Director's ReportCUPERTINO CITY HALL
10300 TORRE AVENUE
CUPERTINO, CA 95014
TELEPHONE (408) 777-3308
FAX (408) 777-3333
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Subject: Report of the Community Development Directo~
Planning Commission Agenda Date: Tuesday, September 22, 2009
The City Council met on September 15, 2009 however the Council did not discuss items of interest
to the Planning Commission.
Miscellaneous Items:
1. City of Cupertino Offers Online Building Permits -The City of Cupertino has created a new
online tool to better serve its citizens, residents, and business owners. Minor building permits
can now be obtained online including:
- Reroofs,
- Temporary Power,
- Residential Water Heaters,
- Residential Repiping, and
- Residential Chimney Repairs
Online building permits add to the existing list of services which include viewing current
permits and licenses in the city, scheduling inspections, checking plan review status,
renewing business licenses, and making payments for services. Visit us online at
www.cu~ertino.org/onlineservices for 24/7 access to these services without leaving the
comfort of your home or office. For those that prefer to visit City Hall, the new system
allows for faster counter service for customers who require more personal staff support for
less routine projects. For additional information, questions or comments related to this new
service and/ or any technical questions, please call the building department at 408.777.3308.
2. Housing Element - We received the State's Review of the City of Cupertino's Draft Housing
Element letter. The Review Letter is calling for further analysis of non-vacant sites and
potential governmental constraints, as well as clarification of some zoning ordinances. Bay
Area Economics and staff are currently working on a reply which should be completed and
sent to the State within the next two weeks.
Upcoming Dates:
Sept. 26 Diwali Festival, Memorial Park, 10 AM to 6 PM
Sept. 26/ 27 Citywide Garage Sale
Nov 2 Possible Council Meeting
Nov 3 Election Day (no Council meeting)
Dec 1 Council Swearing in Ceremony
Enclosures:
Cupertino Courier article:
"Cupertino Aims to Update Sign Ordinance to Promote Creative Business Signs."
G: ~ Planning ~AartiS ~ Director's Report ~ 2009 ~ pd9-22-09.doc ~~ -
Cupertino aims to update sign ordinance to promote creative business signs -San Jose Me... Page 1 of 2
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MercuryNews.com
Cupertino aims to update
sign ordinance to promote
creative business signs
By Mayra Flores De Marcotte
Cupertino Courier
Posted: 09/09/2009 06:02:26 PM PDT
Updated: 09/09/2009 06:02:27 PM PDT
Cupertino businesses will be able to be more
creative when advertising their location if a new sign
ordinance is approved.
The city of Cupertino is reviewing the city's current
ordinance with an eye to making changes to allow
business owners to display bigger and more
creative storefront signs.
"The old way of looking at sign programs was that
.. everyone's signs look the same," said Cupertino
city planner Gary Chao. "But what we're finding is
that businesses now want to establish creative
identity and distinguish themselves from others."
The pending ordinance is intended to allow more
flexibility for individuality.
Chan said current laws have rigid stipulations on
height, size and location. tf business owners want
something that doesn't fit with these stipulations,
they have to file for a special permit for $1,800.
"There was a large number of these cases that [the
city] did support," says Cupertino director of
community involvement Aarti Shrivastava. "If these
are supportable exceptions, why are they
exceptions?"
Shrivastava said many businesses apply for
exceptions because today's font styles don't fit the
city's standard size regulations. If a business owner
wants to use a fancy font with some letters that dip
lower or higher than the rest of the words, the
lettering typically won't fit the city's allowed size.
The larger letters will run off the sign, Shirvastava
said.
"The rules aren't sophisticated [enough] to allow
more creative and lettering styles of writing," said
Chao. "A good example of this is the Amici
building."
Amici's East Coast Pizzeria on De Anza Boulevard
has trailing tails, caps and italics, which all added
up to an exception for the extra height of the letters.
The city also has granted a large number of special
permits for businesses that want to add more names
to signs typically displayed in front of strip malls.
Currently, only five tenants are allowed to be listed
on the mall signs, also called ground signs, and
many business plazas and shopping centers need to
list additional tenants.
The planning department has not received any
permit applications for such changes since
September 2008 -the last time it amended the
temporary signs portion of the ordinance for
sandwich board-style signage'and banners. The city
council, however, said there is a need for review and
has directed the planning commission to look at the
sign ordinance.
"It's something the council recognized after
receiving so many applications over time,"
Shrivastava said.
City planners met with business owners on July 15
to discuss criteria, location, size and materials for
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MercuryNews.com
permanent signage that should be incorporated into
the amendments.
Mike Foulkes, president of the Chamber of
Commerce, said the Chamber is supportive of the
proposed amendments in general.
"The sign ordinance has been tweaked for years
now," Foulkes said. "It's the third time back to
council as far as I can remember, and as a city, we
have granted so many exceptions that we want the
ordinance to match up with our practices." Allowing
new businesses to open up and attract new
customers without so much red tape is something
Foulkes said he hopes comes out of this latest
attempt to amend the ordinance.
"The city has been helpful, but the ordinance has
been too restrictive," he said. "We don't want any
tacky signs but if [business owners] are spending
on high quality signs, [the city] should be generous
on the size of the sign. If people are traveling at 50
mph, it's hard to read a small sign." Jack Leydon,
who works for Corporate Signage, a company that
has worked in Silicon Valley for more than 50 years
and attended the meeting representing clients in the
city said working with Cupertino has been a positive
experience so far.
"They have been more open minded in comparison
to other cities I've worked with," Leydon said. "The
problem is that they're trying to legislate aesthetics
and it's impossible. Signs are advertising, and
individual merchants are approaching it from an
advertising perspective while the city is looking at it
from a land use one."
The planning commission was scheduled to review the
proposed amendments Sept. 8 and make a
recommendation to the city council in October.
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