Apple Offers $9.7 Million For Transportation Projects In Cupertino

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Christal Rasband

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Jul 11, 2024, 9:59:22 AM7/11/24

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The city is now postponing a ballot measure until 2020, specifically with the aim of getting Apple and other businesses' private funding towards alleviating traffic. Government staff have reportedly been meeting with Apple representatives "once every two weeks" since October.

Apple offers $9.7 million for transportation projects in Cupertino

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Some Cupertino council members have criticized the situation, noting that a one-time payment of $9.7 million doesn't compare against $10 million per year, and that the planned projects don't directly target vehicle traffic, instead assuming people will take alternate means of transportation such as bikes, scooters, and boards.

Vice Mayor Liang Chao has called for city staff involving the council more closely in talks with Apple, and asked whether the company might be willing to swap some projects out for car thoroughfare improvements. Chao and council member Darcy Paul have also proposed Apple putting money towards a community shuttle that would connect destinations with transportation hubs.

"Apple was interested in bike and pedestrian improvements...it's not that every need the city has, you go and ask them for money," Mayor Steven Scharf commented, later responding to Chao by saying "I think they've decided how much they want to donate."

No other word to describe this than shakedown. Cupertino is biting the hand that feeds them. Most cities would kill to have Apple with their thousands of highly compensated employees living and spending their money in and around town. Politicians have no shame.

jimh2 said: No other word to describe this than shakedown. Cupertino is biting the hand that feeds them. Most cities would kill to have Apple with their thousands of highly compensated employees living and spending their money in and around town. Politicians have no shame.No shame indeed!

Most of the 175 acre area is located on the former Hewlett Packard (HP) campus and is bounded by I-280 to the south, Wolfe Road to the west, Homestead Road to the north and North Tantau Avenue to the east. The replacement and rebuild proposal includes:

On June 29, 2012, the proposed Apple Campus 2 Project was certified as an Environmental Leadership Development Project (Leadership Project) by the Governor's Office pursuant to the Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011 (AB 900).

On May 24, 2013 supplemental application materials were also found to be consistent with the certified application. Apple's application for obtaining this status and additional information regarding this Act is available here.

Apple has a robust transportation demand program with a multi-pronged approach that encourages employees to walk, bike, or take transit to work. Apple has a very successful shuttle service for its employees, serving people who live as far as Napa, Santa Cruz, and places in between. Currently, 28% of Apple employees commute by alternative means of transportation.

In addition, Apple has committed to increasing the share of employees using an alternative means of transportation on the new campus to 34%. The newly built campus has a transit center to accommodate buses and bicycles for employees to use as they
commute from home and get around the City to other offices. Apple also plans to provide other incentives to reduce car trips.

The Apple Park project is no different than any other construction project built in Cupertino when it comes to the review and approval of construction drawings stamped and signed by licensed professionals. Plans developed for each building are submitted to the City for review to verify compliance with all local and State adopted codes and regulations. These codes standards consist of Building and Fire Life Safety, Structural, Plumbing, Mechanical, Electrical, Accessibility, and Energy regulations.

Plans are also routed to the Planning and Public Works departments for review and approval to comply with requirements of these respective departments. Other departments and districts, such as the Fire Department, Health Department, Cupertino
Sanitary District, Santa Clara and Cupertino Unified School Districts, Fremont Union High School District, Water District, Valley Transportation Authority, and PG&E were all collectively part of the development review process and ensure the codes and standards for each stakeholder have been met.

Apple was required to make a total of $75 million in physical improvements in facilities located in the cities of Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and San Jose, as well as the County of Santa Clara and Caltrans jurisdiction. Contributions were made toward the following projects/studies identified with feedback from other cities and agencies were made:

Apple Vision Pro brings a new dimension to powerful, personal computing by changing the way users interact with their favorite apps, capture and relive memories, enjoy stunning TV shows and movies, and connect with others in FaceTime.

An infinite canvas for apps at work and at home: visionOS features a three-dimensional interface that frees apps from the boundaries of a display so they can appear side by side at any scale. Apple Vision Pro enables users to be even more productive, with infinite screen real estate, access to their favorite apps, and all-new ways to multitask. And with support for Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad, users can set up the perfect workspace or bring the powerful capabilities of their Mac into Vision Pro wirelessly, creating an enormous, private, and portable 4K display with incredibly crisp text.

Engaging entertainment experiences: With two ultra-high-resolution displays, Apple Vision Pro can transform any space into a personal movie theater with a screen that feels 100 feet wide and an advanced Spatial Audio system. Users can watch movies and TV shows, or enjoy stunning three-dimensional movies. Apple Immersive Video offers 180-degree high-resolution recordings with Spatial Audio, and users can access an exciting lineup of immersive videos that transport them to entirely new places.

Spatial computing makes new types of games possible with titles that can span a spectrum of immersion and bring gamers into all-new worlds. Users can also play over 100 Apple Arcade games on a screen as large as they want, with incredible immersive audio and support for popular game controllers.

Built on the foundation of decades of engineering innovation in macOS, iOS, and iPadOS, visionOS was designed from the ground up to support the low-latency requirements of spatial computing. The result is a revolutionary operating system that delivers powerful spatial experiences that can take advantage of the space around the user, unlocking new opportunities at work and at home.

Apple Vision Pro builds on Apple innovation and experience designing high-performance products like Mac, iPhone, and wearables like Apple Watch, culminating in the most advanced personal electronics device ever. To achieve ambitious goals for performance, mobility, and wearability, Apple utilized the most advanced materials possible.

Apple Vision Pro is designed to deliver phenomenal compute performance in a compact wearable form factor. Featuring a breakthrough ultra-high-resolution display system built on top of an Apple silicon chip, Vision Pro uses micro-OLED technology to pack 23 million pixels into two displays, each the size of a postage stamp, with wide color and high dynamic range. This technological breakthrough, combined with custom catadioptric lenses that enable incredible sharpness and clarity, delivers jaw-dropping experiences. Users with vision correction needs will use ZEISS Optical Inserts to ensure visual fidelity and eye tracking accuracy.2

Apple Vision Pro starts at $3,499 (U.S.), and will be available early next year on apple.com and at Apple Store locations in the U.S., with more countries coming later next year. Customers will be able to learn about, experience, and personalize their fit for Vision Pro at Apple Store locations. For more information about Vision Pro, visit apple.com/apple-vision-pro.

Millions of dollars in sales tax revenue that the city of Cupertino, California shares with hometown company Apple Inc. would be protected until 2035 under legislation a group of lawmakers is asking California Governor Gavin Newsom to pursue, reports Bloomberg Law.

Six lawmakers representing Santa Clara County asked the Democratic governor for a bill blocking redistribution of the tax revenue in question away from cities in the county, or the county as a whole, according to a copy of their Aug. 18 letter to Newsom obtained by Bloomberg Law.

Also in 2019, The Mercury News reported that Apple was offering to spend $9.7 million on five bike and pedestrian-oriented transportation projects for the city of Cupertino, a proposal by the company after the city council agreed to put off changes to the business license tax that would have cost Apple $9 million a year.

Cupertino is facing a budget shortfall starting this year. The decline in revenue is due to a change in sales tax distributions based on an audit by the CDFTA (California Department of Fee and Tax Administration) of how Cupertino receives sales tax revenue from Apple.

At the Cupertino City Council meeting on April 13, the staff provided a review of the worst-case scenario of what the projected revenue impact for the city would be over the next ten years. (See video here, item 6).

The majority of the Councilmembers acknowledge that the magnitude of the cut is still in doubt. Vice Mayor Mohan was very clear about the uncertainty in the revenue information that the city has at this time.