CC 05-29-20 Item No. 1 Vallco Property Owner LLC v. City of Cupertino_Written CommunicationsCC 05-29-20
#1
Pending Litigation; Vallco
Property Owner LLC v. City
of Cupertino
Written Communications
1
Lauren Sapudar
From:Jim Moore <cinco777@icloud.com>
Sent:Thursday, May 28, 2020 4:56 PM
To:Steven Scharf; Darcy Paul; Rod Sinks; Liang Chao; Jon Robert Willey; Cupertino City Manager's Office;
City Attorney's Office
Cc:City Clerk
Subject:In your 5/29 Closed Session, please deliberate the multiple City Easements unlawfully seized by VPO
Attachments:Dear Mayor Scharf.pdf
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Dear Mayor Scharf, Vice Mayor Paul, Council
Members Sinks, Chao and Willey, City Manager Feng,
and City Attorney Minner,
Any deliberation and decision by each of you on the
Vallco Property Owner (VPO) lawsuit requires a full
appreciation and understanding of the multiple City
easements being ignored by Vallco, and the resulting
outrage of residents to them being seized and used by
Vallco contrary to City Municipal Code and
Ordinances, and State law.
Before participating in your Friday, 5/29/2020, Closed
Session on the lawsuit by VPO, please refresh your
memories by reviewing the following video clip
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(description/link below) from the 12/17/2019 Council
Meeting Oral Communications, and reading the
attached letter (PDF) you each received on December
16, 2019, signed by many informed and concerned
residents. Additional letters from concerned residents
are in the Written Communications for the 12/17/2019
meeting. Please scan/read them before your Closed
Session this Friday.
Jim Moore, Ignatius Ding, and Catherine Moore, resident volunteers,
spoke to the Cupertino City Council (CCC) on December 17, 2019, about
the Vallco Property Owner (VPO) ignoring ‐ not honoring ‐ the recorded
Cupertino City easements for the N Wolfe Road Bridge (retail only) and
the Loop Roads (never vacated by the CCC). VPO plans to build a Bridge
over N Wolfe Road for use by only their residents, and plans to construct
buildings on top of the Loop Roads. Both of these planned uses are
forbidden by City Easements. Please view the following 15m02s video clip
of Jim, Ignatius, and Catherine speaking on these Cupertino City
easements during Oral Communications on December 17, 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnflXIf58Q0
Jim Moore
Resident volunteer
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********************* Please include this e-mail and PDF attached
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Dear Mayor Scharf, Vice Mayor Paul, Council Members Sinks, Chao and Willey, City Manager Feng, and City Attorney Minner,
We are writing about an Emergency Situation. As residents watch from the sidelines, Vallco is in the midst of carrying out a
blatant land grab by openly taking public land for their exclusive private use. These actions are done with the tacit approval of
some City staff.
Urgent Action by the City Council, City Attorney, and City Manager is required to protect and secure this land held by the City
on behalf of all Cupertino residents.
Please note that this letter is NOT an attempt to have our City take a different position on the current lawsuit brought by
Friends of Better Cupertino, a lawsuit which challenges the City’s ministerial approval of Vallco’s “SB 35” project
application. Although the FoBC lawsuit involves some related issues, Vallco’s land grab of Public lands is Not being challenged
in court. This letter is entirely about the City retaining control of land that belongs to all its residents.
The following is a brief outline of the situation so the City Council can start now to protect this publicly owned land. The City
Attorney and City Manager will be able to provide more detailed historical and current information and supporting
records. The signers of this letter can also respond to any questions or requests for information you may have. Selected
Source images and links are included at the end of this letter.
When the original Vallco site was developed, the City required the site owners to create public roadway easements on the
site. These roadways have been in effect for decades. The current Vallco owners knew about them and accepted them by
buying the Vallco site. These public roadway easements are shown in Vallco’s project application documents, for example, on
drawing P-0306 labeled “Existing Easement Plan.”
Roadway Easements
The City is responsible for holding and managing these public roadway easements as a trustee on behalf of the public and for
the public benefit. The basic purpose of a roadway is use by the public. If we allow everyone to build on public roadways, very
soon we don’t have a city anymore.
The roadway easements on the Vallco site are valuable to the public. These roadways also serve other businesses such as the
new Hyatt House hotel.
These roadways were dedicated to the City, remain as valuable rights held by the City, and have never been cleared or
returned. Prudent management dictates that these public roadway rights should not be changed or given up without public
notice and deliberate consideration. If roadways are surrendered, a very substantial payment to the City, in the tens of
millions, should be demanded.
According to the cover sheet posted on the City webpage “Vallco Town Center SB 35 Project”, the Vallco Title Report was
prepared on 12/8/2017 and submitted to the City on 9/17/2018 by Rafael Viñoly Architects. The City webpage states that the
Vallco Title Report is “available at City Hall”. Please post a copy of this digital Title Report, with its links to the recorded
easements, to the City's Vallco SB35 webpage so residents may reference this Title Report and easements in e-mails to City
officials and City staff.
The residents would also like the City to post the actual "transmittal" letter dated March 27, 2018 that anchors Vallco's original
application. Surprisingly it has still not been posted on the City's website. A copy is attached for convenience. The two
original title reports submitted by Vallco at that time have also not been posted. Please have City staff post these right away.
Please note that the City is not required to surrender any land rights at all and, as a reluctant seller, is not bound by standard
appraisals. Economists state that the “price” of something is the amount someone actually paid, not an amount suggested by
an appraiser or administrative committee.
