by Jeff Segall
In early June, the Santa Clara County Supervisors
handed down a disappointment - they failed to create zoning standards
for the Stanford foothills that fully live up to the open space protections
promised under the 2000
Stanford Community Plan.
The Stanford foothills have been of special
significance for Committee for Green Foothills (CGF) for
years, and where we achieved an early victory for preservation
some 40 years ago. In 2000, CGF, along with others groups, again
advocated for long-term protection of the entire Stanford foothills
in exchange for granting Stanford the right to develop some five
million square feet on the core campus. In the end, Santa Clara
County redesignated most of the foothills area as "Open Space and
Field Research" under the Stanford Community Plan. This newly created
land use designation
allowed for only very limited uses in the area and promised to protect
its open space character and scenic viewsheds.
In early 2002, Santa Clara County planning staff
released draft zoning language for the Open Space and Field Research (OS/F)
district, which are the specific set of rules that would govern any development
in the area. Unfortunately, this draft zoning fell well short of what
was promised under the Community Plan. For example, the draft language
called for "reasonable protection" of viewsheds, with no definition of
what that might mean. Worse, the body to determine this and other matters
was the Architectural and Site Approval (ASA) Committee, a group usually
sympathetic to development.
Because of tireless
advocacy by CGF and others, County planning staff was persuaded to
consider the visibility of various portions of the foothills as it considered
potential development. Staff developed a creative approach that uses Geographic
Information System (GIS) software to rate regions on a scale of their
visibility from surrounding roadways. Sizeable projects proposed for more
visible areas will require special findings to demonstrate that the projects
could not be located elsewhere. Significantly, this determination must
be made by the Planning Commission, a body with a higher level of public
accountability than the ASA Committee.
This moderate success, achieved while the zoning
language was under consideration by the Planning Commission, gave us hope
that other flaws in the zoning proposal would be fixed by the Board of
Supervisors. Other remaining issues included low viewshed protection for
the "gateway" area of the Page Mill/Junipero Serra intersection, exclusion
of the proposed trails in the viewshed analysis, lack of specific protections
for biological resources, and allowing commercial antennas in the area.
Unfortunately, none of these issues were substantively addressed by the
Supervisors when they approved the OS/F zoning on June 3.
Once again, CGF has shown that careful research
and reasoned argument, an active and vocal membership, together with participation
from nearby jurisdictions and other community members can have a substantial
impact on how Santa Clara County governs development at Stanford University.
The remaining shortcomings in the approved foothills zoning means that
CGF must continue to carefully monitor development proposals in the foothills
in the years to come.
Jeff Segall is a member of the Committee's Board
of Directors, as well as a member of the Stanford Open Space Alliance
(SOSA), and has been active in Stanford land use issues for several years.
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