CC 12-05-23 Item No. 10 Conditional Use Permit and Parking Exception_Written Communications (2)CC 12-05-2023
Written Communications
Item No. 10
Amendment to Chapter
19.76 and a Conditional
Use Permit and Parking
Exception
From:Kiran Arora
To:City Council
Subject:Support for Tessellations: Conditional Use Permit & Parking Exception
Date:Monday, December 4, 2023 11:10:29 PM
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Dear Cupertino City Council,
An instrumental factor in our decision to purchase a home in Cupertino in 2012 was its reputation for
excellent public schools. My husband and I both attended public schools from kindergarten through
graduate school and we are very strong believers in, and supporters of, public education.
We have always wanted to be closely involved in our child’s education, and after two magical years at
Cupertino Cooperative Nursery School (CCNS), we were so happy to be able to enroll our daughter at
Christa McAuliffe Elementary School. We love the parent-participation model that is foundational to the
close, inclusive, and supportive community that is McAuliffe.
Our daughter had two wonderful years at McAuliffe. Her first grade teacher in particular was phenomenal.
During second grade, it became clear that in order to thrive, our daughter needed a deeper and broader
educational curriculum and greater intellectual challenge. We searched extensively for gifted programs in
the public school system; unable to find such a program, we started to consider private educational
options.
We were so fortunate to find that Tessellations, a school specializing in meeting the intellectual and
social-emotional needs of gifted learners, had recently been established in Cupertino. It has been a
wonderful fit for our child in so many ways. She is very happy at Tessellations and is thriving. Had
Tessellations not been available to our child, we may have had to consider moving out of Cupertino to
meet her educational needs. So many families at Tessellations found their way there after experiencing
similar circumstances. Tessellations fills such an important need in the community and is an invaluable
asset to Cupertino.
Since its move to the former Regnart campus, Tessellations has proactively reminded our whole school
community of multiple ways to be respectful, responsible, and kind neighbors to the surrounding
community. We have been especially encouraged to be very mindful of where and how to appropriately
park to minimize any inconvenience to the surrounding community. The school has also worked diligently
to optimize and streamline the drop-off and pick-up process.
We are very grateful for Tessellations’ location and the surrounding community. We respectfully ask that
the City Council please approve the Conditional Use Permit and the parking exception for Tessellations.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Kiran Arora & Ketan Patel
22845 Poplar Grove Square
Cupertino, 95014
From:Meiyu Lu
To:City Council
Subject:Please approve the conditional use permit and the parking exception from the Tessellations school
Date:Monday, December 4, 2023 11:07:12 PM
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Dear Cupertino City Council Members,
Hope this letter finds you very well!
We are residents in Cupertino City, living at 21614 La Playa Ct. We bought this house
in 2020 with the hope to have my daughter attend the Regnart Elementary School.
However, as you know Regnart Elementary School was closed in 2022 due to the
lack of enough registered students. We were so sad at that moment. And then in the
spring of 2023 we were so excited to know that Regnart campus was leased by
Tessellations so we immediately registered my daughter. So far she loves the school
so much and she is super excited to go to the school everyday.
Cupertino city is very well known for its excellent public schools, however, unlike
surrounding cities like Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Los Altos and Saratoga, there is
almost no private elementary and middle school in the city. With the addition of
Tessellations, Cupertino is becoming more attractive: I’ve already heard people
talking about Tessellations and showing their interest to move in here.
We go to the Regnart playground very often after the school hours and are socially
connected with many neighbors living nearby. Everyone is so happy to see what
Tessellations have done for the school playground and field: play structure and the
school field are improved and very well maintained, with plenty of plants and trees
planted after the school moved in, people are enjoying the place even more.
Regarding parking, I have seen countless efforts that Tessellations school has made
to reduce the impact to surrounding neighborhoods as much as possible, highlighting
a few from my memory but the whole effort is far more than what is listed here:
Firstly, the Tessellations school carefully chooses the pick-up and drop-off time
which is different from the other schools in the same area, with the aim to
reduce the traffic volume in the neighborhood. Actually based on my daily
observation, this is working really well: I have seen bad traffic jams on Bubb
road near John F. Kennedy Middle School almost every day around 8:30-9am,
the Tessellations school area traffic is much much better.
The school is greatly encouraging students who live nearby to bike/walk/scooter
to school instead of driving. We live nearby, and we have tried many times to
bike/walk to school, and we see many other families do the same thing as well.
For the families who have to drive to school, the school is using a pick-up/drop-
off app to speed up the drive-through drop-off and pick-up procedures. They
even experimented with the procedure in the first month of school to optimize
the whole process with numbered and batch processing, which eventually turns
out to be a very effective and efficient method. What a scientific way!
