CUPERTINO — Following a discussion that lasted well past 4 a.m. this week, the Cupertino City Council approved a 267-unit housing and retail project to replace The Oaks shopping center at 21267 Stevens Creek Blvd.
Although the meeting began 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, it was late into the night before the council had dispatched with other agenda items and dived into the ambitious Westport mixed-use project.
The developer, KT Urban, plans to build 88 townhouses and rowhouses, 179 senior apartments — including 131 senior licensed assisted living units and 48 affordable or below-market-rate senior independent living units — and 27 memory care licensed assisted living residences.
Much of the discussion focused on a couple of exceptions the developer sought, senior planner Gian Martire said in an interview the next day.
“The height limit in the General Plan for this area is 45 feet, but for two of the buildings, they requested to build as high as almost 80 feet because they said, ‘Well, a 45-foot height limit would not allow us to build a project to allow these below-market-rate units.’ “
Martire said KT Urban also asked for an exception to the “heart of the city” standard for projects on Stevens Creek Boulevard between Highway 85 and Lawrence Expressway. That standard says at least 75% of building frontage must be dedicated to retail, but because Westport is near the Highway 85 onramp, the developer requested that only about 40% be retail.
“Having retail near the onramp is just not smart and we agree,” Martire added.
The council approved both requests because they aligned with the state’s density bonus law, which allows concessions for projects that offer a certain amount of affordable units.
“The unanimous vote from the City Council was validation that our Westport project was designed to meet the true housing needs of this wonderful community,” said Mark Tersini, a principal executive with KT Urban. “Approving creative mixed-use projects requires courage from members of the council who are trying to balance the many desires of their constituents.”
As for the marathon meeting that went almost until dawn, Martire said, “I think 1 a.m. is my record.
Asked why it took so long, he said, “A lot of different factors — the complexity of the project, the agenda was pretty full.”
Tersini said long meetings are nothing new in his profession.
“The entitlement process for real estate projects in the Bay Area requires tremendous patience,” Tersini wrote in an email. “To allow for a detailed review with public participation sometimes requires a longer meeting. The final results are ultimately what really counts.”
In dissecting every detail of the project, council members sometimes got testy with each other.
“If we keep doing this and having meetings that go on endlessly to complain about every little thing, this council is going to be in a world of hurt, and we will continue to lose our local control,” Councilmember Rod Sinks told his colleagues. “That’s my, if you will, rant on where I see us. It’s now nearly 3 a.m., and it’s taken us an inordinate amount of time to do the smallest things on our agenda.
“We seem to want to repeat bicycle projects and everything else two to three times, and we can’t ever just settle on things.”
When Councilmember Jon Willey continued to pore over the pros and cons of the project, Mayor Steven Scharf interrupted. “It’s almost 3 a.m. Can you finish up?”
Vice Mayor Darcy Paul defended the council’s diligence, however.
“This whining about going into detail about issues that critically affect our community, if you don’t want to talk about it, then just get off,” Paul said late into the meeting. “These are conversations we need to be having. I’m not saying we need to have them for an infinite amount of time. But the fact of the matter is it’s the first time we’ve seen this project.”
After the vote, Scharf said, “Is that it? If there is nothing else, adjourned at 4:25 a.m. We did not set a record.”
