As one of two Councilmembers representing North Sunnyvale (along with the Mayor), Richard has strove to address long-standing concerns and inequities.

Richard has worked hard to address the issue of the loss of retail in our village centers. After repeated delays from Staff, Richard forced the update to the Village Center Master Plan to be brought to Council by summer of 2025. Adopting that update has protected Village Center 4 (containing the Lucky’s and Mi Ranchito grocery stores) from redevelopment to townhouses, by limiting the space allowed for housing to the northwest corner of the Lucky’s lot. In addition, Richard supported the initiative to incentivize the Village Center 5 and 6 developers to retain retail by allowing it to substitute for the normal on-site affordable housing requirement.

To help further address retail accessibility, this year Richard moved forward a Council Policy Proposal to increase services for retail in the City’s Office of Economic Development, develop a retail master plan, and provide a business relocation fund for businesses displaced by Village Center redevelopment—with a special emphasis on underserved communities like North Sunnyvale. While the business relocation fund did not move forward due to lack of majority Council support, the retail strategy and service level priority project is moving forward, and public outreach is expected to begin early next year. Richard is committed to creating new opportunities for retail and grocery stores as part of the General Plan Review slated to begin in summer of 2027.

When the Community Equity Assessment returned to Council in August, Richard made the motion to specifically identify 94085 and 94089 as areas of special concern given the long-standing feelings of disconnectedness from government expressed by North Sunnyvale residents in the community survey. In addition, his motion included instructions for City Staff to work to promote non-City services, such as education, health care, and grocery stores in underserved areas like North Sunnyvale. That motion was adopted unanimously. 

In addition, Richard wants to see the soon-to-open Lakewood Branch Library used as a venue to provide additional resources to North Sunnyvale residents, such as a farmers’ market and office hours for City services to support residents who have trouble getting to City Hall.

He has also fiercely advocated for improved transportation options for North Sunnyvale high school students, who face commutes of anywhere from four to ten miles just to get to school. He is committed to holding the Fremont Union High School District accountable for its longstanding failure to adequately serve the needs of North Sunnyvale students and families, dating back to the closure of Sunnyvale high school in the early 1980s.

As Councilmember, Richard has aimed to improve resident quality of life. Early in his first year, he proposed replacing our badly outdated customer service platform with a new, modern, mobile-friendly platform. That platform, MySunnyvale, launched this summer. You can download it on Android or iOS and use it to contact Staff and report problems like cracked sidewalks, abandoned furniture, graffiti, and other neighborhood annoyances.

Speaking of cracked sidewalks, this year Richard passed an initiative to clear our years-long sidewalk maintenance backlog, which built up over the course of decades as past Councils cut back maintenance funding to weather recessions. Given the depth of that backlog this will take many years to complete, however, the City is investing in tackling the worst locations first and the program is already delivering substantial improvements.

Richard voted to allocate approximately $1.5m to clear the tree-trimming backlog that had built up over the pandemic. He also successfully championed the establishment of a red-curb painting program, which has refreshed or added red curb paint at hundreds of “no-parking” locations throughout the City. Residents are now also able to request a red curb be painted in areas where “no parking” laws are being ignored, or where paint has degraded.

Finally, Richard supported strengthening and clarifying our 72-hour parking ordinance and increasing funding for our Vehicle Abatement team, to help keep our neighborhood streets safe and free from obstruction and blight.

Richard has delivered key improvements to resident safety over the past four years. This year, Council unanimously voted to create a five-member Community Crime Reduction Task Force within the Department of Public Safety, to act as a floating resource to address public safety concerns without drawing resources from patrol.

This year, Richard successfully led an initiative to formally bar ICE agents from City Property. In addition, Richard was proud to join the successful vote to file a “friend of the court” brief on the lawsuit against the proposed ICE detention center in Gilroy.

Richard has also led efforts to enforce a moratorium on smoke shops in the City. Many of these establishments have been found to be illegally selling controlled substances such as nitrous oxide (the sale of which the City has now also restricted) and flavored tobacco and vapes, which target children. The City is continuing to work on zoning solutions to permanently restrict smoke shops.

