What Caused the Late Housing Element: Late Call to Overhaul

Written By Kitty Moore

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 to solicit public feedback for at least 30- days;

2) submit an informational item on the January 17 Council agenda prior to submittal to HCD; 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.

The amended and modified motion carried unanimously.”

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————

A resident group called for a “comprehensive redrafting” and “redo” by the newly seated City Council, of the first Housing Element Draft in December 20, 2022, demanding drastically reducing the pipeline projects they felt should not be counted, and adding expansive policies after the first draft Housing Element, which created a major impediment for approval.

These demands also opened the door for the litigious Yimby Law entity to join forces with another group and sue Cupertino in Yimby Law and California Housing Defense Fund vs City of Cupertino, Case no. 23CV410817, Santa Clara County Superior Court. This lawsuit resulted in a CEQA bypass for the entire Housing Element, such that the Housing Element has no EIR, a document which would have gone to Council for certification, have public comments and disclosures of significant environmental impacts.

The Stipulated Judgment was entered in January 10, 2024, over a year after the new Council was seated and the Housing Element did not get accepted by HCD with all of the new overhaul changes until September 4, 2024. I believe the changes did not reflect the will of the residents, thousands of approved and entitled homes were taken off of the site inventory requiring far more homes then be added than necessary to meet HCD’s requirements and making unnecessary and ill-advised Zoning changes at the 11th hour on the night of the municipal code changes vote after the close of the public comment period so that the residents were not allowed to speak on the proposals prior to the council vote. Given these issues, I could not vote in favor of either item in good conscience.

December 20, 2022 - Calls by Cupertino for All for a “Comprehensive Redo” of the Housing Element:

It is not true that the prior Council delayed the Housing Element, and in fact a great deal of outreach and thoughtful work was done on the Housing Element by the prior Council, which delivered plans ready to be filed. Unfortunately, the process has become politicized to the extent that those who now are in control of it have not only created significant harms, but continue for some reason to blame people who have not been there now for nearly two years. This is a strange tactic that replaces genuine accountability and work with the irresponsible imaginings of inaccurate assumptions. For accurate background, watch the presentation by “Cupertino for All” to overhaul the Housing Element on December 20, 2022 which was obeyed by the then-newly-seated Council majority. Read their emails to City Council for that meeting.

The basic problem is that we have a majority who creates problems for all, but then always returns to its only real tactic, which is to blame other people. That is not the way to solve problems or to create opportunity. Rather, we should focus on the specifics of both the problems and the solutions, and proceed from there.

With regard to solving the problem of housing affordability, the solution is not to support politicians who accept essentially unlimited developer dollars which end up distorting the issues into an unrecognizable format which ends up in some cases not just doing nothing but worsening the very problems they purport to address. Those of us who have been working diligently in the past and who plan to keep working diligently in the future recognize further that the parroting of our basic positions by others while they do precisely nothing or, even worse, take actions that are the opposite of the values and policies described is insulting to the electorate. Results speak for themselves. I ask that you consider where we are as a result of these tactics and that you support our efforts to do the work, listen to the input, study the background materials, ask the challenging questions, and generate the real and lasting solutions that everyone wants.

Here is the video presentation by Cupertino for All December 20, 2022, one month prior to the Housing Element being due:

Here is the slide show presented by Cupertino for All December 20, 2022, one month prior to the Housing Element being due:

With the sheer number and extent of capricious and infeasible changes demanded by Cupertino for All - and obeyed by the current council majority - there was no hope to meet the January 31, 2023 deadline which came and passed. During the meeting to pass the zoning changes in the summer of 2024, one-and-a-half years later, a slew of additional changes were piled again without properly vetting them for resident input.

And that is why we had the Builder’s Remedy available all the way to September 4, 2024 when HCD’s approval letter, stating they “considered comments from Cupertino for All” is dated.

Hopefully Cupertino will be included in Senator Glazer's requested audit of HCD's process.

Take a look at the materials and overhaul asks to find locations for over 1,300 homes, and a massive overhaul to policies. We ended up with no environmental impact report to know our cancer risks, air quality impacts, impacts to police, fire, and medical transport. The careless and arrogant wielding of decisional authority ends in these types of results. The unfortunate part about all of this is that the behavioral pattern never changes, irrespective of the positioning. The fact of the matter is, we need people who will do the work rather than assign capricious and self-serving blame. I ask for your support to put into effect an openness to public input, proper preparation, and a renewed willingness to conduct outreach and communication such that all stakeholders are involved and committed.

—-


For further reading:

Most Recent Housing Element Documents

Archived Housing Element Documents

Kitty Moore
Previous

Yes on Prop 36! Rally with Mayors and Councilmembers
Next

Jollyman All-Inclusive Playground