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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC 03-17-2026 Item No. 1 Housing Development 10333 N. Wolfe Road _Written Communications_2CC 3-17-2026 #1 -Study Session Housing Development at 10333 N. Wolfe Rd. Written Communications From:Pam Hershey To:Public Comments; City Council; City Clerk Cc:City of Cupertino Planning Commission Subject:Fw: Date:Tuesday, March 17, 2026 1:13:40 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 the written communication for for City Council Study Session- item #1 Wolfe Road Housing-DO NOT OPEN SOUND WALL Dear Mayor Moore, Vice Mayor Chao, Councilmembers , Staff and County Representatives: First , we would like to thank the County of Santa Clara and the architect firm FORA for committing to community engagement which includes educators like myself. One of our concerns is opening the sound wall for the residents of the Eden Housing project and anyone that wants to use it as a short cut and the path only leads into a neighborhood. The city enforced a covenant for a reason when the Vallco Shopping Center was built. The reason was to protect the residents in the neighborhood from noise, safety, and pollution from a commercial site which should never change. We understand that the residents might want to send their children the schools on Portal and Blaney Ave, but they could be impacted at that time. As superintendent Yao from the Cupertino School District stated she does not know what the enrollment will be when the project is complete . The fact is that Collins is impacted today as my neighbor has to drive her child to Eaton Elementary as there is not a spot for her daughter. Also, there is no guarantee that there will be working positions at those two schools at the time of completion . A very valid question is, "How do we know if people/ tenants will use the neighborhood street parking as there is not enough parking spaces for the tenants and visitors ?" We are not against Affordable housing and are supporting the project but are not in favor of opening the wall to anyone that wants to use it as a short cut . Another issue is this Housing development will have short term tenants as their Pay scale will change with time and they will have to move . We are long term residents that will be affected for many years . Not to mention that impact it will have on our everyday lives as the ony way out of this track is driving onpubliccomment Blaney or Portal Aveues. One more of many issues is that it will be a nightmare when bikers and other hikers drive to the wall opening and park their cars on the street in order to use the bike trail. We are not against Affordable housing and are supporting the project but are not in favor of opening the wall to anyone that wants to use it as a short cut . Therefore , we are Strongly encouraging you to keep the sound wall for our protection and keep the covenant ! Thank you for your consideration. Pamela and Bill Hershey N. Portal Residents Sent from my iPhone From:Anne Ezzat To:Public Comments; City Clerk; City Council Subject:Special Meeting Comment on Eden Housing Project on Wolfe Road Date:Tuesday, March 17, 2026 11:17:01 AM 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 Mayor Moore, Vice Mayor Chao, Council Member Mohan, Council Member Fruen, and Council Member Wang, The City of Cupertino has a history of listening to everyone but the residents; it would be nice for the City to make an exception and honor the City's long-term commitment to keep the Vallco sound wall in place. The reasons for keeping the sound wall in place are the same today as they were when the city made the commitment to its residents. Less credence should be given to the voices of the unpaid lobbyists who want the wall removed than the residents whose homes abut the wall. or who live in the neighborhood near the wall. While outside voices have value, they do not and should not have more value than the voices of the residents who pay the bills and foot the consequences. The continued concessions the City has made to developers and outside special interests has resulted in a lower quality of life for the residents, and a diaspora of retail and working-class residents. Please do the right thing- honor the covenant and keep the wall. Best regards, Brooke Ezzat From:louise saadati To:City Council; City Clerk Subject:Eden Housing Date:Tuesday, March 17, 2026 1:20:41 AM 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 in Written Communications for the Special Meeting on 3/17/26. Dear Mayor Moore, Vice-Mayor Chao and Councilmembers: Please support and expedite the Eden Housing Project. This is a Housing Element site and must be expedited in order to help meet the HCD requirements for housing including below market housing by the deadline in June 2026. Most school employees don’t make high salaries and we need to make affordable housing available to them. Could the council focus on completing the transportation plan for this project? Could coordination with VTA enable the improvement of the VTA bus service on line 56 which is 0.5 miles from the site? Could transit passes be made available for residents to encourage transit use. The project needs to integrate with adjacent neighbourhoods, rather than having walls that stop the growth of community and promote silos. We need to increase the bike ability and