A Bay Area developer is invoking the “builder’s remedy” in Cupertino with plans to demolish three commercial buildings and erect a five-story apartment complex in its place.
Acclaim Companies submitted its application in late September through the provision of a state housing law that allows developers to build projects larger than local zoning laws typically allowed in cities that haven’t received approval on state-mandated housing plans.
Located at 20015 Stevens Creek Blvd., the project will include 141 units — with 20% of them affordable as dictated by the “builder’s remedy” — and two floors of underground parking. The development is estimated to be 70 feet tall, which is 25 feet higher than what the lot is zoned for.
“The city reviews and responds to applications in a timely manner, and is committed to responding to this project just as efficiently,” Deputy City Manager Tina Kapoor said in a statement. “The city has provided comments to the developer and is awaiting a response at this time.”
While some developers have been using the “builder’s remedy” to push through projects that otherwise would have no chance of getting approved — like a proposed development with a more than 300-foot tower among single family homes and smaller apartment buildings in Menlo Park — Councilmember J.R. Fruen said Cupertino’s project is “largely consonant” with what you’d already see on Stevens Creek Boulevard.
“The thing that I think is most interesting here and one might have expected given the previous hostility or perceived hostility of Cupertino to housing developers is we would be getting lots of builder’s remedy projects in the city,” Fruen said. “That isn’t happening and it’s not happening for a reason. Staff has worked very hard knowing our site inventory was insufficient per the California Department of Housing and Community Development guidance to reach out to developers who might otherwise have been interested in making builder’s remedy applications and have instead folded those sites into the housing element.”
It’s what Fruen calls a “win-win” situation: Cupertino identifies another location to build housing so that it will be in compliance with state law and the developer gets its project built.
Mayor Hung Wei also told The Mercury News that five-stories on one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares isn’t unusual. And while there may not be any other buildings of that height nearby at the moment, she said there will be more in the next eight years.
Wei said that while the community may be upset about the “builder’s remedy,” city officials have been working with the developer to ensure the sections closest to single family homes won’t be as tall.
“I’m for local control but local control means that we want to be a community that is welcoming, that doesn’t exclude people,” she said. “Anybody who comes with a builder’s remedy project, the staff needs to work really close with them and to make sure the design is reasonable, rationale and takes care of the neighbors.”
But not everyone on the council feels the same way about the “builder’s remedy” coming to Cupertino. Councilmember Kitty Moore said in an email that she is “bothered by the lack of strategic focus by the new council majority to have an approved, HCD-certified housing element.”
“We needed it done well before yesterday,” she said. “Why the foot-dragging?”
Moore declined to comment on the details of the project, saying she is “concerned about other matters.”
Cupertino is just one of many Bay Area cities yet to have its housing element signed off on despite the Jan. 31, 2023 deadline. Kapoor said the city “initially had difficulty finding the right consultant to work with” throughout the process but they are “now making good progress toward certification.”
Acclaim Companies could not be reached for comment.