Fairly straightforward meeting, mostly because we only just had a meeting the week before.
We start the meeting with no study or closed sessions, so first up is a special order of the day recognizing Arbor Day. We’ve got a relatively small consent calendar, with a slurry seal contract, a procedural issue involving our local health officer, and another proposal rejection (janitorial services this time).
We’ve now identified the source of the Walmart rumor, so I’m passing along some details. Walmart has signed a lease to open a Walmart Express in the Mercado Center, where the now-closed Micro Center was located – some 40,000 square feet of office space.
I wanted to put out an alert that Frances between Washington and Evelyn is currently closed, due to a crane collapse at the Carmel Properties development (the northern-most of the two developments being done near Plaza del Sol). Basically, a crane fell in a pit and tipped over. Initial reports are no injuries and no damage to the construction, so it’s mostly a matter of removing the crane. But this will block one of two entrances to the west side Murphy Avenue parking lot, and it will interfere with the Frances bus stop as well, and reduce access to the Caltrain Station. Allow extra time if you depend on any of those services, until the crane is removed. I don’t have an ETA on that.
Update: the closure will affect bus lines 53, 54, 55, and 304.
Update 2: Crane was brought in, but was insufficient to lift the failed crane. They’re bringing in another, larger one.
Update 3: photo courtesy of Ed Chuck Photography – more photos here.
Over the weekend, staff got an anonymous phone call from a resident who received a letter from Walmart, which said that Walmart wants to be his neighbor (suggesting to the resident that Walmart may be pursuing building a store in Sunnyvale, I guess). This is the first staff or I have heard about this, so it obviously concerns me a bit. But since the phone call was anonymous, there’s no easy way to find out what’s going on.
If you’re a Sunnyvale resident and you’ve received such a letter, could you please get in touch with me? I’d like to get some facts on this. Obviously, I’ll maintain any confidentiality that’s desired. And if I learn something that I can share here, I’ll do so. Thanks!
The Silicon Valley Business Journal has an article on the new Toll Brothers single-family home development in the Ponderosa neighborhood, and how the market is for those homes. In short, strong demand, high prices. Interesting read. I didn’t realize just how expensive those homes are, wow.
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