walkability of this development through the Portal neighbourhood including for the school children. Areas that have cars speeding by on interrupted sidewalks need to be improved for safe walking and biking. I would like to commend the County of Santa Clara and the architect firm, FORA for all the community engagement they have made. Thank you for your service in making our city and it’s communities safer and more integrated and open. Louise Saadati 40 year resident of Cupertino Sent from my iPhone From:Alex Shoor To:City Clerk Subject:Re: from Catalyze SV: PUBLIC COMMENT - STUDY SESSION AGENDA ITEM 1 - March 17, 2026 Date:Monday, March 16, 2026 11:22:51 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. City Clerk — Can you please verify that the below email made it to the City Council today? I didn’t see it uploaded yet to the agenda. Thank you, Alex -- Alex Shoor Executive Director | Catalyze SV www.CatalyzeSiliconValley.org Schedule time w/Alex On Mar 16, 2026, at 3:57 PM, Alex Shoor <alex@catalyzesiliconvalley.org> wrote: Dear Cupertino Mayor Moore, Cupertino Councilmembers & the County of Santa Clara Office of Supportive Housing, I write to you today on behalf of the members of Catalyze Silicon Valley with respect to tomorrow’s study session. Background on Catalyze SV: Catalyze SV is a local nonprofit organization that has existed since 2017, with members from across our region, including in Cupertino. Our goal is to create sustainable, vibrant, and equitable places for people in Silicon Valley. We do that through programs like community education events, community engagement services, and policy advocacy. Another program of ours, one of our foundational ones, is advocating around specific development proposals. For the last decade, our members have evaluated, scored, and advocated for over 70 proposed projects in Silicon Valley. Our Members Score and Now Support Wolfe Road Housing Project: In September 2025, we joined with Cupertino for All to score our first-ever project in Cupertino — the Wolfe Road Housing proposal — because we believe it is one members from both our respective organizations would like to see as a key addition to Cupertino. Sure enough, when our members gathered together to evaluate the project, we rated it highly. Catalyze SV members scored it a 4.14 out of 5. Cupertino for All members scored it a 4.67 out of 5. Any project scoring 3.5 out of 5 or higher is eligible for our support. So on behalf of Catalyze SV and our members, I write to tell you that our organization joins Cupertino for All in enthusiastically supporting the Wolfe Road Housing project being built! Features We Really Like about the Current Design: Interfaces with the planned Tamien Innu Trail on its edge Includes a resident-serving playground and a dog park Has a higher number of bike parking spaces Includes a lot of affordable housing Retains as many trees as possible Improvement Developers Made After Our Input: We’re grateful to the development team for adding solar panels to the roof of Building 7 of the proposal, which is in line with one of our recommendations. Features We'd Still Like to See Improved: As you consider and discuss the project at tomorrow’s study session, we’d like to invite the Cupertino City Council and the development team to support the following improvements to the proposal before it is finalized: 1. An emergency vehicle plan that enables people to walk and bike between this new development and the Portal neighborhood, not walling it off from the neighborhood. This is something only the Cupertino City Council can actualize, so we urge you to make it so! 2. Because of how hard it is for folks making less money to secure stable housing, we want the housing units to be as affordable as possible, ideally for folks making 80% or less of our area median income, which is currently about $111,000. 3. We'd prefer to see the project include more homes overall by increasing its density/height. We need all the homes we can get in this Valley! 4. To encourage walking, biking, and public transit, we urge you to add more crosswalks, protected bike lanes, and/or free transit passes for residents. Please help ensure the above 4 improvements are made through your words and/or deeds. Public Land Standard: Since this project is on public land we all own, our government needs to ensure the project has the most positive impact possible. The bar for a project must be higher when it is land owned by the taxpayers. Our Ask of You: So at tomorrow’s study session, we urge the Cupertino City Council: a) echo the aforementioned input of Catalyze SV members / Cupertino for All members to the County; and b) update the vehicle emergency plan by allowing bikes and pedestrians to pass through the wall. Thank you so much for considering our perspective, Catalyze SV is grateful that Cupertino and the County are advancing Wolfe Road Housing forward. Yours in community, Alex -- Alex Shoor Executive Director | Catalyze SV www.CatalyzeSiliconValley.org Schedule time w/Alex From:Joseph Chen To:Public Comments; City Council; City Clerk Subject:3-17-2026 City Counsil Study Session- item - DO NOT OPEN WALL Date:Monday, March 16, 2026 8:01:52 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 Mayor Moore, Vice Mayor Chao, Councilmembers, My name is Joseph Chen and my family has been living in the North Portal neighborhood