The Cupertino Courier

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Retaining high-tech companies a priority in N. Vallco

By Cody Kraatz

The 20-person study committee overseeing the North Vallco Master Plan process chose to ask not what Apple Inc. and Hewlett-Packard can do for the city, but what the city can do for them.

"You can't count the number of communities that are trying to entice Apple and HP away from Cupertino. What can the city do to provide the services that would keep them here? What their needs are ripples out to what their employees' needs are," said Cupertino resident Roger Costa, a member of the committee.

"We should be grateful for the revenue that these two will generate for us," said Wendell Stephens, another committee member. The city's sales tax revenue totaled $10.7 million last year, with Apple and HP being the top two sources.

The committee is charged with making recommendations about the 240-acre district to the Cupertino City Council. Many of those recommendations, such as fine dining, nice hotels, an urban lifestyle, good transportation and day care, are targeted at helping technology companies attract quality talent to the area.

A recent workshop that drew 60 people uncovered some obstacles to planning in the district, with no clear solutions.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated two Superfund sites, which are toxic cleanup priorities, at 10910 N. Tantau Ave. and 19000 Homestead Road, in 1982. Toxic chemicals from Intersil Inc. and Siemens Corp. leaked there and a plume of trichloroethylene, or TCE, in the groundwater reaches north to Inverness Way in Sunnyvale, slightly west of the sites and south to Forge Drive.

Though drinking water is thought to be safe, the plume may produce vapors that the National Research Council reported in 2006 may cause cancer and other health problems. The EPA is scheduled to review the site, which is owned by Kaiser Permanente, again in 2010.

As in previous workshops, housing was a major flash point. A number of residents called for more, particularly affordable housing.

Steve Piasecki, the city's director of community development, said the city has been working to balance the jobs and housing in the city for decades, and the city's General Plan includes a requirement that 15 percent of new development be rented or sold below market rate.

Some residents are opposed to new housing, particularly along N. Tantau Avenue where Pacific Resources Development recently planned to build condominiums.

"If you're going to put in houses there at all, make them be one story, but we don't really want more housing in there," said Santa Clara resident Linda Anderson, who lives just east of N. Tantau Avenue, at a March 8 workshop.

"I don't want you to feel that housing is off the table in Cupertino. It is valuable in all communities to have affordable housing," said Marilyn Howard of the Cupertino-Sunnyvale League of Women Voters in response.

To learn more, go to www.cupertino.org and click on the North Vallco Master Plan link.