How do we do better as a city?

Our Dilemma

Cupertino is a victim of its own success. Our high-ranking schools and numerous job opportunities  ensure that many new families try to live here, and that our children may wish to return. Now, we get to decide if we open the door to more neighbors or slam it in their faces.

Our Bay Area community is experiencing a major housing affordability crisis. We have added 14 times as many low wage jobs relative to the number of affordable homes—the worst jobs-housing ratio in Santa Clara County and easily one of the worst in the Bay Area region. Because our city and region do not have enough housing, our communities are greatly suffering as a result. 

Cupertino Union School District is dealing with an enrollment decline crisis, now faced with likely closures of several schools—attributed in large part to a shortage of new families moving into the district. Hard-working students and workers can’t afford to become our neighbors, despite stimulating our economy and brightening our community. Our city effectively excludes teachers, De Anza College students, and workers of all types—whether in service, construction, or even tech. We also exclude Cupertino’s own children who find it difficult (if not impossible) to independently return and contribute to our community after graduating.

Despite this stark reality, Cupertino  embraces exclusionary zoning, effectively banning most forms of housing for middle or lower income families  Convoluted fees and unnecessary bureaucracy intensify our affordable housing shortage., 

In 2005, Cupertino saw three anti-housing ballot measures. One year later, Cupertino voters rejected hundreds of new homes at Vallco and a nearby vacant lot, chanting the slogan “Just say ‘No!’ to Condo-tino!” Opponents—including then-current Mayor Steven Scharf—ironically cited school over-enrollment and the need for office expansion. In 2014, Councilmember Mark Santoro shamelessly declared: “You should put [new housing] where HCD will approve it and you hope it’s not going to get built. All of the sites I picked last time were not built.” 2016 and 2018 saw candidates elected who opposed housing production; in 2019, council downzoned Vallco, further reducing the number of available housing. 

Because Cupertino fails to build housing, our schools have been unable to attract new families, threatening their enrollment and their funding. And as people are forced to live farther and farther away, traffic increases, lowering our quality of life and greatly exacerbating climate change, with nearly 2/3 of emissions caused by transportation. Traditionally lower-income, disproportionately Black and Latino areas of the County  must accommodate the housing demand of those residents we push out, increasing the likelihood of displacement, evictions, homelessness, and gentrification.

Lack of housing supply endangers our current renters and prevents housing mobility—our older residents have nowhere to downsize, and our youth have nowhere to move into once they graduate from college. This unsustainable dynamic prevents the next generation from returning and contributing to their home community, while our existing residents continue to age in an increasingly hallowed-out town.

Our Vision

We want to create a closer, more welcoming community. Because our daytime residents already contribute to our community and economy, we should welcome them and allow them to live here, further increasing vibrancy and investment in our city. We most especially want housing for our teachers, De Anza students, workers, seniors, multigenerational families, and returning college graduates. 

And we want to do this in a way that promotes our schools’ success, lively community spaces, walkable and bikeable streets, and fun recreational activities for families, seniors, and young adults. This would also reduce car dependency by providing the groundwork for feasible transit options.

Our Plan

Cupertino has the opportunity of a lifetime; there is a new statewide housing cycle coming up known as RHNA (Regional Housing Needs Allocation) for 2023 - 2031, where cities like ours will be given target goals for building homes, based on different levels of affordability—ranging from Extremely Low-Income (ELI) to Above Moderate Income. If we take advantage of this cycle, we can address many of our largest systemic issues by planning for the future, while also collectively envisioning an even better city, with more vibrancy, community, and far less car reliance.

Because government policies helped create the housing crisis, we need to make changes to government policy in order to get out of it. Several of those policies are within Cupertino’s power to change. We, as citizens of Cupertino, would like to see:

1. Let homeowners build on their own property: Reduction of unnecessary fees that make accessory dwelling units (also known as granny flats or ADUs) costly to build. We could implement city pre-approved templates for granny-flat designs, so homeowners can easily provide affordable housing on their own property.

2. Make better use of limited land: Streamlined conversion of existing office/retail space into housing. Legalize housing that isn’t exclusively single-family homes. Convert vacant parking lots or buildings into residential space. Remove or heavily modify parking requirements for most projects. For major projects, maximize the number of homes permissible. Promote mixed use developments to increase vibrancy and connectivity between commercial and residential space. 

3. Prioritize transit and biking: Continue to add safe, protected bike lanes throughout the city. Transform Stevens Creek into a transit corridor, with high density running alongside major bus routes. Add signal prioritization and a dedicated bus lane, so the bus can run seamlessly through traffic. Require developers along the corridor to provide transit passes. Add “no right on red” to increase safety in the city. 

4. Housing affordability: Massively expand the city and our affordable housing trust fund to subsidize low-income housing. Speed up affordable projects to reduce construction costs and increase the frequency of the bidding process. Allow for naturally affordable housing such as duplexes and triplexes. 

5. Give renters a voice: Add a city requirement to have at least 1 “renter representative” on the planning and housing commissions.

6. Promote home sharing of vacant rooms: Work with older residents to rent out vacant rooms through a registry—in partnership with nonprofits, especially to house homeless De Anza College students.