The Cupertino Courier

New council to decide fate of diocese project

By Pam Marino

Once again development of the San Jose Diocese land has become a campaign issue in Cupertino, after it was revealed at last week's City Council meeting that the matter will probably be continued until after the Nov. 7 election.

Four of the five City Council candidates indicated they would vote yes on the 178-unit housing development that would result in the donation of 75 percent of the 212-acre parcel to adjacent Rancho San Antonio County Park. A fifth candidate, Sandy James, said she would need to study the matter further before making a decision.

Incumbent Don Burnett voted in favor of the project in 1995, when a compromise was reached between the city and the developer working on behalf of the diocese, the O'Brien Group. Initially the diocese wanted to build several hundred homes.

Along with Councilman Michael Chang and Mayor John Bautista, Burnett made up a council majority that was expected to approve the final plans this year.

However, Bautista announced in June that he would abstain from future diocese votes for "legal conflict reasons." In September, Bautista said he would seek a ruling from the California Fair Political Practices Commission to determine whether a conflict exists, but he later decided not to.

As it stands now, the project would likely fail, since it appears that councilmembers Wally Dean and Lauralee Sorensen would vote against the project as they did in 1995, leaving a tie with Burnett and Chang. At that point, the developer would either have to accept defeat or start the approval process all over again at the Planning Commission level.

Candidate Andrea Harris, the current Planning Commission chairwoman, has also voted in favor of the housing project. However, she said she does have problems with it. There are too many homes on one parcel of the project, she said, and she has problems with an issue concerning "linear parks" and "private open space." She argued that the linear parks are in fact the homes' front yards and the private open space part of the back yards, and should not be counted as donated land. If they are counted, then there should be a homeowners' association, or similar group, to take care of them, she said.

"I still think the project should go forward," Harris said. She said she would present her concerns to the rest of the council if elected.

Candidates Steven Haze and John Statton both said they would vote for the project, calling the donation of open space a good compromise.

"It was probably the best compromise that could be hammered out for the community," Haze said. Haze was a founder of a citizens group that initially fought for preservation of the entire parcel of land.

Statton has a similar belief about the compromise.

"I think the community went through a very difficult process in determining what to build on that land," Statton said. "I think it's unfair to reopen this at the 11th hour. I would vote in favor of the compromise."

The diocese project was also an issue in the 1995 election, when Dean was re-elected and Chang was elected for the first time. There was concern that a new council would renege on the compromise.

Burnett said it is important that voters know how the candidates will vote on the project once elected.

"We need two votes elected to go with Michael Chang's for the project to pass," Burnett said. "If we don't, we won't get the project, and I think the project is good for everybody. ... There's a time to close out an issue and do the job."

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