Cubberley Property Appraisal Release

At a glance

Based on auto-generated captions; names and numbers may be misheard.

What: whether the City should publicly release the two appraisal reports behind its agreement to buy about 7 of the 35.5 acres of the Cubberley (captioned "Coverly") site from the Palo Alto Unified School District.
Where it stands: on October 13, 2026 the Council voted 7-0 to release both appraisals (dated August 29, 2024 and September 5, 2024).
Next: staff publish the appraisals with a cover memo, wording to be finalized by the mayor and staff. The funding question goes to voters on Measure J Cubberley Renovation Ballot Measure.

On October 5 the City and the school district released a joint statement with appraisal figures, third-party interest in the property and the difficulty of valuing it, but not the appraisal documents themselves.
The agreed price was about $60.65 million (2024 dollars). The district's position was about $90 million, based on potential long-term leases to private schools.
Councilmembers said negotiations with the district are concluded, so the earlier reason for confidentiality no longer applies.
Two appraisals exist from the same appraiser; the second followed staff questions on comparable sales.

All speakers supported release, citing transparency and the public vote on the measure in under 30 days; Vice Mayor Stone said the appraisal question had distracted from the merits of the measure.
Councilmember Burt and Councilmember Lythcott-Haims expected opponents to pick at selected comparables.
Councilmember Reckdahl said the appraisals were better than expected, but the comparables range widely, and they exclude building value and demolition costs.
Lythcott-Haims said the appraisals value 8 acres, so the per-acre figure must be scaled to 7 acres; readers will see higher headline numbers than those released to the media.
The motion was made by Councilmember Lu and seconded by Mayor Veenker; it was clarified to cover only the two appraisal reports.
A draft cover memo by Reckdahl and Burt, explaining why the price was a negotiated result rather than either side's position, was shown on screen. It was not voted on; the mayor and staff will finalize wording.

Two residents spoke: one urged evidence-based debate over a cartoon in a local paper, one supported the purchase and the sales tax and urged the Council to release the documents.

About 37 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-13 - City Council Special Meeting	37

2026-10-13 - City Council Special Meeting - Council voted 7-0 to release both appraisals; reviewed a draft cover memo to accompany them.
2026-10-05 - City Council Regular Meeting - Mayor read a joint city and school district statement: 2024 appraisal range $43.6 million to $60.2 million; agreed price $60.65 million in 2024, equivalent to $65.5 million in 2027.