You Can Make a Difference

Two years ago, Stanford resident Sunny Scott was asked to circulate a petition around her neighborhood. The petition was a rather simple request that Stanford University suspend a proposed "infill" development there, pending better planning and community input. But That simple petition started Sunny's involvement in sustainable development, and her work with Committee for Green Foothills to promote smart development on campus.

As an elected official for the Stanford Community Residential Leaseholders organization, Sunny was drawn into the debates surrounding Stanford's General Use Permit. Suddenly she was dealing with a plethora of competing ideas about regarding how Stanford should deal with a whole range of issues: traffic, the obstacles posed by housing prices for recruiting new faculty, needs of seniors, concerns about the environment, open space, parks, red legged frogs, salamanders and golfers!

She immediately saw the need to mobilize and educate her neighbors about Stanford's development plans. Sunny also joined Committee for Green Foothills' Stanford Strategizing Group. Her perspective of the Stanford leaseholder/homeowner community — and her infectious enthusiasm — have become invaluable parts of our work to protect open space on Stanford lands.

"Sunny is a dynamic go-getter with great vision," says CGF Legislative Advocate Denice Dade. "If she has her way, the university will be a national example of sustainable development."

Discouraged by the polarization that characterized these sometimes heated debates, Sunny is was motivated to find a creative response that could bring together many of these concerns. This would required that she learn about new land use planning concepts such as clustering, sustainability, co-housing and greenhouse architecture. One of these new ideas, intergenerational housing, caught her attention — and she developed a proposal for an intergenerational village for Stanford faculty right on core campus. She thinks the concept is environmentally friendly and at the same time could be sociologically and economically beneficial to the University.

Sunny was recently asked to present her concept of the "Stanford Village" to the University committee on Land and Building Development. She is guardedly optimistic that Stanford is moving in the direction of smart growth and sustainability.

Sunny has a deep belief that we need to restore a sense of community. She is doing her own part to build the CGF community — as a talented and generous hostess, Sunny has opened her home (and kitchen!) for CGF events. She has hosted meetings between divergent parties to help find common ground and build unity on Stanford land use issues.

What's Sunny's advice to new volunteers? "Jump right in and get involved. Don't worry about what you don't know. You can learn as you go. There are some incredible people out there who are willing to help you up the learning curve."