Bridge Easement
The situation surrounding the bridge structure over N Wolfe Road is even more absurd and unjustified. N Wolfe Road is
owned by the City. As part of the original Vallco project, the old site owners negotiated an easement with the City that was
recorded as an easement. The terms of the easement state clearly and unambiguously that a structure to be built over the road
may only be used for retail uses. The bridge structure is shown, for example, on drawing P-0305 which is part of Vallco’s
project application.
Vallco’s current project application blatantly steals the “air rights” granted by the City over North Wolfe Road to build
Residential Amenities for exclusive use by its residents. Cupertino residents will only get to view the underside of this private
and exclusive to Vallco "Residential" bridge built without permission over City land.
The City Council has the ultimate authority to deal with City property. Given that Vallco - without authority - has structured its
massive Vallco Town Center project around a bridge easement to which it has no right, the City Council should decide, in the
interest of all the City’s residents, whether (a) to block residential use of the “Bridge” altogether; or (b) to have Vallco pay a
reasonable price.
Given the importance of this “Bridge” to Vallco, and Vallco’s arrogant refusal to discuss the City’s land rights with the City in
good faith, the City Council can and should demand that Vallco pay a serious amount to use this bridge portion for its private
project. Sixty million dollars ($60,000,000) seems like a reasonable figure to the letter signers for this bridge easement, with
another payment in the same range ($50,000,000 - $80,000,0000) to vacate or change the road easements held by the City.
Vallco has publicly announced its intention to (a) build a new bridge structure for exclusively private, residential use; and (b)
to simply build over the roadway easements without the City Council’s permission. The City Attorney should take immediate
action to a) warn the Vallco owners that such encroachment on publicly held land is unlawful, and b) to initiate all necessary
legal steps (criminal and civil) to put a stop to Vallco’s land grab now and forever.
Unless the City takes immediate action on these two points, Vallco will undoubtedly argue that the City Council has tacitly
consented to Vallco’s land grab, and that the City, therefore, has forfeited the right to object to Vallco’s land grab.
We, as informed City residents, request that the City Council, City Attorney, and City Manager each take all
appropriate steps to stop Vallco’s land grab of our public land/easements, and consider how to deal with this blatant
attempt by Vallco to use land rights held by the City.
Thank you,
Cupertino Residents including:
Liana Crabtree, Ignatius Ding, Caryl Gorska, Peggy Griffin, Pam Hershey,
James Moore, Kitty Moore, Sue Moore, Qin Pan, Tessa Parish, Vanessa Su,
Danessa Techmanski, Cathy Wang, Lisa Warren, Xiangchen Xu (Minna)
Images, Attachments and Links
Artist Visualization of N Wolfe Road Bridge
Architech Drawing of N Wolfe Road Bridge
Link and Text extract (Point b.) of Easement for N Wolfe Road Bridge: Third Amendment to Agreement, dated October 7, 1991 and
executed by the parties shown above, recorded July 24,
1992 in Book M297 Page 1860, Official Records.
http://norcal.ctdocportal.com/_documents/2635542.pdf
Architech Drawing of N Wolfe Road Bridge (4 levels counted, 2 useable)
Architech N Wolfe Road Bridge Table showing Residential Amenity Area usage of 78,326 sqft
T
Vallco Roadway Easements Map - see attachment "Architect Drawing Vallco Roadway Easements LowRes.pdf"
Architech Table of Vallco site easements, color coded
Architech Legend for Vallco site easements
Link to Loop Road Easements (SCC Clerk Recorder B526, page 74 -). Both Loop Roads will be built on by the Vallco Town Center
project.
http://norcal.ctdocportal.com/_documents/2635517.pdf
Vallco East Loop Road easement, SCC Clerk Recorder Book 526, Page 82
Vallco West Loop Road easement, SCC County Clerk Recorder Book 526, Page 83
**** Please include this letter in the Public Record ****
1
Lauren Sapudar
From:Jim Moore <cinco777@icloud.com>
Sent:Friday, May 29, 2020 9:34 AM
To:Steven Scharf; Darcy Paul; Liang Chao; Jon Robert Willey; Rod Sinks
Subject:JR Fruen's 5/15/20 e-mail to Council makes a false claim re Liang Chao's participation in today's
1:30PM Closed Session
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 Scharf, Vice Mayor Paul, Council members Chao, Willey,
and Sinks, City Manager Feng, and City Attorney Minner,
JR Fruen, in his 5/15 e-mail to you, makes an unsupportable claim in
"threatening" Liang Chao and you if she participates in a Closed Session
on the VPO lawsuit filed against the City in September 2019. His
statement - "The council actions at issue in the litigation being discussed
today regard dramatically smaller potential development not addressed by
the FPPC's advice and would have different impacts" - is false.
I just viewed the 6/13/19 FPPC meeting, and reread the 20-page VPO
filing, and his statement is unsupported by the evidence. The FPPC 25%
Public Generally exclusion they confirmed for Liang Chao in their 6/13/19
Commission meeting does apply. Liang Chao and the City should have no
qualms on her participation in today's Closed Session.
I have the videos of the FPPC meetings, and copies of all the letters
relating to Liang Chao's FPPC advice letter and FPPC deliberations, stored
on my laptop. I believe all are still available for your perusal on the FPPC
website.
Jim Moore
Resident volunteer
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