Exhibit CC 02-02-2016 Item No. 14 Written Communication_ Amending Secions 14.04.100 and 18.56.040 of the Cupertino Municipal CodeLauren Sapudar
From:
Sent:
To:
Cc:
Subject:
Susan Sievert <spsievert@gmail.com>
Tuesday, February 02, 2016 8:57 AM
City Clerk
City Council; David Brandt
Written Communication, Item 14
Item 14 -Subject: "An ordinance amending Sections 14.04.100 and 18.56.040 of the
Cupertino municipal code to provide for a limited waiver of reimbursement requirements when
a property owner dedicates right-of-way for a city street improvement or facility project."
To whom it may concern:
Allow me to clarify for the record that providing street improvements in Monta Vista "at no
cost" in exchange for real property should not be interpreted as some grand, or unfair,
gesture. Rather, this City Council and staff are merely attempting to right a misguided wrong.
Allow me to explain by recycling/updating part of an exchange I had concerning the 2015
Monta Vista storm drain project:
Begin excerpt > Regarding Cupertino's curb and gutter requirement, there are two sides to
every story: it's well understood that the City's piecemeal policy of requiring new homes in
Manta Vista to install these so-called improvements was ill-advised.
In other words, if longtime rural neighbors A, B, and C covet the look and feel of the dirt
fronting their modest, one story cottages, and new neighbors D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, etc., are
forced to install cement frontage, the end result of unnaturally forcing rain water off these
towering new homes and into the street is self-explanatory.
Out with the old, in with the new: as unincorporated properties were annexed by the City one
at a time -the residents of the former Town of Monta Vista, established in 1907, were never
given a choice to retain our rural character.
Instead, we were callously described as a "teardown neighborhood," while the look and feel of
our streetscape is now described as '3rd world,' and 'broken tooth'; a misadventure of
alternating dirt, pavement, sidewalk, curb and gutter.
My "mother's drainage issues"? No. Longtime residents wholeheartedly agree with a former
planning commissioner's conclusion: "We've ruined Monta Vista." We, as in the City of
Cupertino.
And, as living example of poor planning, other Cupertino neighborhoods are now given a
choice to retain their rural character. < End excerpt
Susan Sievert
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