for over 30 years. I am writing to you to petition that our entire neighborhood is against the opening of the wall in our neighborhood and we request that the County focuses on the Wolfe Road secondary access. Opening the wall will bring lots of issues to our neighborhood including increased traffic, notices, passersby, and other security issues. We are very concerned about the unknown situations in our neighborhood should the wall were to open. Thank you in advance for your consideration of our concerns, Joseph Chen 10570 Cypress Drive, Cupertino, CA 95014 Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone From:Yvonne Strom To:City Council Cc:City Clerk; Cupertino City Manager"s Office Subject:March 17 - Study session for Educator Workforce Housing Date:Monday, March 16, 2026 7:46:30 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. Esteemed Mayor Moore, Vice Mayor, and Councilmembers, I am writing to express my enthusiastic support for the Educator Workforce Housing at 10333 Wolfe Rd. As you know, quality education is highly valued in Cupertino and residents have consistently committed funding for education over the years. This housing project is highly important to retain and support quality staff at our schools, and many design elements have been carefully planned. However, I am concerned there is not sufficient consideration in the plan for children to have safe routes to school. For example, it is not reasonable to maintain an old wall and force children to walk on busy streets when a much safer route through an adjacent neighborhood could be made available. I will use a terrifying example from my personal experience to illustrate how bad street design led directly to my 10 year old daughter falling off her bike directly into a lane of traffic on Rainbow Drive. I attached three photos to illustrate the problem. 1. Rainbow Drive is almost 5 lanes wide with a speed limit of 35 mph between Stelling Rd. and De Anza Blvd. The speed limit abruptly changes to 25 mph between Stelling Rd. and Bubb Rd. and the street is reduced to 2 lanes with many curves. There is no buffer between the traffic and the sidewalk that children used to get to and from Regnart Elementary school. 2. On garbage collection days the garbage cans obstruct the sidewalk. My daughter's accident occured when her bike handle brushed one of the garbage cans as she tried to ride past it. She and her bike tumbled into the adjacent lane of traffic. Thankfully, the driver of the oncoming car stopped and helped her pick up her twisted bike and helped her get home. 3. This section of Rainbow Dr. was very poorly designed for safety. The traffic passes much too close to the sidewalk and there was no plan to deal with the garbage can hazards. Please don't make the same type of mistake for this new Educator Housing. Be diligent in designing to keep children safe. Sincerely, Yvonne Thorstenson From:Connie Cunningham To:City Council Cc:City Clerk Subject:2026-03-17 CC Study Session Eden Housing Project Date:Monday, March 16, 2026 5:39:26 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. 2026-03-17 CC Study Session Eden Housing Project, N. 10333 Wolfe Road, Cupertino, CA Dear Mayor Moore, Vice Mayor, and Councilmembers: I was pleased on March 25, 2024, when the County of Santa Clara identified this location for its support of development of homes for teachers and workers under the 2016 Measure A Affordable Housing Bond. Also, this site was selected as a Cupertino Housing Element (HE) site, so it is a City priority. Santa Clara County is an excellent collaborator and partner for homes for educators and workers. Cupertino is not yet meeting its targets for all incomes, including Below Market Rate (BMR), under the HE. I am excited to see this step forward on the proposed Eden Housing Project. I commend Santa Clara County and their Architect firm, FORA, for their commitment to deep community engagement, including educators. They incorporated community feedback into its attractive design. Transportation is a critically important aspect of this location. This project needs to integrate with existing neighborhoods, rather than keeping walls, fences, or gates that stop growth of community. a. Major concern is the emergency vehicle plan because it will discourage the bike-ability, and walkability of this development through the Portal neighborhood. The Portal neighborhood is the most likely location of schools that the new neighborhood children will attend. b.Good idea is the higher number of bike parking spaces included in the project, especially with the site being adjacent to the planned Tamien Innu Trail c.The transportation plan for this project is incomplete. I. Can we coordinate with VTA to improve service on bus line 56? 2. More crosswalks. More bike infrastructure,-such as protected bike lanes-would improve safety and encourage walking/biking. 3. Propose transit passes for residents, which can be a boost in encouraging transit ridership. I commend the project for its focus on affordability for teachers and workers. I am optimistic that this Study Session will inform Cupertino’s partnership with Santa Clara County toward success of this significant housing project. Thank you to Santa Clara County, FORA, and Eden for their engagement to date. Sincerely, Connie L Cunningham Chair, Housing Commission, speaking for myself only 38 year resident