Cupertino officials have declined to reconsider approvals for an affordable housing development in light of an ongoing lawsuit from residents who claim the decision was rushed.
The City Council on April 1 voted 4–1 against reconsidering the Mary Avenue Villas housing project, which the council previously approved in February. The lawsuit — filed March 11 against the city, developer Charities Housing and Mary Avenue Charities LLC — alleges Cupertino officials rushed approvals for the project, bypassed required environmental review and improperly approved the use of public land.
A group of residents called the Garden Gate Coalition for Mary Avenue Safety filed the lawsuit. A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge denied a request to halt the project at the end of March. Potential settlement talks are scheduled for Wednesday.
Councilmember R “Ray” Wang cast the lone dissenting vote. He supported reconsidering the project in part to avoid further legal conflict between the city and residents. He said there is a disconnect between legal standards and community concerns.
“I may be the only member that’s going to say this right now, but I’m going to say the process was backwards,” Wang said at the meeting. “The order of operations was not accurate, and I can understand why there was a petition for this.”
Fruen: Litigation could be avoided
Councilmember J.R. Fruen agreed there is an alternative to litigation between the city and residents, but it doesn’t involve reconsidering the project.
“I’ll just say that the community can avoid a lawsuit because (the plaintiffs) can withdraw their suit,” Fruen said.
Attorney Joshua Safran, representing the coalition, attended the council meeting remotely and argued the city should not have taken up the reconsideration requests.
“The basic issue for us is that this hearing, particularly given the late hour, is unnecessary and improper,” Safran said at the meeting. “The city should not be proceeding tonight, as though this is an ordinary reconsideration matter … and it certainly should not be used tonight to harden or ratify these approvals that are already under judicial review in superior court.”
Safran did not respond to requests for comment.
The Mary Avenue Villas project is a 40-home affordable housing development on a narrow, 0.79-acre strip of city-owned land near Highway 85. It would eliminate 89 public parking spaces and include housing for residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
A flawed approval process
Some residents backing the lawsuit said the city’s process has been flawed over the past few years.
“I’ve been very disappointed with how the Cupertino City Council is treating residents,” 20-year Cupertino resident Aditya Agarwal told San José Spotlight. “It feels like they’re discarding resident input.”
The lawsuit states the coalition is not opposed to affordable housing, but rather is challenging the city’s approval process.
But some supporters of the project characterize the group as being broadly opposed to new housing.
Stephen Quan, a father of a son with autism, said he feels personally connected to the issue and supports the housing project. He said as parents get older, families need to know their children will have safe, independent living options in the future like what is being offered at Mary Avenue Villas.
“I’ve looked for places in Sunnyvale (and) Santa Clara, but Cupertino is the ideal place to live on his own,” Quan told San José Spotlight. “Change is really hard for him.”
Contact Maryanne Casas-Perez at [email protected] or @CasasPerezRed on X.
This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.