There are two components to the Housing element changes: one in the General Plan Housing Element Chapter, those changes indicated above, and the other in the Cupertino Municipal Code. The bloated changes even came in after the close of public comments on July 2, 2024

After a 3 month hiatus due to severe health problems, Councilmember Wei teleconferenced in from Taiwan at the October 15, 2024 Cupertino City Council meeting delighted to be present because she, and the council majority Mohan and Fruen, looked at our taxpayer reserves set aside for the CDTFA audit as lottery winnings. Wei stated:

“This is a good meeting to come back to because we have money to spend.”

The current Council majority in 2023 eliminated the rights of Councilmembers to make public records requests (PRRs), which is inexplicable (How can it possibly be appropriate to approve a rule where Councilmembers have less access to public information than members of the general public?). Nonetheless, despite the efforts of some to obscure and, somehow, by some significant factors, worsen their own failure to do diligence by eliminating a basic and Constitutionally-protected mechanism of doing so for others, I review the PRRs on the city’s public page where the result of other people’s PRR requests are posted.

I attended and spoke at the Prop 36 Rally held at the Cupertino Civic Center Plaza on Sunday September 29, 2024 at 1:30p.m. Several elected officials including San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Klein, were in attendance along with many current and former Councilmembers and candidates for various elected offices to speak in support of Prop 36. I signed the ballot initiative which received enough signatures to put Prop 36 on the ballot.

You may read the Legislative Analyst’s Office Analysis of Prop 36 here.

The image is a Builder's Remedy project which will replace a single-story home.

Updated October 2, 2024

What caused the Housing Element to have an 11th Hour Comprehensive Overhaul?

There have been a series of misstatements from folks trying to cover up what Cupertino for All did to the Housing Element when the new Council was seated.

The Prior Council Direction, on November 15, 2022 agenda item 1 was very clear to turn in the document on time.

“Final Motion: Moore moved and Chao seconded to direct staff to

1) publish the draft Housing Element on Friday, November 18, 2022 and (...) 3) incorporate comments received in the draft Housing Element and submit the document to the State Housing and Community Development Department (HCD) for review on January 20, 2023.

It is important that all of our residents have welcoming spaces in our parks and that is why you may be noticing our park playground spaces are having upgrades to ensure we accomodate people with special needs. The City has broken ground on our flagship All-Inclusive Playground at Jollyman Park! Read more about this exciting new edition coming to the city here.

There is a Builder’s Remedy Plan Set available for 20739 Scofield Dr. Cupertino from a Public Records Request of the City. The project proposes 23 homes on a single family lot which currently has a one-story house on it. 4 of the homes would be below-market rate. The plans were uploaded onto the City website September 9, 2024 and are 174 pages long. You may view the full plan set here.

The Scofield Builder’s Remedy project was submitted March 26, 2024, there is a Cupertino City Staff Memo on this project and other Builder’s Remedy projects available here and a city website on the developments here.

The affordability requirement for Builder’s Remedy Projects are that 20% of the homes be affordable to low income residents.

There is a lot of misinformation on the Vallco/Rise project. In short, the approved SB 35 Vallco project has the most affordable homes of any version the developer has ever submitted, but it still has about 2 Million square feet of office space planned and 6,000 parking spaces for all of the office commuters.

Today I received a letter from a resident requesting more native plantings in Cupertino and I agree, let's do this:

“Let's support a Cupertino-level ordinance that would require the use of native plants in city properties and commercial landscaping. This idea takes inspiration from the state-level AB 1573, which unfortunately didn't pass after being watered down by lobbyists. (https://www.cnps.org/biodiversity-initiatives/ab-1573-reaches-a-stopping-point-35744) Despite this setback, we can take inspiration from the text and implement it at the city level, so here I am. 

Why we need this:

Native plants are a crucial part of combating climate change. Here are some alarming headlines:
- North America has lost 3 billion birds (NPR)

- Insect population has dropped by 75% (NYTimes)

- Humans are driving 1 million species to extinction (Nature)

Divya TV hosted a Candidate Forum on September 7, 2024 at the Cupertino Senior Center, attended by 6 of the 7 candidates for Cupertino City Council election which has two open seats. The broadcast will be available shortly and it will be posted when we have it. In the mean time here are my opening and closing remarks and 100 Word Bio provided to Moderator Kapur:

100 Word Bio Provided to Moderator Kapur:

Kitty Moore is a Civil Engineer and former Air Force R.O.T.C. scholarship student, whose husband, brothers, uncles, and late father are all veterans of the US Armed Forces.

 Kitty is mom to two sons who went to Cupertino public schools and on to Master’s programs; they work with their dad on a startup they are building together.

We had great energy and turnout for our first campaign rally August 30, 2024! Monta Vista HS student journalists Sophia D'Sa and Benjamin Zhang covered the event in their El Estoque article Cupertino residents rally behind “We deserve better”.

It is excellent to be able to speak to residents directly and share more about what has transpired in our community through a Councilmember’s viewpoint.

The text of my speech is here:

- Good Afternoon! Thank you to all of the volunteers and guests for joining us today! I’m Kitty Moore, your current Councilmember. I’m passionate about our community and excited to continue serving you on the Cupertino City Council for four more years!

- I grew up in Vermont with three older brothers. My family faced tough financial times, relying on food stamps. When it came time for me to go to college, there was no family money available. Determined to succeed, I earned an Air Force ROTC scholarship in Civil Engineering and worked up to three jobs at a time to graduate. I became financially independent before I was 18...

Dear friends,

Welcome back to campaign season! It has been an eventful 4 years on Council after 2 years on the Planning Commission. I have been honored to serve you, and seek your support and assistance to continue to provide care for the community. In my free time I have been augmenting my Civil Engineering background by completing Basic and Advanced Environmental Studies certifications, paralegal studies, and delving further into the complexities of municipal government to bring you the best and most knowledgable decisions for your benefit. While there have been multiple politically motivated hurdles placed in our way, I am resilient and resolute to continue to care for your tax dollars and bring deliverables like the Jollyman all-inclusive playground, Library Expansion and Storybook upgrades, along with negotiated improvements to make developments more aligned with community interests. Join me this campaign season to learn about what has been happening in the city from a fellow resident who looks out for you!

Warmest regards,

-Councilmember Kitty Moore

Bill Mitchell, the CTO of Cupertino, California, was ready and able to answer the call to support many services digitally after the state ordered city staff to work from home during the Covid-19 pandemic.

After a recommendation for denial of the Westport project by the Cupertino Planning Commission, 3-2, due to the missing financial information for a concession to consolidate the Senior Below Market Rate units into one building, the Westport project came to the Cupertino City Council along with the financial information and was approved 5-0.

The Vallco Legal Fee reimbursements are shown in this blog. My accusers failed to request the reimbursement amounts and only provided the original bills, because that fit their narrative. This post includes the Public Records Request I made and the response received 10/26/2020.

The Public Records Request of the FUHSD per square footage parcel tax plan indicated that they found that model to be fairer than the current fixed amount parcel tax.

CUSD failed to convince voters in March 2020 that they should add $125 to their parcel tax. How about not increasing the parcel tax on single family homes, yet spreading the burden of taxation equitably? Sound interesting?

One of the most important things city leadership does is care for the health, safety, and wellfare of the community. We are bordered by a large cement plant, Lehigh, which has proposed a Reclamation Plan and expansion of mining activities. The project will require environmental review and as of August 13, 2020, the county has hired an outside consultant to assist in planning oversight.

Special Guest author Rhoda Fry, has shared her initial analysis by permission, read it here.

What are the effects of GHG emissions in California and why should we care about them?