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CC 04-21-20 Oral Communications_Written CommentsCC 04-21-20 Oral Communications Written Comments 1 Cyrah Caburian From:Connie Cunningham <cunninghamconniel@gmail.com> Sent:Tuesday, April 21, 2020 6:47 PM To:City Clerk Subject:Oral Communications: Please show this URL on the screen CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. West Valley Community Services https://www.wvcommunityservices.org/d onate‐now‐covid19 West Valley Community Services is a government-designated essential service. Our team is and will remain on the ground, providing food, rent, emergency financial help, and support tailored specifically to meet the needs of each family and individual. Along with our longstanding local partners we are here to feed the hungry, provide support for the homeless, distribute emergency financial support and help the community during this unprecedented coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis. We cannot do this without you. We are trying our best to keep up with the crisis and its terrible human toll. We need you, and we need your help! Right now WVCS is coordinating our response with partner organizations, city governments, educational institutions and colleges to make sure that college students, seniors, individuals, families, and children do not go without food. We are also making sure our clients have accurate information, referrals, and advice. Please, make an emergency donation today. Your contribution will help meet the most critical needs of the community. While credit card donations are easiest, you can also donate in many other ways. We need to mobilize as a community as quickly as possible in order to support the people who are in need. No one can deal with this crisis alone. We must come together in supporting our communities with compassion and generosity Please donate today. Funds go directly to help our local community, our neighbors and our friends. Thank you for helping to provide care for people in our own communities. DONATE FOR COVID-19 RELIEF & SUPPORT Home Services COVID19/Corona Relief How To Help What's New?Education Our Story Home Services COVID19/Corona Relief How To Help What's New?Education Our Story Privacy Policy Code of Ethics Donor Bill of Rights WVCS awarded 2019 District 28's BEST NONPROFIT of the YEAR !! West Valley Community Services, 10104 Vista Dr, Cupertino, CA 95014, USA Phone (408) 255-8033 Fax (408) 366-6090 A 501(c)(3) with Tax ID: 94-2211685 © 2019 West Valley Community Services Home Services COVID19/Corona Relief How To Help What's New?Education Our Story 1 Cyrah Caburian From:City of Cupertino Written Correspondence Subject:FW: April 21, 2020 Oral Communications, City Council Meeting From: Connie Cunningham <cunninghamconniel@gmail.com> Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 6:52 PM To: City Clerk <CityClerk@cupertino.org> Subject: April 21, 2020 Oral Communications, City Council Meeting CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Oral Communications Good evening, Mayor, Vice‐Mayor and Councilmembers, City Manager and Staff: Thank you for your service to our community while we are under a shelter‐in‐place order to help flatten the curve of this COVID‐19 pandemic. I am Connie Cunningham, Housing Commission, speaking as myself only. I have just sent an email to the City Clerk with a URL that I would like to have presented. I have 2 things I would like to say. #1: Since the Stay‐at‐Home order was extended to May 3, there are two rent payments due during the associated economic downturn. Many actions are happening at the federal, state, county and municipal levels to stop the surge of COVID cases and to limit the financial impacts on people. In spite of all that is being done, non‐profits still need donations from people like you and me because there are gaps in legislative coverage. I ask you and all who are watching on‐line to give generously to those who are serving people who are in fear of losing their income, or their homes, and for who are homeless, many of whom have nowhere to shelter‐in‐ place. West Valley Community Services is located in Cupertino, and provides those services to our Cupertino friends and neighbors. I am a regular donor to West Valley Community Services, and I know their work. Can you make a commitment tonight to click on this link in your browser, and give generously: https://www.wvcommunityservices.org/donate‐now‐covid19 #2: We have a way to help people directly, too. I am talking to my friends about paying their hairdressers/barbers, as well as house cleaners and yard workers even though these workers must shelter‐ in‐place like the rest of us and cannot provide their usual services. They are closed for business, and who knows if or when they will be able to re‐open? In addition, you may have a favorite small restaurant where you have dined many times. You are afraid they may go out of business. You, like me, may be afraid to even get take‐out because you are in a high‐risk category. One idea is to write a check to that small business owner for the amount of an average meal you 2 have enjoyed there. If you want to dine there after the downturn is over, it is something you can do to help tide that business over. During these trying COVID‐19 times, I have read a quote “We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” If your own income has not been impacted by loss of job or wages, reach out to your own service providers. Pay them what you would normally pay them, or as much as you can. This crisis will end ‐ we will get through it together. 