Council OKs panel speaker series to discuss fate of Vallco property

The Cupertino City Council voted May 16 to host a panelist series this summer that could serve as a prelude to more resident debate about what to do with the Vallco Shopping Mall property.

The council voted 4-1, with Councilman Steven Scharf dissenting, in favor of a “community-centered process on a plan for Vallco” which will include a threepart panel series sponsored by the city about local and regional issues like traffic, affordable housing and retail shopping trends.

The fate of the mall property remains in limbo after the mixed-use Hills at Vallco project was voted down by residents, in the form of Measure D, during the November election. It remains unclear if and when property owner Sand Hill Property Co. will come forward with another proposal for the site.

In the meantime, resident chatter and debate continues about what could replace the nearly vacant moribund mall. The city has pitched the creation of a citizens’ advisory committee that could study potential projects at Vallco as well as other development topics spanning the city.

The speaker series could be the runway to the formation of a committee.

“We’ve received a lot of questions on what do we do with traffic?” assistant city manager Aarti Shrivastava said. “People want to understand issues around housing and affordable housing, and they want to understand what’s going on with the shopping scene; what’s happening with what used to be retail and how can it succeed? This is, we thought, a good start to get the community understanding what is going on in these three areas.”

Shrivastava said it is likely there will be one speaker event per month in June, July and August. Estimated cost of the series is $25,000, including advertising efforts.

Sinks encouraged staff to find panelists with varied backgrounds and views.

“I think this is a respectful way to move forward and educate residents,” he said. “I do think Vallco ought to be a focus. I’m not OK with a dead rotting mall in my city. I think that’s not a good outcome for Cupertino, and I think getting some panels of people whose interests may be competitive to Sand Hill may be good, too. People who understand what these problems are because they’ve studied and been engaged in them during their careers—I think that would be important to the community.”

However, Scharf and a few residents were concerned about how much money would be spent. The idea for the speaker series came after the council had an initial discussion about the advisory committee on April 4. At that meeting residents spoke about a $1 million committee cost that was falsely reported on a city work program document.

“So this says $25,000 for the first phase,” Scharf said, “and I recall at the last meeting there was a lot of consternation over the $1 million figure which quickly got retracted. I’m just wondering ... are there 40 phases of $25,000 or are there 10 phases of $25,000?”

Shrivastava said it is unknown how many phases there will be.

“If the community likes this, we can maybe put a couple more speaker series on one or two other topics,” she said. “The council might have some ideas about where to go next. We didn’t want to say that this is the be-all and end-all. We don’t have a very long-term plan.”

Jennifer Griffin, a Rancho Rinconada resident, said she doesn’t think the speaker series will help solve Vallco.

“I consider the $25,000 a complete waste of time,” she said. “It’s an insult to the public. $25,000 is precious in Cupertino. Let’s get real: You could buy part of an affordable housing unit, you could feed all the homeless in Cupertino. This is the biggest waste of money and time. We are so over Vallco. Vallco can sit and rot if it wants to; we’ll still be here 10 years from now. Nothing will happen.”

Pete Heller, a resident, said he shares Scharf’s concern about what the process will consist of beyond the speaker series.

“I definitely think the idea of a speaker series makes a lot of sense because the objective is to get the community onto a firmer footing or more consistent understanding of what the opportunities and the options are,” he said. “We need to go further than just defining the first step. We need to define where we’re going to with this whole process.”

Heller said he supports the idea of an advisory committee but wants to see ground rules and objectives for the committee.

Resident Lisa Warren said she wants the speaker series to focus on issues not only as they relate to Vallco but also how they impact the city and region as a whole. She expressed disappointment in the council’s decision years ago to adopt a General Plan amendment that added office and residential allocations to the Vallco site.

Scharf recommended the council retract that decision before moving forward.

“Maybe there should be office there and maybe there should be housing there, but we should start with a clean slate and not have that 2 million square feet of office allocated anymore before we spend any money on the citizens’ advisory committee or the speaker series,” he said.