In the wake of controversy over the use of Flock cameras, Richard called the item for public discussion in Council to give the community the opportunity to speak. While Flock raises real privacy concerns, our limited deployment of Flock cameras was critical in stopping the spate of armed robberies of Indian jewelry stores, have helped resolve fatal crimes, and have led to the safe return of vulnerable missing persons. Ultimately, Council unanimously accepted Richard’s motion to maintain the cameras under the strictest safeguards, including restricted access within the Department of Public Safety, monthly internal usage audits, and firm instructions to staff that the cameras are to be disabled if there is any suspicion of unauthorized external access.

Richard continues to believe that, while this technology is valuable and is protecting resident lives, its use must be strictly supervised and that alternative vendor options should be considered when the contract comes up for renewal 2027.

Richard has also spearheaded key transportation safety improvements since even before he was on Council, when he served as Chair of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission. He has helped to deliver neighborhood intersection improvements like the San Miguel HAWK beacon and the new left-turn signal coming soon to Sunnyvale and California Ave., as well as curb bulbouts and other safety improvements. He also successfully prioritized a study to add traffic signals to key intersections on Fair Oaks, including at Balsam, which would better connect the SNAIL neighborhood to Fair Oaks Park, and at Taylor, an unsignalized crossing which has tragically seen two pedestrian deaths.

Richard has also seen two study issues he proposed on the BPAC through to completion. The first is to implement buffered bike lanes on Hollenbeck Ave. Though not in District 5, Hollenbeck is a crucial corridor for biking to Fremont High School, which serves most North Sunnyvale residents.

In addition, this January Council approved the Sunnyvale Caltrain Station Pedestrian-Bicycle Access Study, which will bring substantial bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements including new bike lanes, mixed use trails, and safe crossings to the area surrounding Sunnyvale Caltrain Station, with a special focus on improving access from the North.

Finally, Richard is proud to have supported the establishment of a citywide shuttle service, the BEAM, offering low-cost rides throughout the City, which just rolled out this August. Download and install the app on iOS or Android and book your ride today!

Richard ran for office on a pro-housing platform, because he understands that the housing crisis is driving the homelessness crisis, snarling our traffic, and worsening everyone’s quality of life in Silicon Valley. That’s why he is proud to have dedicated City funds to support the construction of hundreds of units of affordable housing throughout the City, including over 100 homes on Charles St., 280 homes on Sonora Court, 60 homes on Weddell, and more. In addition, he was delighted to approve the proposed deal with the developer of the former Orchard Supply Hardware site to dedicate and entitle space for a 160-home affordable housing project. 

Richard has also supported allocating millions of dollars toward social services for unhoused and vulnerable residents, including: 

• buying out Sunnyvale Community Services’ mortgage in the wake of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse

• establishing a motel-stay program for unhoused residents

• funding the Dignity on Wheels mobile laundry and shower clinic

• reserving over 2 million dollars a year in ongoing funding for unhoused services

• moving forward the establishment of safe parking sites as a city priority

In addition, Richard was proud to deliver a forward-thinking Housing Element, which earned Sunnyvale the state’s official pro-housing designation, bringing many benefits to our community. In addition, Richard has supported smart, progressive mixed-use zoning, like in Moffett Park, where he voted to zone for an additional 20,000 new homes and additional retail services, creating an entire new residential district within the City.

Richard also successfully led the charge to replace the Study Issue Process, Sunnyvale’s main process for policy change, which over the years had become badly bloated, to the point where it was said that study issues were “where good ideas went to die”. In 2026, we switched to the new Council Priority Projects, saving the City the equivalent of a full-time staffer’s work per year. This simpler, more streamlined process is easier for the public to understand and is accelerating delivery of key projects.

Richard also took the initiative to propose the Charter Review Process, the culmination of which is Measures G, H, and I on your ballots this fall. Richard is proud to have helped deliver these critical charter amendments to your ballot this fall, and respectfully urges you to votes yes on these measures.

Finally, while MySunnyvale has also streamlined resident interactions with the City, it has also improved internal city workflows, leading to faster responses and better work tracking and management.