Ghost malls
Several years ago, we went to my wife's friend's wedding at Vallco Mall in Cupertino. To our surprise, the parking lot was empty and many of the doors were barred. We finally found an open entrance and walked in. The lights were half on and there were only several people wandering around during a time where nearby Valley Fair Mall was absolutely teeming with people. The sound of a heavy door closing shut somewhere in the mall echoed through the otherwise quiet halls. Only four businesses were open in this giant mall: A large Chinese restaurant where the wedding was held at, a movie theater, a Cold Stone, and a random eyeglasses store. It was downright eerie, like if you walk around Times Square in the late afternoon and you only see five or six people walking around.
Did the zombie apocalypse just begin? No, it turns out Vallco was a victim of several anchor stores closing up, turning it into what's known as a ghost mall. Developers had purchased the nearly vacant mall in hopes of turning it into a mix of retail, offices, and residential units.
Naturally, the residents of Cupertino were against it and voted down the redevelopment plan in the November 2016 election. The usual suspects were listed as reasons: traffic and school overcrowding.
The mall was literally walking distance to Apple's new headquarters which was being built just across the freeway. This means the new residences could house hundreds of new Apple employees that can walk or bike to work instead of driving in from miles away. Rush hour traffic may worsen a bit along that road a bit (really, it's right off the freeway), but would be a start in relieving freeway congestion in the area. Typically, new construction also requires fees for road improvement and on this scale, the developer usually takes care of expanding road infrastructure anyway.
School overcrowding is an issue of school districts' inabilities to build more schools, not a housing development problem. Developments are required to pay large fees to fund school construction. In Cupertino, developers are charged $1.39 per square foot of residential housing and $0.22 per square foot of commercial spaces like offices and retail shops. The original plan for development includes 800 residential units, 2 million square feet of office, and 625,000 square feet of retail. Assuming a low average of 1,000 square feet per residential, that amounts to about $1.7million in fees for schools. Are the districts really that inept that they can't fund some new classrooms for that much money? A new twenty foot by twenty foot freestanding room shouldn't cost more than five figures. The city should be able to build a few dozen of these to expand school capacity without breaking a sweat.
After years of languishing, the developers have invoked California SB35 which fast tracks the development, in what would be one of the early beneficiaries of the new bill written by Scott Wiener. The new development is being designed by famous architect Rafael Viñoly. The new program is 2,402 residential units, 400,000 square feet of retail, and 1.81 million square feet of office space, for a total of about $3.8 million of funds for their public schools. And likely upgraded road infrastructure. And housing relief. And slight highway de-congestion. And a new rooftop park. And all of the other fees associated with development. And an expanded tax base. And new entertainment venues. It's almost as if Cupertino voters hate progress.
Did the zombie apocalypse just begin? No, it turns out Vallco was a victim of several anchor stores closing up, turning it into what's known as a ghost mall. Developers had purchased the nearly vacant mall in hopes of turning it into a mix of retail, offices, and residential units.
Naturally, the residents of Cupertino were against it and voted down the redevelopment plan in the November 2016 election. The usual suspects were listed as reasons: traffic and school overcrowding.
The mall was literally walking distance to Apple's new headquarters which was being built just across the freeway. This means the new residences could house hundreds of new Apple employees that can walk or bike to work instead of driving in from miles away. Rush hour traffic may worsen a bit along that road a bit (really, it's right off the freeway), but would be a start in relieving freeway congestion in the area. Typically, new construction also requires fees for road improvement and on this scale, the developer usually takes care of expanding road infrastructure anyway.
School overcrowding is an issue of school districts' inabilities to build more schools, not a housing development problem. Developments are required to pay large fees to fund school construction. In Cupertino, developers are charged $1.39 per square foot of residential housing and $0.22 per square foot of commercial spaces like offices and retail shops. The original plan for development includes 800 residential units, 2 million square feet of office, and 625,000 square feet of retail. Assuming a low average of 1,000 square feet per residential, that amounts to about $1.7million in fees for schools. Are the districts really that inept that they can't fund some new classrooms for that much money? A new twenty foot by twenty foot freestanding room shouldn't cost more than five figures. The city should be able to build a few dozen of these to expand school capacity without breaking a sweat.
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| Reduced size rendering of Vallco Town Center. Courtesy of Sand Hill Property Co., via San Francisco Chronicle |
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