Petition for Cupertino Citizens’ Sensible Growth Initiative is Submitted Four Months Ahead of Deadline

ccSensibleGrowth.org

It's official. The petition of Cupertino Citizens’ Sensible Growth Initiative (CCSGI) is submitted on Feb. 2 with 4198 signatures, 50% more than the minimum required.

A stream of passionate speakers from all around Cupertino spoke during Feb. 2 Cupertino City Council meeting in support of Cupertino Citizens’ Sensible Growth Initiative (CCSGI). The speakers urged the Council to put a moratorium on all amendments to the General Plan until CCSGI is put on the ballot for voters to decide. To reduce the period of uncertainty, CCSGI should be either adopted by the Council right away or be put on the ballot of the June election.

Video of Feb. 2 Council Meeting

Highlights:

• Time 17:40 - speech by a representative of Concerned Citizens of Cupertino (CCC): "90% of the voters approached signed the CCSGI petition. It's time that the Council listens to the voters and do what they want, not what the developers want."
• Time 21:45 - speech by a representative of Cupertino Citizens’ Sensible Growth Initiative (CCSGI). "In a city that's relatively apolitical, [the outpouring response to the initiative] is indicative of the level of outrage the citizens feel in the Council and the developers' attempt to turn Cupertino into an urban planning nightmare."
• Time 23:00 - speech by a representative of Cupertino Citizens’ Sensible Growth Initiative (CCSGI). "180 days is allowed for the initiative. We collected in 35 days. We could have kept collecting and gotten 8 or 10 thousand, but we didn't for a reason. We wanted to show how fast we can collect!"





Time 44:48 - speech by a former Sunnyvale Planning Commissioner - "The fact that there could be General Plan Amendments for individual developments is the wrong guidance to this town, is the wrong guidance to developers, and it certainly doesn't set the expectations correctly."
Time 57:10 - "Circulators collected 2000 signatures in the last week." "The initiative itself is not pro- or anti-growth. The initiative gives the people power to decide the direction of growth in Cupertino. The initiative would not freeze Vallco. A reasonable amount of mixed use at Vallco is possible as long as the people approve. If the majority of people would like Vallco to stay retail only, Vallco should stay retail only."

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Press Release: Petition for Cupertino Citizens’ Sensible Growth Initiative is Submitted Four Months Ahead of Deadline

The Committee supporting Cupertino Citizens’ Sensible Growth Initiative announces the delivery of over 4,000 signatures gathered from Cupertino voters to the Office of the City Clerk of Cupertino on Tuesday, February 2, 2016.

The Committee is deeply gratified by the tremendous reception the Cupertino Citizens’ Sensible Growth Initiative has received from Cupertino voters. The Committee recognizes our determined community members who made it possible to collect the signatures required to qualify the Initiative for the ballot in 2016. More than 4,000 signatures were collected in just five weeks—four months ahead of the 180-day petition-circulation deadline. This rapid pace of signature collection is a testament to community support for the Initiative. The Committee offers appreciation and thanks to everyone who volunteered time, donated money, or shared encouraging words with our petition circulators.

The Initiative’s proponents and supporters recognize that Cupertino and nearby neighborhoods are under tremendous pressure to build very large projects that are not suitable to the suburban character of the region. The developers of these over-sized projects are not responsible for funding the infrastructure improvements that will be required to maintain the favorable quality of life the residents in the region value today. These essential improvements include water supplies and infrastructure, sewer infrastructure, closed-path transit (including BART), a sufficient number of affordable housing units, and school facilities.

The passage of the Cupertino Citizens’ Sensible Growth Initiative is one way to ensure that projects built in Cupertino will meet the needs and requirements of a majority of voters in Cupertino. When adopted, the Initiative will change the way the developers plan for projects they will bring to Cupertino and the standards the City will apply uniformly to those projects.

The Initiative promotes development projects that are suitable to the characteristics of the City and discourages projects that do not fit within the guidelines of the General Plan.

Major Provisions of Cupertino Citizens’ Sensible Growth Initiative include:

• Control the density of new development to ensure that projects fit with the City’s infrastructure by maintaining limits on building heights, setbacks, lot coverage and building planes.
• Affirm that the land within the Vallco Shopping District will be used for major retail, entertainment, dining, and hotels.
• Require that proposed changes or exceptions to the building limits and land uses described in the Initiative will not be enacted unless first approved by Cupertino voters.

Visit www.CCSensibleGrowth.org to learn more about the Initiative, find out about future events, and donate to support the passage of the Initiative in 2016.

Paid for by Committee supporting Cupertino Citizens' Sensible Growth Initiative, PO Box 1132, Cupertino, CA 95015, FPPC# 1381645.