State threatens Cupertino with lawsuit over housing

The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) doesn’t believe the City of Cupertino is living up to its obligations to meet its housing obligations under state law and has threatened to sue the municipality over that failure.

The Mercury News is reporting that the state issued a letter to the city, warning that it must fulfill its obligations to build housing in conjunction with “a massive housing, office and retail development proposed on the site of the old Vallco Shopping Mall.” If it doesn’t Cupertino could “fall out of compliance with its state-mandated housing goals.”

The paper reports that the developer, Sand Hill Property Company, has had two separate plans for the site and that each has failed to get underway. The latest snag is that a group of residents, Friends of Better Cupertino, “is suing the city to block the project…The city is not fighting back against that lawsuit, the state noted in its letter.”