Cupertino City Council
May 20, 2025

1 CUPERTINO CITY COUNCIL AD-HOC LEGISLATIVE REVIEW SUBCOMMITTEE MAY 13, 2025 ZOOM MEETING REPORT Members Present: Vice Mayor Moore, Councilmember Wang Staff Present: Acting City Manager Tina Kapoor, Sr. Management Analyst Astrid Robles Lobbyists Present: Jason Gonsalves, Paul Gonsalves The Cupertino City Council Ad hoc Legislative Review Subcommittee met on Zoom May 13, 2025, had a welcome and kickoff, received a legislative update from our Lobbyists, and discussed several bills of interest. The Subcommittee recommends that the City Council approve the following position recommendations and that the Mayor sends letters to the State Legislature with these recommendations: Summary of Recommended Positions SB 753 (Cortese) – Special business regulations: shopping carts: Support SB 79 (Wiener) – Local government land: public transit use: housing development: transit-oriented development: Oppose AB 650 (Papan) – Planning and zoning: housing element: regional housing needs allocation: Support AB 340 (Ahrens) – Employer-employee relations: confidential communications: Oppose AB 648 (Zbur) – Community colleges: housing: local zoning regulations: exemption: Oppose SB 501 (Allen) – Household Hazardous Waste Producer Responsibility Act: Support Bill details SB 753 (Cortese) - Special business regulations: shopping carts. • This bill proposes to expand the authority for cities and counties to recover costs for retrieving shopping carts and returning them to their owners. • Passed the Senate Local Government Committee on May 7, 2025 with a vote of 6-1. • The bill is currently on the Senate Floor and is eligible to be taken up at any time. • The bill is supported by: o League of CA Cities 2 o City of Concord SB 79 (Wiener) Local government land: public transit use: housing development: transit-oriented development. • This bill proposes to make transit-oriented development an allowable use on specified sites, gives transit agencies more flexibility under the Surplus Land Act, and exempts specified projects from the California Environmental Quality Act. • This bill passed the Senate Housing Committee on April 22, 2025 with a vote of 6-2. • This bill passed out of the Senate Local Government Committee on April 30, 2025 with a vote of 4-3 • The bill was set to be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 12, 2025, however, the Senator Wiener pulled the bill from that hearing and it is now set for May 19th in the Senate Appropriations Committee. • The bill is supported by: o City of West Hollywood o Alexander Pedersen - Vice Mayor, Capitola o Brian Barnacle - Councilmember, Petaluma o Emily Ramos - Vice Mayor, Mountain View o James Coleman - Councilmember, South San Francisco o Laura Nakamura - Vice Mayor, Concord o Lucas Ramirez - Councilmember, Mountain View o Mark Dinan - Vice Mayor, East Palo Alto o Matthew Solomon - Councilmember, Emeryville o Phoebe Shin Venkat - Councilmember, Foster City o Rashi Kesarwani - Councilmember, Berkeley o Sergio Lopez - Mayor, Campbell • The bill is opposed by: o City of Belvedere o City of Brentwood o City of Concord o City of Fairfield o City of Lafayette o City of Larkspur o City of Oakley o City of San Rafael o City of Sausalito o City of Walnut Creek AB 650 (Papan) Planning and zoning: housing element: regional housing needs allocation. • This bill proposes to extend a number of timelines in the process of determining regional 3 housing needs and regional housing needs allocations (RHNA) and housing element revisions, and requires the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to provide specific analysis or text to local governments to remedy deficiencies in their draft housing element revisions. • This bill was heard in the Assembly Housing & Community Development Committee on April 24, 2025 and passed on a 11-0 vote. • The bill was heard next in the Assembly Local Government Committee on April 30, 2025 and passed on a 9-0 vote. • The bill is currently in the Assembly Appropriations Committee awaiting a hearing date. • The bill is sponsored by the League of CA Cities and supported by the following neighboring cities: o City of Belmont o City of Concord o City of Martinez o City of Oakley o City of Rohnert Park o City of Salinas o City of San Mateo o City of Walnut Creek AB 340 (Ahrens) Employer-employee relations: confidential communications. • This bill proposes to prohibit an employer from questioning an employee or employee representative regarding communications between the employee and employee representative. • This bill was heard in the Assembly Public Employment & Retirement Committee on March 19, 2025 and passed on a 6-0 vote. • This bill was heard next in the Assembly Appropriations Committee on April 23, 2025 and was sent to the suspense file due to costs. • This bill is opposed by the League of CA Cities AB 648 (Zbur) Community colleges: housing: local zoning regulations: exemption. • This bill proposes to exempt the construction of faculty and staff housing projects, student housing projects, and university housing development projects from local zoning regulations of any city, county, or city and county when constructed on property owned or leased by a community college district (CCD). • This bill was heard in the Assembly Higher Education Committee on March 16, 2025 and passed on an 7-3 vote. • This bill was heard next in the Assembly Local government Committee on April 30, 2025 and 4 passed on a 9-0 vote. • The bill is currently on the Assembly Floor and is eligible to be taken up at any time. • The bill is supported by the city of Santa Monica. • The bill is opposed by the League of CA Cities. SB 501 (Allen) Household Hazardous Waste Producer Responsibility Act. • This bill proposes to establish an extended producer responsibility (EPR) or stewardship program for the collection, transportation, recycling, and the safe and proper management of products containing household hazardous waste (HHW) in California. • This bill is substantially similar to SB 1143 (Allen, Ch. 989, Stats. 2024). SB 1143 was eventually amended to delete the contents of the bill an instead address a completely different topic. • This bill was heard in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee on April 1, 2025 and passed on a 6-0 vote. • The bill was heard next in the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 22, 2025 and passed on an 11-0 vote. • The bill was heard next in the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 5, 2025 and was placed on the suspense file due to costs. • The bill is supported by: o City of San Jose o City of Santa Maria o City of Roseville o League of CA Cities After a robust discussion of the various bills, staff presented the updated Legislative Activity page here: https://www.cupertino.gov/Your-City/City-Council/Legislative-Activity and provided information on how to visit the prior year’s pages and how to contact your legislators here: https://www.cupertino.gov/Your-City/City-Council/Legislative-Activity/Contact-your-Legislators The ad hoc committee tentatively plans to meet June 10, 2025. Report prepared by: Vice Mayor Moore May 13, 2025.