Jim's Sunnyvale Blog | Former Sunnyvale Mayor Jim Griffith

10/14/2014 Council Preview – Landbank and Minimum Wage

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Jim Griffith

This is going to be a long night.

We start the evening with a closed session regarding ongoing labor negotiations with the Sunnyvale Managers Association, followed by a second closed session involving litigation between our RDA successor agency and the County Office of Education.

The general session starts with three separate special orders. The first recognizes Rotary’s World Polio Day. The second recognizes National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And the third is our annual Fire Safety Poster Contest awards.

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Santa Clara Holds Stadium Traffic Outreach Meeting

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Jim Griffith

The City of Santa Clara will be hosting a community meeting for residents and business owners to provide constructive feedback on stadium traffic. Somehow, I suspect this may be of interest to some Sunnyvale residents… You can find all of the details here.

09/30/2014 Council Preview

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Jim Griffith

Long night, at least for some of us. We start the evening with our semi-annual performance review for the City Attorney. This is followed by what should be interesting – a study session on our criteria for accepting park land dedication. Brief explanation here. When new housing is constructed, the applicant is required to give us a certain amount of their land, or the cash equivalent. From memory, the current standard is that for every 1000 new people expected to be housed, an applicant must give us five acres of land, or the cash equivalent at $69/square foot. And the city has the option to require a land dedication or to accept cash, which is then used to either buy land or perform capital improvements on our existing parks. But there are times when it’s a bad thing for us to accept land. For instance, if there are known toxins in the soil, it may create too much liability for the city to accept land. This study session will go over the existing standards.

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SVBJ: Super Bowl 50 Will Squeeze Hotel Space

Posted on September 26, 2014 by Jim Griffith

The Silicon Valley Business Journal has an article on something a lot of us are already dealing with – the fact that Super Bowl 50 in 2016 will consume every available hotel room in the region. Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews told the Cities Association of Santa Clara County several months ago “expect every one of your hotels to be fully booked for a couple of weeks”.

One of the more clever ideas I’ve heard floated by some residents is to rent out your home for a week at some obnoxious rate, then spend Super Bowl week in Hawaii instead of in Sunnyvale with money left over. Engage in this notion at your own risk…

Two Sunnyvale Projects Win SVBJ Structures Awards

Posted on September 26, 2014 by Jim Griffith

The Silicon Valley Business Journal has announced its 2014 Structures Awards winners, and two Sunnyvale projects were honored. Jay Paul’s new Moffett Place project was awarded Best Speculative Project. And Sharp Development was awarded Best Reuse/Rehab Project for its net zero redesign of 435 Indio Way. Congratulations to both award winners for showcasing what’s possible in Sunnyvale.