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  Demand
that Stanford move forward with required trails
Posted November 7, 2001 / Updated
September 12, 2010
• Why
Stanford is required to dedicate trails
• Locations of the proposed
trails
• Stanford's proposed
trails are unacceptable
• Environmental groups
unite to support better trails
• Updated! County
caves in to Stanford's bullying tactics
• Western
trail creeps into San Mateo County
• Updated! What
you can do
Why Stanford is required to
dedicate trails
On December 12, 2000, the Santa Clara County
Board of Supervisors approved Stanford's General Use Permit (GUP) and
Community
Plan, granting the University approximately 4.5 million square feet
of development over the next ten years. In exchange for this development
entitlement, Stanford agreed to meet all the conditions of the GUP as
set by the County.
One of these conditions states:
“Stanford shall dedicate
easements for, develop, and maintain the portions of the two trail alignments
which cross Stanford lands shown in the 1995 Santa Clara Countywide Trails
Master Plan (Routes S1 and C1)…”
The GUP specifically requires Stanford to dedicate
two public trails by December 12, 2001. This requirement is one of the
five key environmental components of the General Use Permit outlined in
the CGF / SOSA Report
Card released in August 2001.
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Locations of the proposed trails
Trails on which the Board of Supervisors has
directed staff to focus are shown on the map below.
The full version of this map from
the County can be seen here.
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Stanford's
proposed trails are unacceptable
The GUP originally required the trails to be
dedicated by December 12, 2002. However, the trail alignments Stanford
proposed are unacceptable.
Trail
S1-C proposed by Stanford is in the Matadero Creek area near Page
Mill Road.
This proposed trail:
- does not connect with trails at the Arastradero Preserve as indicated
by the Countywide Trails Master Plan;
- includes two crossings over Matadero Creek in Special Conservation
Areas
- includes unsafe road crossings; and
- has an undesirable detour from Page Mill Road to the Highway 280 underpass
at Arastradero Road.
Trail
C1-C proposed by Stanford is in the area of San Francisquito and Los
Trancos Creeks near Alpine Road.
This proposed trail:
- does not meet the conditions of the GUP because portions of the trail
would be on private property that does not belong to Stanford;
- is not within Santa Clara County, as required by the GUP;
- is very near Alpine Road, and thus a poor recreational trail;
- is unsafe -- it would put two-way bike traffic across many private
driveways and access roads on Alpine Road; and
- would cause significant environmental impacts to San Francisquito
Creek.
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Environmental
groups unite to support better trails
The environmental community is united in opposition
to these trail alignments proposed by Stanford.
We are asking Stanford and the County to comply
with the Countywide Trails Master Plan and dedicate trails that provide
connectivity between urban centers and open space, and that are both scenic
and safe.
Committee for Green
Foothills, Stanford
Open Space Alliance, Midpeninsula
Regional Open Space District, Sierra
Club, Acterra, People
for Access to Trails in the Hills at Stanford (PATHS),
Mid-Peninsula Action for Tomorrow, and the Portola Valley Planning Commission
(C1) have endorsed a Stanford trail position paper that objects to Stanford's
proposed trail alignments and recommends alternative routes.
In particular, the position
paper calls for Stanford to create trails that:
- Utilize existing tunnels under Highway 280 to create safe connections
with trails at the Arastradero Preserve;
- Utilize existing trails and gates, such as the popular trail entrance
at Junipero Serra Blvd. and Stanford Avenue; and
- Adopt the most direct routes to the Arastradero Preserve from the
Stanford campus so as to provide for an effective regional trail system.
Read the entire November 2001 trails position
paper here.
In May 2002, the environmental community issued
a new position paper regarding the Stanford trails. Read that new position
paper here.
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County
caves in to Stanford's bullying tactics UPDATED
In June 2002, the Board directed County staff
to start an Supplemental Environmental Impact Report (SEIR) of all proposed
trail alignments, including two alignments that provided real recreational
access.
