Cupertino has come up with its own version of a massive residential, office and retail development plan to revive the ghost town-like Vallco Shopping Mall, marking a major milestone for a project that has been bogged down by delays and deadlock for six years.
The plan was forged by community residents over the past year and approved Wednesday night by the City Council. It is an alternate to the proposal previously presented by project developer Sand Hill Property Co. under the umbrella of a new state law — Senate Bill 35 — that requires cities to approve projects with affordable housing components within 180 days as long as they meet zoning and planning regulations.
Now it will be Sand Hill’s call to either accept the city’s plan or stick to its own.
The council’s action came on the second day of a marathon public hearing that began Tuesday and saw more than 70 people step up to the podium to share their vision for a mall that has long been dormant except for an ice skating rink, bowling alley and a few eateries. The hearing revealed a clear rift between those who favor further urbanization of the city and those who worry growth will lead to overcrowding and congested roadways.
Following a five-hour, wide-ranging and often tense debate Wednesday, the council voted 3-2, with Mayor Darcy Paul and Councilman Steven Scharf dissenting, to select the community plan that would compel Sand Hill to offer a package of benefits including a major performing arts center, a new city hall and emergency response center, a $14.25 million cash payment to the city’s elementary school district and a 34-year lease to the high school district for an adult school.
Sand Hill’s proposal, known as the SB 35 plan, calls for 2,402 homes, 1.8 million square feet of office space and 400,000 square feet of retail in addition to a 30-acre rooftop park.
The alternate plan, which Sand Hill representatives seemed to embrace as well — seeks more homes — with 536 below-market-rate units — slightly more retail and a bit less office space, in addition to the extra community benefits mutually agreed to in a deal between the city and Sand Hill. It would allow Sand Hill to revoke some of those benefits or revert to its original plan if there are construction delays.
And, as with any development, there is a risk that the agreement could be renegotiated depending on future economic constraints, Vice Mayor Rod Sinks said.
At Wednesday night’s meeting, Sinks read a letter from a former Cupertino teacher in her 20s who relocated to Colorado because she could not afford to continue living in the city. In a phone interview Thursday, he said it’s difficult to please everyone and change is hard for some to embrace, but the alternate plan makes the most sense for Cupertino.
“A big reason to go forward with this at this time is really our housing crisis,” he said. “I think staff did a good job listening to all of us and coming up with a compromise that goes long on housing but also contains those elements that will create for us a new downtown, the downtown we’ve never really had and the destination that we lost as the mall fell into decline two decades ago.”
Mayor Paul said Thursday he voted against the community plan because he preferred another version of it that envisioned more retail, fewer homes and considerably less office space. He also didn’t like putting community benefits at risk in the event of a legal challenge against the project.
“If we’re going to go down the community benefits pathway, we should be very analytical about what our bargaining position is,” he said. “I think we left a lot of money on the bargaining table — tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in terms of that framework.”
After the meeting, Sand Hill managing director Reed Moulds called the outcome a “win-win” and said the project could finally advance after years of delay. The company has up to 18 months to come up with a design that conforms to either the SB 35 or the alternate plan.
“It’s not the end of the road; there’s a lot of decisions that need to be made,” he said. “And we’re going to continue to weigh our options as to what’s best and most viable for this project, but this gives us a great option tonight and we’re very excited to work with this community.”
Some members of Better Cupertino, a community group that helped quash plans to redevelop Vallco a few years ago, walked out of the meeting looking visibly upset. The slow-growth group, which tried to derail the project with a voter referendum and lawsuit, raised concerns about density and traffic during the public hearing. Its commentary irritated Councilman Barry Chang, who accused it and Councilman Steven Scharf, of spreading “fake news.”
In an email to this news organization, council candidate Liang Chao echoed the dissatisfaction of project opponents.
“The approved office-heavy Vallco will worsen the housing shortage, worsen commute times for existing workers — like teachers, and worsen greenhouse gas emissions,” she said. “There are no free benefits when such benefits come with much more negative impacts by creating more office space. We are digging a deeper hole for housing shortage with the approval of each office-heavy project with token benefits.”
Cupertino approves its own mixed-use plan for reviving defunct Vallco mall
