Vallco Town Center Specific Plan

Despite its location in the heart of Silicon Valley, a stone’s throw from Apple’s new headquarters, Vallco Mall had died. The owner’s previous proposals to redevelop the site had been shot down, in no small part due to fears about traffic. To transform the mall, the City of Cupertino hired a multidisciplinary team to create a new plan.

Siegman & Associates led the transportation planning effort for the plan, as part of a team led by Opticos Design. To develop support for a community-led vision, the team completed a robust public engagement process, including a four-day design charrette which attracted hundreds of participants. 928 people participated in person; 3,219 public comments were recorded; and 152 hours of public meetings and charrette days were included.

The resulting community vision called for a vibrant, walkable, mixed-use town center. To predictably implement the vision, the team crafted the city’s first form-based code. Siegman & Associates added a robust transportation strategy to minimize traffic. The plan transforms adjacent arterials into pedestrian-friendly boulevards, adding transit lanes, protected bicycle lanes, wide sidewalks, and slow-moving side drives. New streets are similarly walkable.

Mobility hubs combine public transit stops, carshare and bikeshare pods, and bike storage and repair. Recommended traffic-reducing code provisions require extensive transportation demand management services for employees and residents.

All of the work described above was completed in under twelve months, culminating in final approval by City Council in October 2018.

“[The team’s] comprehensive and thoughtful engagement strategies, and ability to communicate alternatives through design and visualization, were invaluable to winning support. It was an unprecedented process, and it was a real pleasure to work with the Opticos team."

 – Aarti Shrivastava, Assistant City Manager”