However, Stanford refused to allow trails other
than the ones they offered to be studied and threatened to sue the County.
Under pressure, the Board of Supervisors voted to remove the two environmentally
superior alternatives from consideration. (See this map
for the location of these trails.) The Board also voted to delay any study
of the C1 trail.
This very disappointing decision is a sad example
of the County buckling under pressure from Stanford at the expense of the
greater interests of the community. The County's own Parks and Recreation
Department did a study of the proposed trails in April 2002, considering:
- Environmental impacts
- Safety
- Impacts to adjacent private property owners
- Compliance with the Countywide Trail Master Plan
- Compliance with the Stanford Community Plan
The study identified C1-B and one of the removed
S1alignments as
the optimal trail alignments. These are the trails that environmental
community and surrounding jurisdictions have requested. (See this
map for the location of these trails.)
In fall 2004, the County published a Draft Supplemental
Environmental Impact Report (DSEIR) on the three S1 trail alignments it
had agreed to study. Despite the fact that the trails are supposed to
provide recreational alternatives that mitigate the impact of Stanford's
expansion, the DSEIR did not evaluate how well the trails would work as
recreational trails.
The DSEIR indicated that the environmentally superior
trail would be an existing road-edge sidewalk area that would be left
unsigned and unmarked on any County trail maps.
Further, in violation of the Public Records Act, the
County shared preliminary documents with Stanford while refusing to show
them to community groups. CGF vigorously protested this tentative decision
in the DSEIR, calling on the County to reverse the decision in the Final
Supplemental EIR to be released sometime in the spring of 2005.
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Western
trail creeps into San Mateo County
As attention turns to the C1 trail on the northwest side of campus (in the area of San Francisquito Creek and Alpine Road), environmentalists, hikers, neighbors and community associations are vocalizing their support for the C1-B alignment (Community Endorsed Trail).
The roadside route proposed by Stanford for this
trail (the C1-C alignment) is unacceptable because of its documented risk
to public safety, environmental impacts, and minimal recreational value.
Other proposed alignments alongside the eastern banks of San Francisquito
Creek are unacceptable because of negative impacts on the environment and
irreconcilable use conflicts with the Stanford Golf Course and the Native
American sweat lodge.
This chart compares
the Community Endorsed C1-B trail alignment to the C1-C route proposed
by Stanford.
For a map of the various proposed trail routes,
visit www.StanfordTrails.com.
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What you can do UPDATED
1. Become informed.
Understand the facts regarding Stanford's lack of compliance with the GUP trails
condition -- read our backgrounder.
Read CGF's November 12, 2004 comment
letter on the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Report for the
S1 trail.
Read the April 2003 C1 Trail
position paper endorsed by Committee for Green Foothills and 12 other
environmental groups.
Read the May 2002 position
paper endorsed by Committee for Green Foothills and other environmental
groups.
Read the May 21, 2003 article
in the Stanford Daily about the trails dispute.
Sign up for CGF action alerts and we'll
send you an email to let you know how to get involved.
You can also find out more about the trails issue from PATHS,
People for Access to Trails in the Hills at Stanford.
2. Tell the Board of Supervisors that we deserve
good trails. Speak up for a good western trail -- please encourage the
Supervisors to stand up to Stanford and support the C1-B Trail alignment.
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
Supervisors Liz Kniss,
Don Gage
Blanca Alvarado,
Jim Beall, and
Pete McHugh
70 West Hedding
San Jose, CA 95110 Phone (408)299-2323 Fax(408)298-8460
3. Write a Letter to the Editor.
Country Almanac - Fax (650) 854-0677 - editor@calmanac.com
Palo Alto Weekly - Fax (650) 326-3928 - letters@paweekly.com
Palo Alto Daily News - Fax (650) 327-0676 - editorial@paloaltodailynews.com
4. Support Committee for Green Foothills.
Become a CGF member
or make a donation.
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