ResponsesFrom: Paulette Altmaier
Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2018 10:39 AM
To: City of Cupertino Planning Dept. <planning@cupertino.org<mailto:planning@cupertino.org»
Cc: ICE Richard Altmaier <richalt2@yahoo.com<mailto:richalt2@vahoo.com>>
Subject: Vallco EIR vis a vis commuter patterns
I attended the EIR scoping meeting this past week. Several speakers had a coordinated talking point
about how "only 10% of people who live in Cupertino work in Cupertino."
It's important that the EIR take into account several much more relevant issues when determining
environmental impact, in particular the way Bay Area cities flow into each other. For instance,
depending on which part of Sunnyvale you live in, you may live closer to Apple than people who live in
Cupertino!
So the 10% statistic that was cited by these speakers is not environmentally meaningful. The meaningful
questions are -
i) How close to their work do people live? And how close do they WANT to live?
ii) How do the numbers change when one analyzes renters separately from homeowners?
We know that moving is often cost -prohibitive once you buy - but we all know renters move when their
job changes.
From an environmental impact point of view, if renters move to be close to their jobs, that is a huge
positive benefit to providing high-density rental housing at Vallco that must be considered in an EIR.
iii) Another reason to make the distinction between renters and homeowner behaviors is that focusing
on the total population (including the people fortunate enough to be homeowners) completely misses
the population whose commute patterns we can actually affect with our decisions - all those renter
employees at Apple and other companies who are commuting from distant locations.
Whatever we do at Vallco is not going to cause any changes in the commute patterns of people who
own their own homes, given the barriers to selling and buying again. The EIR needs to focus on the
variables that we DO control, which is the behaviors of renters. THAT Is the enviromental impact that
matters.
Focusing on the variables one controls, not those one does not, is a key decision-making discipline, and
needs to be part of the EIR process.
Sincerely,
Paulette Altmaier
22605 Salem Ave,
Cupertino, CA 95014
408-601-9982