking on local streets emerged. Attempts to work things out directly with Tessellations were refused and we submitted an application for permit parking that was granted by the City. The application included a petition supported by over 80% of neighbors on surrounding streets. Shortly afterward, Tessellations resolved the parking problem by adding about 20 parking spaces to its blacktop. Since the neighborhood preferred not to have the hassle of permit parking, it withdrew its application. Notably, the CUP issued in December 2023 specifies that the school will pay for the installation of a permit-parking zone in the future if parking becomes a public nuisance. The next neighbor will cover why we are speaking to the planning commission today. Why we are speaking to the Planning Commission My name is XXXXXX and I am a resident of Cupertino. When asked two years ago if the school had plans to expand beyond 300 students to 300-500 students, the Head of School told the City Council: “Not on this site, no, ma'am…in terms of our philosophy we don’t really want any more than 300 students just for a kind of safety and emotional comfort with each other...” Two years later, enrollment has nearly doubled from 141 to 268 but well within its enrollment cap. Nonetheless, there are now significant traffic issues that were not known when the enrollment cap was set. Therefore, we are asking Tessellations to work with the City and neighbors to fix the current traffic problems. Tessellations must uphold its philosophy by limiting enrollment to 300 students, ensuring both safety and emotional well-being of its gifted population. General Traffic Concerns Tessellations generates a disproportionate amount of traffic because the vast majority of its students come out of the area. Traffic is worse at certain times than others. For example, while queuing for pickup around 3 pm, traffic to reach the Tessellations parking lot generally extends about a quarter mile along Yorkshire and can extend another quarter mile away up to the Rainbow/Stelling intersection. In addition to neighborhood residents and Tessellations parents, the traffic affects parents driving their kids from Kennedy, Lincoln, and Monta Vista in order to get home or go to after-school activities. The next neighbor will cover some specific traffic examples we encounter. Specific Traffic Concerns My name is XXXXXX and I am a resident of Cupertino. I will share a few specific traffic concerns regarding the CUP issued in December 2023. 1. Traffic Jams & Blocked Access Let me begin with traffic congestion. While Tessellations parents slowly inch toward the school’s pickup and drop-off zones, residents on streets like Yorkshire and Rainbow struggle to enter or exit their own driveways. Drivers often can’t turn onto streets like Belknap Drive because the traffic backup leaves no opening. Some resort to using the lane meant for oncoming traffic, creating serious safety hazards for both vehicles and pedestrians. One of our neighbors on Rainbow Drive even parks his car on another street—just so he can get out during school hours. That should not be necessary. 2. Speeding & Reckless Driving Next is the issue of speeding. After school drop-off or pickup, many Tessellations parents exit via Folkestone, then turn left onto Stafford and Sunderland, heading back toward Rainbow. In their rush, some drivers speed excessively—again using the oncoming traffic lane. This has led to multiple near-collisions at those intersections. Residents have witnessed and, in some cases, been involved in these close calls. 3. Safety Risks to Children Finally, we must talk about safety. A young boy biking to Kennedy Middle School was struck by a car at the corner of Yorkshire and Rainbow and broke his leg. While it may not have been a Tessellations parent who hit him, the morning congestion and chaos certainly contributed to the danger. Public school kids on bikes and scooters dart through traffic without pausing, and we’ve seen the consequences. To make things worse, drop-offs sometimes happen at the blacktop entrance near a clearly marked fire lane—"No Parking at Any Time." Parents then make illegal U-turns as other neighbors are trying to leave for work. In the afternoon, pickups at the same blacktop entrance are equally risky. Parents make fast turns at a blind curve on Yorkshire, creating the real possibility of a head-on collision. The next speaker will cover the issue of parking, but I wanted to highlight how these daily patterns are affecting the livability and safety of our neighborhood. Thank you. Parking Issues My name is XXXXXX and I am a resident of Cupertino. As a private school, Tessellations has approximately twice as many teachers and