1 Cyrah Caburian From:Liana Crabtree <lianacrabtree@yahoo.com> Sent:Tuesday, April 21, 2020 7:02 PM To:Steven Scharf; Darcy Paul; Liang Chao; Rod Sinks; Jon Robert Willey; Deborah L. Feng Cc:City Clerk Subject:written communication, items not on the agenda, "Regnart Creek Trail," City Council, 4/21/2020 Attachments:written_communication_lcrabtree_20200421.pdf CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Honorable Mayor Scharf, Vice Mayor Paul, Council Members Chao, Sinks, and Willey, and City Manager Feng: Please add the attached letter to the written communication record for items not on the agenda ("Regnart Creek Trail") for the Council meeting scheduled for today, Tuesday, 4/21/2020. Sincerely, Liana Crabtree Cupertino resident representing myself only Liana Crabtree Cupertino, CA 95014 1 / 9 April 21, 2020 Cupertino City Council Cupertino City Manager 10350 Torre Ave Cupertino, CA 95014 Honorable Mayor Scharf, Vice Mayor Paul, Council Members Chao, Sinks, and Willey, and City Manager Feng: Please add this letter to the written communication record for items not on the agenda for the Council meeting scheduled for today, Tuesday, 4/21/2020. I attended the 4/16/2020 meeting of the Environmental Review Committee and responded after the meeting with comments for Agenda Item 3, “Regnart Creek Trail”. I have included those comments with corrections as Attachment A. I am writing Council today to request its reconsideration of the partial-plan approval of the Regnart Creek Trail project in light of real and anticipated city revenue deficits as the community and world awaits the end of the pandemic and a return to normal economic activity, which could be months away. For months prior to the pandemic crisis, many residents have expressed their strong concerns regarding the trail project. In conversation with KQED Morning Report host Saul Gonzales yesterday, 4/20/2020, Carolyn Coleman, Executive Director of the League of California Cities described the financial situation facing cities this way: "We are seeing across the State, California cities experiencing revenue shortfalls. Sales taxes aren't what they were. We're not buying and consuming what we were. And, depending on how long this endures there will be less revenue that will eventually result in cuts to the essential services that cities provide. And these could be cuts to police, fire, trash collection, code enforcement, public works, streets and roads maintenance; the basic services that make a community a community...." (Link to commentary: https://www.kqed.org/news/11813113/cities -and-counties-brace-for-budget -cuts-due-to- coronavirus) At best, the trail project creates a nice-to-have alternative path that redirects some cyclists and pedestrians from safe neighborhood streets for the purpose of traveling on an unpaved route part way to area schools, parks, or destinations at Civic Center Plaza. At its worst, the opened trail access attracts the public to a narrow passageway with little or no protection from steep drop-offs into the creek bed. Residents with homes located adjacent to the trail are exposed to noise disruption by trail visitors and potential security breaches by opportunistic passersby, especially as no funding is allocated to construct a formidable barrier between the trail and private property, such as the lighted wall that exists today along the trail segment from E Estates Dr to Creekside Park. If dim financial forecasts cannot dissuade the City from further activity on the trail project, then, bare minimum, please remove from the project the segment of the trail that encroaches on the southern edge of Library Field from Torre Ave to the proposed creek access at Pacifica Dr. The 7-8 feet that separates the existing Pacific Dr sidewalk edge from the southernmost row of trees is elevated and reveals tree roots that would surely need to be excavated if the sidewalk were to be widened. How would these beautiful trees survive Liana Crabtree Cupertino, CA 95014 2 / 9 such an assault? See Attachment B for images of the exposed tree roots and their proximity to the sidewalk targeted for widening under the project. Library Field is a treasured park space that eludes “park” recognition by the City despite the recreational value it provides every day for the community. When shelter-in-place orders and social distancing are not enacted, Library Field hosts organized sports with and without spectators, family play, and wal kers. Any reallocation of the greenspace at the southern edge of Library Field for the purpose of widening the sidewalk will surely damage the roots of the adjacent trees and reduce shaded neighborhood play spaces. To restate my closing comment to the Environmental Review Committee from Friday, 4/17/2020: We have a finite amount of money—and less money on the other side of the pandemic—please, let's spend it on projects addressing priority needs and