Move forward now with
Stanford trails!
Posted September 6, 2005 / Updated November 23, 2005

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

After years of delay and compromise, Santa Clara County is finally poised to certify the Final Environmental Impact Report for one of the two trails required of Stanford University in 2001. Please ask the Supervisors to move forward immediately with the S1 trail, and begin to mitigate some of the impacts from Stanford's growth.

Background
In December 2000, Santa Clara County issued Stanford's General Use Permit (GUP) and Community Plan, granting the University rights to develop some 4.5 million square feet. In exchange, Stanford agreed to meet a number of conditions, one of which was the dedication, development and maintenance of two trails - the S1 and C1 Routes.

For almost five years, Stanford has been refusing to play fair on the exact alignment of these trails: proposing trails along busy roads like Alpine Road, pushing the trails off their property and into San Mateo County, trying to use existing trails to meet these requirements, and outlining trails that lead nowhere or cross dangerous intersections.

The recent focus has been on the S1 trail on the southeast side of campus, generally following Matadero Creek and Page Mill Road. After Stanford threatened to sue over the location of the S1 trail, the County removed from consideration the two environmentally and recreationally superior alternatives. Since then, we've been waiting for the environmental documents to be completed.

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What's happening
Last year, the County published a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Report (DSEIR) on the three S1 trail alignments it agreed to study. This document was disappointing and incomplete: it failed to analyze a reasonable range of alternatives, did not show which alignment best mitigates the impacts from Stanford's expansion, and did not evaluate how well the trails would work as recreational trails.

Of the three routes described in the DSEIR, CGF considers the S1-C alternative as the only minimally-acceptable alignment that was analyzed; however, we do not endorse the S1-C alternative because it leads away from Arastradero Preserve and has no complete trail connection to the Preserve. Santa Clara County considered this alignment at the suggestion and urging of Stanford University.

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What's next
The County Supervisors considered the S1 Trail alignments at the September 13th meeting, and indicated they preferred the S1-C alignment. They could have moved rapidly to implement the decision, but on a 4-1 vote, decided instead to slow down the process.

While the S1-C was Stanford's own idea, the university requested the delay, stating it wanted to resolve the alignment of the C1 trail at the same time. Resolving the C1 Trail alignment will be contentious because Stanford proposes to expand an existing trail rather than provide a new one, as it had promised. In effect, Stanford is trying to "take back" its offered S1-C alignment until it can get its way with avoiding construction of an adequate C1 Trail. So far, Santa Clara County is playing along. A final decision on the S1 Trail now looks like it will occur in February 2006, as Stanford tries to lock the County into a deal over the C1 Trail. This is an unacceptable delay, and the S1 Trail should not be held hostage to Stanford's back-room maneuvering.

While Committee for Green Foothills prefers other routes for the S1 trail, we do not actively oppose the S1-C route. We would like to see this trail implemented as soon as possible.

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Why this is important
The GUP required Stanford to dedicate these trails by December 12, 2001. For years now, Committee for Green Foothills and others have been urging the County and Stanford to dedicate scenic, recreational, safe trails for the community - part of the environmental mitigation for Stanford's huge development rights.

Importantly, this requirement is one of the five key environmental components of the General Use Permit. It's time for the community to have these trails without further compromise and delay.

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What you can do
Please write to the County Supervisors — ask them to move forward with the S1 trail immediately; specifically, please ask them to:

1) Approve the selected S1 alignment ASAP after the FEIR is certified — not delay it until February 2006. We were promised trails in 2001.

2) Make a decision on the S1 trail alignment that is not linked to the alignment of the C1 trail along Alpine Road.

3) Ensure that any new S1 trail south of Junipero Serra is an unpaved recreational trail appropriate for the area's rural character — not an urban, paved road.

Write to:
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
County Government Center
70 W. Hedding Street, 10th Floor, East Wing
San Jose, CA 95110
Fax (408) 298-8460
Email all five Supervisors in a single email.

Please send a copy of your message to CGF so we can track our efforts on this issue: fax 650-968-8431 or email: action@GreenFoothills.org.

For more information, see our previous Action Alert on this issue, read our Trails Position Paper, or read our Fact Sheet regarding Stanford's compliance with the GUP trails condition. Also, read the October 5 Editorial in The Almanac.

Sign an on-line petition asking the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors to reject any further consideration of a trail alignment along Alpine Road.

Thanks for speaking up for trails. Your voice does make a difference!

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