staff per student compared to Regnart Elementary. Parking is therefore a significant issue even though T’s enrollment cap of 300 seems small compared to Regnart’s enrollment. The current CUP requires Tessellations to provide 148 parking spaces for staff and visitors. Currently, the school says that none of its staff are now parking in front of residents’ homes. We appreciate these efforts but there are still parking problems: ●Of the total 148 spaces, 20 are located on the school’s blacktop behind the school. In its proposed revision to its original CUP, Tessellations is asking for permission to close this parking lot and implement a shuttle system from parking at New Life Church. However, the shuttle system is unpopular with Tessellations staff and there will not be any emergency buffer to fall back on. Residents fear staff will wind up parking on streets around the school after a few weeks or months. ●Eight spaces meant for visitors are occupied by teachers. Visitors do not park at the blacktop, instead they park for 3-4 hours in the neighborhood. ●As enrollment has climbed to 266, and traffic started backing up on Rainbow Drive, about 20-25 parents do not join the dropoff/pickup line. Instead, these so-called “drop-outs” park in the neighborhood on a regular basis. These numbers have been increasing due to worsening school traffic. They create pedestrian hazards as kids are walked among all the traffic. ●Tessellations has just one traffic director and this is not enough. We estimate that Tessellations needs seven traffic directors to manage both traffic and drop-outs. Event Parking Event Parking deserves a special mention. In its CUP, Tessellations planned to park 100 cars on the blacktop for 7 large school events per year, with help from a traffic director. This system was followed in 2024 but forgotten in 2025. For multiple events, about 30 cars have been parked on Yorkshire Drive, not the blacktop, between 4-9 pm. Tessellations must ensure that event parking occurs within its campus footprint. Tessellations informs the City about these events, therefore, we request the City to monitor compliance The next neighbor will cover high school. High School My name is XXXXXX and I am a resident of Cupertino. We ask that Tessellations stick to the high school plans outlined in its original CUP. Tessellations was emphatic that it would move to another site in 2025. From the second page of a key document in its CUP application: In August 2024, Tessellations will add a 9th grade, with the intention to add an additional year of high school each year for the following three years. The high school will be moved to another site after the first year. In the City’s public video recording of the CUP hearing two years ago, the Head of School emphasized this intention by telling the City Council: “We have plans to build a high school on another, undetermined site.” When asked where Tessellations would grow, he told the City Council during the same meeting: “...There are plenty of spaces available so the idea of finding another suitable and permanent space for our school seems like not one of our large problems at the moment and we will solve that when the time comes.” If the high school is allowed to stay, traffic problems will accelerate. Located at the site of an elementary school, Tessellations cannot offer a full range of laboratories, sports teams, and extracurricular activities without transporting students and generating traffic. Also, residents do not want high school students driving to school and then parking on neighborhood streets. Any parent contracts signed to the contrary are not binding. Furthermore, the streets surrounding an elementary school are not easy for new drivers. Instead of moving the 9th grade as promised, T’s revised CUP proposes to expand to grades 10-12. This expansion must be disallowed. Residents want Tessellations to follow its original plan to move out 9th grade in the Fall of 2025. It can accommodate its high school students at New Life Church on a temporary basis….the next neighbor will cover Monitoring and the Conclusion. Hello. My name is XXXXXX, and I am a Cupertino Resident. I’ll be presenting the topic of Monitoring, concluding with our Key Takeaways for tonight’s neighborhood presentation. Monitoring In response to Tessellations’ application for its initial Conditional Use Permit, the City suggested that Tessellations consider modeling parking and traffic solutions in practice by other private primary educational institutions such as Challenger and Stratford. The cities these institutions reside in have zero tolerance policies that are enforced by local law enforcement. These policies require the private institution to operate