Demand environmental protections at Stanford
Posted June 16, 2005 / Updated September 1, 2005

• Why this is important    
• What's happening   UPDATED
• What you can do    UPDATED

In December 2000, Santa Clara County signed off on Stanford University's Community Plan and General Use Permit (GUP), which granted the university five million square feet of development rights. In exchange for this permission to expand development, Stanford agreed to several conditions in the GUP that would provide environmental protections for the community.

Please join us in asking the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to move forward now and keep these long-delayed promises of environmental protections.

Why this is important    
This plan, more than two years in the making, outlines the strongest County restrictions ever on University growth. The impacts of the massive development rights granted to Stanford will affect the entire region. In exchange for the development entitlement, the County included a number of conditions intended to mitigate these impacts, including the preparation of a Special Conservation Area Plan and zoning for biologically important and sensitive areas in the foothills, and the dedication of two trails to benefit the community.

back to top

What's happening   UPDATED
Stanford agreed to meet all the conditions of the GUP, and the County is responsible for enforcing its own policies. Unfortunately, the County has shown no leadership on these issues, and several times has buckled under pressure from Stanford at the expense of the greater interests of the community.

In fact, when the County planner responsible for overseeing this project left the position, the seat was vacant for months. It has recently been filled, and now it's time to make sure the public gets what was promised: real mitigations and environmental protections. Committee for Green Foothills is asking Santa Clara County to move forward on the following projects:

TRAILS
Stanford committed to dedicate two permanent trails on their land to benefit the community. Initial planning hasn't even started for the second promised trail, the C1 Trail.

Our June 30, 2005 letter to Supervisor Kniss makes the case that the community deserves these trails now, to mitigate for the development that was approved - and started - four and a half years ago.

SPECIAL CONSERVATION AREA PLAN AND ZONING
The Special Conservation Areas (SCA) are those the GUP defines as unsuitable for development "due to natural resource constraints." The GUP requires Stanford to develop an SCA management plan with specific goals. The plan Stanford submitted was long on generalities but short on specifics and goals; County planning staff has asked Stanford to amend the draft with specifics, but the University has insisted that its plans are more than adequate. We are asking the Supervisors to move this process forward, and to develop zoning for these biologically-important areas in the Stanford Foothills.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STUDY
The GUP also requires the creation of a Sustainable Development Study, which would direct future development and establish the maximum allowable build-out on Stanford lands. This will be a large undertaking and will take a significant investment of time. More than three years ago, Supervisor Liz Kniss committed to moving the document forward, and promised to establish a working group to help define the parameters of this study. We are following up with her specifically to get this moving.

back to top

What you can do  UPDATED

1. Speak up to the Supervisors.
Join us in asking the County Supervisors to make up for delays and move forward with the following portions of Stanford's Community Plan / General Use Permit: completion of the S1 Trail planning, planning for the C1 Trail, and enacting an adequate Special Conservation Area Plan and Zoning for the Stanford Foothills.

Write to:
   Board of Supervisors
   Santa Clara County
   70 W. Hedding Street
   10th Floor, East Wing
   San Jose, CA 95110

   Fax (408) 298-8460
   Blanca Alvarado, Jim Beall, Don Gage, Liz Kniss, and Pete McHugh
   email all five Supervisors in a single email

As always, please send a copy to us so we can track the efficacy of our work: Fax (650) 968-8431 or action@GreenFoothills.org.

2. Write a letter to the Editor.
Let the community know that the County is not standing up for our collective rights, and that we deserve the real environmental mitigation and protections Stanford promised.

The Almanac - Fax (650) 854-0677 - editor@calmanac.com
Mercury News - Fax (408) 327-0676 - letters@mercurynews.com
Palo Alto Weekly - Fax (650) 326-3928 - letters@paweekly.com
Palo Alto Daily News - Fax (650) 327-0676 - editorial@paloaltodailynews.com.

3. Learn more.
Read our past newsletter articles on GUP enforcement, Stanford trails, and the Sustainable Development Study, or past action alerts on GUP enforcement and Stanford Trails.

Read our June 15, 2005 letter to Supervisor Kniss
Read her June 22 letter to CGF
Read our June 30, 2005 response.

4. Support Committee for Green Foothills.
Become a CGF member or make a donation.

back to top