CC 06-03-2025 Item No. 9 10480 Finch Ave_Written CommunicationsCC 06-03-2025
Item No. 9
Consider a potential
purchase of and appoint
negotiator for 10480
Finch Ave
Written Communications
From:Jeff Whited
To:City Council; City Clerk; Cupertino City Manager"s Office
Subject:CC mtg June 3 2025 Agenda Item 9 Public Comment
Date:Sunday, June 1, 2025 9:31:57 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 Cupertino City Council Member, City Leadership Team member;
I am writing to you concerning the possible interest of the City of Cupertino in purchasing the Finch property
currently in possession of the Cupertino School District. I wish to offer a suggestion as to what the city might do
with the space once it has acquired it (should the city acquire it).
And while I have the brunt of your attention early on in this correspondence, let me say that the development of this
land into a public facility can be done in such a way that is economical to construct, practically self-sustaining once
constructed, requires less maintenance funds and manpower than a standard “turf and barbecue pit” park facility,
and actually becomes less expensive to maintain as the facility matures.
With the west side of Cupertino already rife with outdoor walking and interactive nature trails and facilities
(Blackberry Farm, walking trails along the foothills, Stevens Canyon trails and outdoor event facilities, etc.), this is
an opportunity for our city to provide the same amenity to the eastern population of the city, within their
neighborhood. Therefore I propose that this acre-and-a-half tract of land be transformed into a public space where
the citizens of Cupertino, along with groups of Sedgwick Elementary School students, can retreat to in order to
become immersed in a natural setting. You can call it a park, but it’s not the typical mow-and-blow park one would
see around our city.
This facility would be an exercise in permaculture, a food forrest, a semi-natural setting with guilds (strategic
groupings of plants) of flora and any of the fauna that find living with it desirable and sustainable. A meandering,
slightly elevated pathway would be the public’s access to and through the facility, with strategically placed table
settings and seatings where people can sit and contemplate, meditate, view nature, greet and converse with their
neighbors, settle in with friends and family to have a game of Mahjong, chess, dominoes, read a book, or have a
connecting conversation. You see, this is not a park for physical recreation, although the walk through it would be a
physical exercise, but a retreat for the mind, be it stimulating, contemplative, or restorative in nature.
This facility would also be educational. The flourishing plant guilds would offer botanical suggestions and
possibilities, and pathways shaded and cooled by the surrounding trees and the transpiration they provide would
remind the public that simple steps are all that is needed to make some progress towards reducing local, and possibly
global, temperatures.
With all of the development currently taking place in our neck of the “woods,” in addition to all of the development
slated for this area still of the drawing board, I think a balance must be struck, and the transformation of this space
into a natural public setting would be the leveling agent needed to do just that.
Thank you for your time,
Jeff Whited
Rancho Rinconada resident