on a footprint limited to its campus that includes no standing traffic lines or parking on any street at any time. We’re not proposing specific solutions in this forum, but suggesting that active monitoring and enforcement is required as part of Tessellations’ Conditional Use Permit. For example, when Regnart was in session, the Santa Clara County Sheriff would monitor the situation, make frequent rounds, keep safety, traffic violators & illegal parking in check. Programmed monitoring enforcement by the City or enlisting the service of the Sheriff would achieve the same success and effect. Key Takeaways We recommend the Conditional Use Permit restrict the student enrollment not to exceed 300. The school projects an enrollment of 277 for the upcoming school year and that gives plenty of time for Tessellations to actively implement solutions to mitigate any current traffic and parking issues - plus any future traffic and parking issues as enrollment increases to the allowable cap of 300. Also, we insist Tessellations revert to its original plan to serve only grades K-8. The Head of School said that Tessellations would close 9th grade in the fall of 2025 and move to another campus. The school has had nearly two years to find a new high school campus as promised but failed to make good on their commitment. We cannot allow Tessellations to perpetuate their lack of follow-though in the future at our neighbors’ expense. Thank you for listening. PC 7-22-2025 Item No.2 Study Session Objective Design Standards Written Communications From:Peggy Griffin To:City of Cupertino Planning Commission Cc:Piu Ghosh (she/her); Luke Connolly Subject:2025-07-22 Planning Commission Meeting-ITEM2 Study Session on Objective Standards Date:Tuesday, July 22, 2025 6:35:23 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 AND ANY ATTACHMENTS AS PART OF WRITEN COMMUNICATIONS FOR THE ABOVE MEETING AGENDA ITEM. Dear Planning Commission and Staff, I apologize for my late email but hope it will be included in the Written Communication doc that is updated after the meeting. Below are my questions and comments. QUESTIONS and COMMENTS Q1: What is considered “multifamily” zoning? Is it R2 (duplexes) and above? Q2: What is considered “low density”? Is it only R1 or are there other low density zones? Page 2, Standards 1, 2, 3 C1: YES! C2: Please show an example of what a new building would look like if all 3 standards had to be applied at the same time showing the adjacent residential house. Page 3, Standard 5 Side and Rear Façade Details C3: REMOVE “Light fixtures” My concern is that if the building is higher than the adjacent home, lights will shine down on the home or just produce too much light making it hard to sleep. Page 3, Standard 6 Building Façade Equipment Q3: Is there some way to restrict the height of the equipment itself? Q4: Can equipment noise or noise dampening screening be required? Page 4, Standard 7 Design of Surface Parking C4: a. Wall – DO NOT REQUIRE it match the primary building! Require the color of the wall to be a natural earth color (tan, light brown, cream) so it blends in, not stand out! It will help the neighbor. C5: b. Landscape Buffer – Specify how much the tree can overhang neighboring property. NOT Mimosas! They are invasive. C5-1: No mention of lighting in parking area. Please do not allow constant lighting or require it to be “dark sky” safe so it does not light up the neighborhood. Page 4, Standard 8 e-Commerce Vehicle Parking C6: YES! Page 5, Standard 9 – Solid Waste Facilities Q5: a. 2nd bullet – “residential entry” – Does this mean ANY door or entry into the house like an attached garage, too? C7: Can you show an example of the radius(s) with a house with multiple entries (side, back, front)? Q6: What about noise? Can noise dampening materials be used for the enclosure so neighbors don’t hear their neighbors dumping their trash in the middle of the night? Q7: Can something be specified to mitigate smell? Page 6, Standard 10, Upper Floor Window Placement C8: c. DO NOT ALLOW “non-habitable rooms” to be exempt. Room uses change. Just exempt bathrooms if they have a high sill and frosted or privacy glass. C9: In the top diagram, add the “min 2’” on BOTH sides of the Proposed Building window. Page 6, Standard 11, Balcony Placement C10: Make the 40 feet from ANY shared property line. Page 7, Sitewide Tree Cover and Landscaping Q8: Can you prevent the use of any palm trees because they don’t provide adequate shade? Page 8, Ground Level Landscaping C11: No artificial grass! Page 9, General Standards C12: This section needs work. It’s not clear. C13: Can “pollinator plants” be required instead of ornamental plants or in addition? Sincerely, Peggy Griffin