The Cupertino Courier reports that the Cupertino planning commission voted earlier this week to rezone a 7.78-acre portion of a 50-acre property assemblage owned by Apple to allow the company to build its planned second corporate campus just a few miles from its headquarters. Apple announced in April 2006 that it had purchased the properties and planned to consolidate at the new campus its scattered leased facilities acquired as the company underwent rapid expansion.
The site, which is south of the Hewlett-Packard campus, houses two office buildings currently occupied by Apple employees.
The buildings were already on the property from the site's industrial days. Before Apple purchased the property in 2006, the city rezoned the industrial site to residential in anticipation of a 130-unit townhouse and condominium project that previous property owners Morley Brothers had proposed.
Apple reportedly does not yet have specific plans for the new campus, but required the rezoning, which had been considered but not approved by the planning commission earlier this year, in order to begin its planning and design process.
Aside from its main headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop, Apple has employees spread out in buildings along De Anza Boulevard and throughout the city. Jobs described the far-flung nature as frustrating. He said he hoped they would be able to consolidate all Cupertino employees at the current Infinite Loop campus and at a future campus.
A one-acre section of the property, which lies directly adjacent to Interstate 280, will remain zoned for a public park.
