The Cupertino Courier

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Council engages community in freewheeling conversation

By HUGH BIGGAR

Cupertino's city council members held an informal conversation with their constituents Sept. 5. The council gathered at Cupertino's community hall to take questions from community members present and from those watching on Cupertino's cable channel.

"This allows us to talk about issues which need a more in-depth conversation, and gets away from the three-minute [city council] format," said Mayor Richard Lowenthal.

The issues ranged from big-picture questions about development and housing to specific issues such as traffic problems at Kennedy Middle School. Other topics at the two-hour meeting included the need for a dog park, the role of Cupertino's teen center, hiking trails, the lack of a bookstore and the attractiveness of Cali Mill Plaza.

The bulk of the questions, though, concerned future development and revenue, especially regarding plans for Vallco Fashion Park.

"Vallco's [redevelopment] is crucial. If it doesn't come through, we'll have to do some significant belt tightening," said Councilman Orrin Mahoney, pointing to the sales tax revenue the shopping center is expected to generate.

In a related discussion, the council said about 30 percent of Cupertino's General Fund comes from sales tax revenue. That money source has been depleted in recent years after 2001's dot-com crash.

Councilwoman Dolly Sandoval said spending revenue wisely and strategically will be important, noting current revenue sources such as a business-to-business Internet tax may not exist in five years.

"I'd like Cupertino to not just be a bedroom community but provide a high quality of life and an abundance of stuff for people to do," Sandoval said. "Revenue stability and efficiency of government is the key. We have to balance development and community, [especially] since we are running out of land and have to use what's left wisely."

In response to questions on development and housing projects, the city council said it has to follow state-mandated requirements. In part to alleviate regional traffic congestion, the state requires that cities have a plan to provide housing in balance with the number of jobs created.

To change that formula, Lowenthal said, "We would have to shrink our number of jobs [created] to get the housing number down."

Sandoval spoke more forcefully about the need for affordable housing.

"We should not be building $1 million housing units and saying, 'Hey we got ours, go somewhere else,'" she said. "We need housing that working families can afford."

As a part of those discussions, Councilwoman Kris Wang suggested slowing down the number of housing projects approved to gauge the impact of those already being built.

The go-slow approach seemed to resonate with both the audience and some council members.

"We are all going in the same direction; it's a question of how fast," Mahoney said. "Things that don't grow decline, so the question is how to manage that growth."