Only families with small kids (i.e., kindergarten and 1st grader students) are
allowed to park in the neighborhood and walk the kids to the classroom.
Families with bigger kids are strongly recommended by the school to use the
drive-through procedure, unless there is some special case. What is more, the
school is constantly emphasizing the important notices to families who have to
park in the neighborhood to keep at least 5ft away from residential driveways.
For some school activities, I have seen that the school is always planned well
ahead with detailed parking maps and many staff on site to direct and guide the
traffic during the activity.
Based on the above information, we strongly urge the Cupertino City Council to
approve the conditional use permit and the parking exception from the Tessellations
school.
Thank you for your support!
Best Regards,
Meiyu Lu & Feng Guo @ 21614 La Playa Ct
From:Maha Baimyrzaeva
To:City Council; Uygar Oztekin
Subject:Please approve the Conditional Use Permit and the parking exception for Tessellations School
Date:Monday, December 4, 2023 8:50:18 PM
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Dear City Council members,
We just moved to Cupertino, 1122 Yorkshire dr, from Sunnyvale, because our kids go to
Tessellations School and we wanted them to be able to walk to school.
We are writing to request approval of the Conditional Use Permit and the parking exception
for the school because the school serves an undeserved population, has been a very
responsible tenant, and has an exceptionally capable and responsive leadership committed to
developing best solutions that satisfy needs and interests of all stakeholders.
Thank you for considering our request.
Warmly,
Maha Baimyrzaeva, PhD
Uygar Oztekin, PhD
From:Nam Raghvendra
To:City Council
Subject:Supporting Tessellations School
Date:Tuesday, December 5, 2023 9:37:14 AM
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Hello,
We are writing in support of Tessellations School. Our son, Avi Mittal, is in the 2nd grade at
Tessellations and this is our second year at the school. Our son is asynchronous in his
development, so we struggled to find a school that could be a good fit for him. When he
constantly complained of being bored and wasn't engaged, we had started believing that the
problem was with our son and we would need to homeschool him. We consider ourselves very
fortunate to have found Tessellations, where our son is thriving. He is so happy and excited to
go to school every day. We are currently Palo Alto residents but actively considering moving
to Cupertino to be close to school and hoping for our youngest to also attend the early school
at Tessellations.
We have really enjoyed our time at Tessellations. It is a wonderful, magical place for children
who are gifted learners. So we would like to request you to please approve the Conditional
Use Permit and Parking Exception for the school. Please don't hesitate to contact us via email
or at 847-909-2197, if you need anything from us - happy to send more details or speak in
person.
Thanks very much for your consideration,
Raghuendra Mittal (Head of Corporate Development, Lowe's Corporation)
Namrta Raghvendra (Product Marketing Lead, Meta)
From:Rhoda Fry
To:City Clerk; City Council
Subject:City Council Agenda Item #10 Conditional Use Exception
Date:Tuesday, December 5, 2023 3:00:55 PM
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City Council Agenda Item #10 Conditional Use Exception
Dear City Council,
I am deeply troubled by this request for an exception. Let’s say you had a property owner who
leased their property to a business that could not accommodate all the traffic that it would
generate without going to the City? What would you do? Would you inconvenience all of the
residents for the sake of the business? I would hope not. That would break the City’s Strategic
Goals spelled out on page 29 of our City’s 2023/2024 Budget in “Furthering the health and
well-being of all Cupertino community members. Air Quality Public Safety …”
What you are proposing here is imposing more traffic on residents in a densely trafficked area
and permit parking on certain residents, which is a huge hassle - - - especially if you have
more than two vehicles visiting a home. In this case, it was the Cupertino Union School
District that leased a site to a private school without doing due diligence. This is not okay.
And what will happen if the church decides to sell off part of its parking lot for housing? This
is where the overflow parking will be for two years. What about beyond that? Over 20 years
ago, a church property was sold in Cupertino and replaced with a number of homes – this is
not a far-fetched idea. Evidently, an idea has been floated to park staff cars in a park if the
church parking goes away and that will inconvenience even more people.
And there’s more – the new student population is being compared with the former student
population. But the difference is that the new student population would comprise of more
commuters than children walking/biking to school from the neighborhood. Please be
transparent with the true impacts. And yes, Transparency is another one of our City’s
published Strategic Goals.
Please make sure that the school has in place their own carpooling infrastructure closer to
where their staff lives rather than placing the burden on residents.
Thanks,
Rhoda fry