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CC 11-17-2020 Study Session Item No. 1 RHNA Report_Written CommunicationsCC 11-17-20 Study Session #1 Regional Housing Needs Allocation Report Written Comments 1 Cyrah Caburian From:Jean Bedord <Jean@bedord.com> Sent:Tuesday, November 17, 2020 10:55 AM To:Cupertino City Manager's Office; City Clerk; City Council; City of Cupertino Planning Commission Subject:Study session: RHNA - Rock and a Hard Place - consequences 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.    Mayor Scharf and members of city council,  The following message from the Mayor of Saratoga, Howard Miller, was posted on Nextdoor.  His message (reposted  with permission) is significant, since Saratoga, like Cupertino, has been infamous in blocking reasonable development in  their city.  Now Saratoga is paying that price, and losing control over land use policy.  Cupertino, too, faces the  consequences.  The arguments against development are eerily similar to what I've heard on the dais in Cupertino.  Isn't  it time for change in Cupertino???    ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐  Howard Miller, Gardiner Park  The Future of Saratoga. Saratoga has itself between a Rock and a Hard place as my dad used to say. Our historic failure to build new housing has caused the state to pass laws that penalize us for underproduction of housing. Today, Every commercial site in the Village and every other corner of the city is at risk of development with Saratoga having No Say. We can fix this, but we must approach the problem differently than in the past. Let me explain. Saratoga has one of the lowest building rates in the state of California over the last 30 years. Saratoga has met the requirements of the state mandate on paper but Saratoga has built very little of that required housing. We (and me too as your Mayor) have said that it is not our fault that the mandated homes were not built. "Cities zone for Housing, we don’t build it. Building is a free market activity." We counted on ADUs (Granny units) and the area between Sees Candy and McDonalds on Prospect Road in addition to the already zoned commercial districts to fulfill the statutory housing requirements of 2015. Preservation through Prevention was our strategy. Failure to build was not a problem because there were no penalties or consequences. Three years ago, that fundamentally changed! There have been a series of new and adjusted state laws that offered additional incentives to developers to build in Cities, like Saratoga, that are under-building. At the same time, law have been passed that take away our ability to even negotiate improvements to a project let along object to a project. The state of California has declared Saratoga as an "Economic Exclusion" zone, and are actively passing laws to fix the lack of housing. There are now Extreme penalties for not building what is required, this includes the provisions in the now infamous SB 35, which eliminates our ability to even discuss changes to proposed projects! Because we had built less that 20% of the 439 units required by the state in 2015, Saratoga falls into the worse performing category. This status gives developers special incentives to develop throughout all of Saratoga. The Genes Market site is now being developed with 90 units, using the Special enhancements allowed under these laws. The developer used "density bonus" laws and got multiple exemptions from our city rules. Because this was an SB 35 project, we had No Say! No environmental review, no traffic analysis, etc. All of this made the project very profitable for the developer and Very detrimental to our city. With these policies of the past no longer working, some cities have turned to the courts for protection. However every SB 35 lawsuit in the state has failed. It is the law. Patching the old policies with more "objective standards", or other rehashes of preventionist approach by making it harder to build, compounds the under- 2         Warm regards,    Jean Bedord  Cupertino Resident    building problem and causes increased penalties for the city. We must zone for housing in ways that Can be Built. If not, the State Laws provides developers enough incentives and exemptions to our city rules that housing will be built. Already, one can build a 15 foot tall granny unit 5’ from the fence-line, even closer than you can put an 8 foot tool shed! More punitive laws are in the works. I have talked with those in Sacramento and some of the discussions are wild: Give an extra 10 feet height to new building in underperforming cities, or higher density bonuses, or allowing All lots to be split with no minimum size, or allowing 4 housing units per lot regardless of zoning and more. Today EVERY commercial property in Saratoga is at Risk. See's Candy. Buy-and-Safe. Jakes. Safeway. Name your favorite shop or office in Saratoga…All of them are at Risk of an SB 35 project. They are all on the chopping block due to Saratoga’s failure to actually zone for housing in a way that can be built. In 2021, the next city council is going to have to create our next housing element. That plan must include zoning to support 2100 additional homes by 2032! This is ON TOP of the previous unattained requirements. Our old strategies have Failed. Our strategy to Preserve Saratoga though Prevention is no longer viable. We need to approach this problem differently. In the next housing plan, Saratoga needs to Zone for housing that is built, while protecting the Key elements of Charm and Character that make our city unique. Creating this new plan will require making some hard choices and tradeoffs. Failure to deliver a housing element that results in actual units to being built under our rules, means those units will be build using the state's incentives (penalties) with No regard to Saratoga’s Values. The state housing rules fundamentally changed 3 years ago. If housing is not built under our rules, housing will be built under the state’s rules. So you can look to the ways of past and watch Saratoga be destroyed, or you can look to the future where we define housing that can be built Our Way. You can find out more and get involved here: https://www.saratoga.ca.us/483/Regional-Housing-Needs-Assessment ------------------------------------ Please include this in the public record for the council meeting on Nov. 17, 2020.