City Council Meeting Oct 8_Butchers Corner and Peery Park EIR

Community advocates are requesting your participation in the Oct 8th City of Sunnyvale Council 7:00pm Meeting.

Butcher’s Corner is 4th on the agenda – Discussion and Possible Action on Adoption of Resolutions to Approve the Annexation. The staff recommends Council find the project is categorically exempt from CEQA and postpone the annexation. 

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Is the $120M PAMF BUILDING a FIT in the Neighborhood?

Former Sunnyvale City Manager, Amy Chan, described Palo Alto Medical Foundation, a subsidiary of Sutter Health, PAMF’s 301 Old San Francisco Road location as both “at the edge of and within a residential neighborhood.” 

Palo Alto Medical Foundation, a subsidiary of Sutter Health, proposed PAMF $120M,  270,000 square foot, 5-level structure, designed by Hawley Peterson Synder Architects , is ambitious, to say the least. Is it a “FIT” with the quiet Heritage Neighborhood District?

WHY Did The City of Sunnyvale REQUIRE PAMF to Prepare an EIR?

A Public Agency, or Lead Agency, determines whether a “project,” such as The Sunnyvale Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF), under The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA),  has potential for a direct physical change or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.

CEQA is a statute that requires state and local agencies to identify the significant environmental impacts of their actions and to avoid or mitigate those impacts, if feasible.

The lead agency determines if an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) will be required.

The Lead Agency for the PAMF Project, coincidently, was the City of Sunnyvale Planning Staff: Principal Planner Gerri Caruso and Planning Officer Trudi Ryan. The Environmental Consultants and Planners were David J. Powers & Associates.

Shortly before the Commission/Council Vote on June 23, 2009, Sunnyvale Planner Steve Lynch replaced Principal Planner Gerri Caruso. On an email dated 4/13/2009, Caruso wrote that she was resigning to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. PAMF004718

It’s important to NOTE: If the responsible agency believes that the environmental analyses in the CEQA document is incorrect or inadequate, CEQA Guidelines section 15096(e)(1) provides that a responsible agency may “…take the issue to court within 30 days after the lead agency files a NOD, or within 180 days of the commitment to go ahead or approve the project where a NOD is not filed.”

The PAMF Project was approved during the June 8, 2009 City of Sunnyvale Commission Hearing. The PAMF Project and EIR was approved and certified during the June 23,2009 Sunnyvale Council Hearing.

Copies of the PAMF DEIR/FEIR are available at the City of Sunnyvale Library and Planning Dept for review.

“Center Bull Pen” Staff Seating Arrangement is a Strategic Art

It appears that careful, strategic seating arrangement is about as important and skillful as choosing the right jurors to win a trial.

Sunnyvale Planner Trudi Ryan writes to the Director of Community Development, Hanson Hom, discussing various center bull pen seating arrangement options for staff during both the Palo Alto Medical Foundation PAMF EIR, a subsidiary of Sutter Health, Project Commission and Council Hearings.

Sunnyvale Requires Palo Alto Medical Foundation ART BUDGET to be $19 MILLION!

Planner Trudi Ryan informed Palo Alto Medical Foundation, a subsidiary of Sutter Health, PAMF Project Leader David Jury and Architect Henry Mahlstedt, that the City of Sunnyvale required Artwork preliminary estimate is $19M, subject to review (PAMF004905).

Wow, was that $19 Million????? The news is somewhat staggering! To compare and contrast, the Sunnyvale Planning Dept conditioned PAMF to contribute just a paltry $50,000 to traffic calming devices (to slow speeding traffic) in the Heritage District Neighborhood closest to the rebuild.

If I did my math right, $50,000 is  .0026% of  the Art Budget $19M. Oh, my!