Cupertino approves Vallco development south of Apple Park

An entrance to the Food Court of the Vallco shopping mall is fenced off in Cupertino, Calif. on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. Few tenants remain at the mall in the western Santa Clara Valley, including an AMC Theater and a couple of restaurants, but it is largely abandoned. less An entrance to the Food Court of the Vallco shopping mall is fenced off in Cupertino, Calif. on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. Few tenants remain at the mall in the western Santa Clara Valley, including an AMC ... more Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 37 Caption Close Cupertino approves Vallco development south of Apple Park 1 / 37 Back to Gallery

Cupertino city officials voted Wednesday evening to approve a massive housing and office development that would replace the mostly vacant Vallco Mall.

Construction on the $4 billion project, one of the largest in Silicon Valley and less than a mile from Apple’s new headquarters, could start soon.

Developer Sand Hill Property Co. has been working on the project since 2014 and faced opposition from residents who felt it was too dense for suburban Cupertino.

The tussle over the Sand Hill Property Co. project’s fate simmered at Tuesday’s nine-hour City Council meeting, leading to an extended, five-hour hearing Wednesday.

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The project won a major victory after city staff found that it qualified for streamlined approval under SB35, a state housing law passed in 2017. SB35 requires cities that haven’t built enough housing under state guidelines to approve projects with affordable units that meet other requirements including using union labor for construction.

“Cupertino, like the entire Bay Area, is in desperate need of housing of all kinds,” state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who authored SB35, said in a statement Wednesday prior to the vote.

The proposal approved Wednesday includes 2,923 residential units, 485,000 square feet of retail space and 1.5 million square feet of office space.

Among the other amenities are a performing arts center, city hall, cash benefits to the Cupertino Unified School District, and six acres of public open space at the proposed town center site.

But the request to dedicate some of that residential space for affordable housing inflamed some Cupertino residents.

Back-and-forth about the economic impact and public notice for the Vallco project made up the bulk of Wednesday’s meeting.

Council members expressed worries that benefits like the cash influx to the school district would be the first to be cut if a resident sued over the development.

Mayor Darcy Paul, a member of the council, sought to cut the amount of office space in the plan. His amendments were voted down, with other council members noting that the agreement with the developer had been carefully negotiated.

Councilman Barry Chang said he heard from senior Apple managers at a recent company event that they were concerned about traffic and housing prices, and that Apple employees commuting from Oakland faced 90-minute commutes.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story included a quote from an unnamed Cupertino resident in violation of The Chronicle’s policy on anonymous sources. It has been removed.

Gwendolyn Wu and Roland Li are Chronicle staff writers. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com, roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawu, @rolandlisf