Larry Klein
Mayor
Linda Sell
Vice Mayor
Alysa Cisneros
Councilmember
Richard Mehlinger
Councilmember
Murali Srinivasan
Councilmember
Charlsie Chang
Councilmember
Eileen Le
Councilmember
September 22, 2025
The
Honorable Gavin Newsom
Governor
California State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE:
SB 79 (Wiener): Housing development: transit-oriented development -
NEUTRAL
Dear
Governor Newsom,
The
City of Sunnyvale moves to neutral on Senate Bill 79. The Senator and his staff have been generous with their time and worked with Sunnyvale to add key protections to the bill. Due to SB 79’s override of cities’ general plans and state -mandated housing elements, found here within our codes: General Plan LUTE Policies LT -1.2a, LT-1.6b, LT-1.7, LT-3.1, LT-8.4, LT -4.3, LT-14.8C, LT-7.2; General Plan Community Vision Goal CV -1, and Policy CV -1.1, CV -1.2, the City of Sunnyvale has been firm in its opposition to SB 79.
The
City of Sunnyvale has a historic part of our downtown that dates to 1860. Named after the farmer that planted the first orchard in Santa Clara Valley, Martin Murphy Jr., historic Murphy Avenue, the Downtown Core, Plaza Del Sol, and Redwood Square, are the crown jewels of Sunnyvale. Due to the area’s appeal, our historic downtown has long drawn the eye of developers. Due to local protection, our historic areas have remained intact. SB 79 was set to change that. After some back and forth with the author’s office and proponents of the bill, the Senator exempted historic areas, so long as they do not exceed ten percent of the eligible area, from development.
As
SB 79 proceeded through the legislative process, Senator Wiener by and large exempted existing affordable housing from the bill, which for deed-restricted affordable housing units, was a real win. However, the City of Sunnyvale is home to just shy of 4,000 mobile homes, nearly all of which are within ½ mile of a transit stop. Mobile homes, though, a re not deed -restricted affordable housing. Rather, they are a form of naturally occurring affordable housing, which means they are not protected by Senate Bill 79 as it is currently enrolled. Our State Senator, Senator Wahab, raised this issue with Senator Wiener. Senator Wahab immediately dove in and worked with housing staff and Senator Wiener to negotiate language that will add mobile homes to the list of protected housing in a fix- it bill. By the time the issue had been raised and language agreed to, it was too late to add the protection to SB 79 before its final vote. Committed Attachment 5
The Honorable Gavin Newsom, Governor
September 22, 2025
to bettering the issue, Senator Wiener wrote a letter to the journal committing to run a fix-it bill and amending the agreed-to protections into the code.
Due to these two very specific protections, which address two of Sunnyvale’s greatest concerns, the City of Sunnyvale moves to a neutral position on SB 79, though concerns around preserving cities’ ability to ensure diverse land uses and complete neighborhoods remain. As a Prohousing-Designated city, we thank Senator Wahab and Senator Wiener for their efforts to improve housing in California while also protecting what makes our cities so special. We thank the Governor too for his push to stimulate housing construction. For these reasons, the City of Sunnyvale moves to neutral on Senate Bill
79. Please do not hesitate to contact me, Trudi Ryan, Director of Community Development at 408-730-7435 or [email protected] or George Schroeder, Principal Planner, at [email protected] or 408-730-7443, if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Larry Klein
Mayor
cc: Senator Dr. Aisha Wahab
Assembly Member Patrick Ahrens
Senator Scott Wiener
Sunnyvale City Council
Tim Kirby, City Manager
Sarah Johnson-Rios, Assistant City Manager
Trudi Ryan, Director of Community Development
George Schroeder, Principal Planner
Attachment 4
Attachment 5