REPORT TO ARTS COMMISSION
SUBJECT
Title
Approve 2 Design Proposals for The Great Box Cover-up! (Utility Box Art Project-Phase 3)
Report
BACKGROUND
On November 10, 2020, the City Council approved $50,000 from the Public Art Fund to implement a utility box art project (Attachment 1 - RTC No. 20-0944). The project stemmed from the public outreach process conducted for the Master Plan for Public Art. The community, Arts Commission, and City Council expressed an interest in implementing a temporary, community-based art project, in particular a utility box art project.
Phase 1, completed in Spring 2022, included 12 signal boxes located within the downtown area. Phase 2, completed in Spring 2023, included 16 signal boxes located throughout Sunnyvale (Attachment 2).
Phase 3 of the Great Box Cover-up! is currently underway and includes 11 signal boxes reserved for students from the four high schools that serve Sunnyvale residents.
This report includes information on the design proposals for two of the four schools (Kings Academy and Wilcox High School). The remaining two schools (Homestead High School and Fremont High School) will participate during the 2024-2025 school year.
On May 16, 2023, City Council authorized the Arts Commission to approve Phase 3 of The Great Box Cover-up! including conceptual designs (Attachment 3 - RTC No. 23-0581). Therefore, City Council is not scheduled to review the design proposals for Phase 3.
EXISTING POLICY
Sunnyvale Municipal Code 19.52 - Art in Private Development
Sunnyvale Council Policy 6.4.4 - Art in Public Places
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Painting existing utility boxes does not require environmental review because it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity may have a significant effect on the environment (California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15061(b)(3)), and it is not a project or a reasonably foreseeable indirect change to the environm...
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