having broad support. Sincerely, Liana Crabtree Cupertino resident representing myself only Liana Crabtree Cupertino, CA 95014 3 / 9 Attachment A Liana Crabtree Cupertino, CA 95014 4 / 9 ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Liana Crabtree <Liana Crabtree> To: planning@cupertino.org <planning@cupertino.org>; Liang Chao <liangchao@cupertino.org>; Kitty Moore <kmoore@cupertino.org> Sent: Friday, April 17, 2020, 10:22:09 AM PDT Subject: written communication, 4/16/2020, Environmental Review Committee meeting, Agenda Item 3, "Regnart Creek Trail" Dear Representatives of the Environmental Review Committee: If not too late, please add my comment to the written communication for Agenda Item 3, "Regnart Creek Trail" for the 4/16/2020 Environmental Review Committee meeting. During oral public comment for Agenda Item (3), I expressed the concern that the driveway back up study for the home located closest to the proposed trail crosswalk on South Blaney did not appear to study vehicles that will back INTO driveways. The image of the study shared during the meeting appears to only consider a sedan-size vehicle backing out of a driveway to head south on Blaney. However, Blaney is a busy street and many residents (some with vehicles longer than a standard sedan) choose to back into their driveways. The driveway back up study does not appear to show if a vehicle approaching the driveway from the south would need to enter the crosswalk (before crossing the median) in order to back into the driveway. Please consider the proximity of the crosswalk to all adjacent home driveways if residents were to back into their driveways. As for extending the trail to clip the southern edge of Library Field, this idea is both unnecessary and problematic: (1) The existing sidewalk is 5 feet wide. Trees planted in the southernmost row in Library field are located between 7 and 8 feet from the edge of the sidewalk. The edge of Library Field has a visible rise relative to the sidewalk and roots from all trees are visible at the ground surface and within just a few feet from the edge of the sidewalk. How would the path be widened to 10 feet without excavating and damaging the roots of all trees included in this southernmost row? (2) The plan to connect the McClellan Road protected bike lane to the proposed Regnart Creek Trail is unclear. In Cupertino, children age 12 and under are allowed/encouraged to ride their bicycles on the sidewalk. However, there is no southern crosswalk across De Anza from McClellan to Pacifica. If the Regnart Creek Trail project compels the excision of the southern edge of Library Field to accommodate a 10-foot trail path, doesn't the need for the wider path begin at the northeast corner of De Anza at Pacifica, where the only McClellan/Pacifica/De Anza Liana Crabtree Cupertino, CA 95014 5 / 9 east-west crosswalk terminates? Are we compelled to widen the existing northern sidewalk along Pacifica to Torre, so the McClellan/Regnart Creek Trail connection advertised today becomes more reality and less, maybe, marketing? Finally, I do feel that residents' concerns about the proposed Regnart Creek Trail continue to be "voiced but not heard". It's not that the project is terrible; it's just not terribly compelling. Where do the serious collisions and near misses affecting pedestrians and cyclists occur in Cupertino? Bollinger, Stevens Creek, De Anza, Finch, Blaney--not the roads relieved by the proposed Regnart Creek Trail. The trail project offers nice-to-have utility minus the funding sufficient to extend the wall, lighting, paving, and fencing that exists today for residents living along open portion of the (lovely!) trail from Creekside Park to East Estates Drive. Unfortunately, my observation, when residents flag real challenges related to safety, access, equity, and priority affecting this project proposal, they are too often ignored, patronized, or gaslit. I understand the utility and appeal of a paved, illuminated, and fenced trail that would allow pedestrian and bike access from Rodrigues and Pacifica to Civic Center Plaza, but it's harder to see value (relative to costs) in the east-west segments of the proposed trail. We have a finite amount of money--and less money on the other side of the pandemic--please, let's spend it on projects addressing priority needs and having broad support. Sincerely, Liana Crabtree Cupertino resident representing myself only Attachment A, written communication sent to the Environmental Review Committee regarding Agenda Item 3 “Regnart Creek Trail” for the 4/16/2020 ERC meeting Liana Crabtree Cupertino, CA 95014 6 / 9 Attachment B Liana Crabtree Cupertino, CA 95014 7 / 9 Attachment B, view of the southernmost row of trees in Library Field, from near Torre Ave looking east Liana Crabtree Cupertino, CA 95014 8 / 9 Attachment B, distance from tree trunks to sidewalk is about 7-8 feet. Note the bend of the tape measure indicates raised elevation of the open ground relative to the sidewalk. Liana Crabtree Cupertino, CA 95014 9 / 9 Attachment B, example of exposed root present in trees located in the southernmost row of Library Field. Approximately 3 feet of exposed roots are visible. (View is rotated so the image could be captured with few shadows.)