Rancho Rinconada
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Rancho Rinconada is a residential neighborhood in Santa Clara County, California, bordered by Lawrence Expressway, Stevens Creek Boulevard, Miller Avenue, and Bollinger Road. In the 1990s the neighborhood, which had been an unincorporated pocket of Santa Clara County, was annexed by San Jose and Cupertino.
The homes in Rancho Rinconada were originally low cost, small, single story houses built in the 1950s. In the 1990s, a portion of the neighborhood bordering San Jose along Lawrence Expresway was annexed by the city and construction started on large, executive homes. Rancho Rinconada then became a target for wealthy Silicon Valley executives, as the county's development laws, which the rest of the neighborhood was still subject to, allowed remodeling or rebuilding a home up to the size of the largest home in the immediate area. Additionally, the county did not have community input or review of building plans. As a result, newly rich families bought property in unincorporated Rancho Rinconada and demolished the existing house to build a new monster house, a multi-story house that covered the maximum amount of the lot allowed, often built to within 5 feet of the property line on all sides. As each new monster house was built, the area where they were allowed increased.
In March 1999 the residents of the unincorporated part of Rancho Rinconada voted to be annexed to Cupertino, with the promise of more restrictive property development procedures and improved services to the neighborhood. Later that month, the Cupertino City Council voted into law a bill that required neighborhood comment and reduced the percentage of a lot that could be covered by a building.
The neighborhood is bordered by the West San Jose neighborhood to the east and south, central Cupertino to the west, and the city of Santa Clara to the north.