Stanford drops plan to dump fill on former Christmas tree farm

The Almanac
March 10, 2008

Stanford drops plan to dump fill on former Christmas tree farm

By Marion Softky
Almanac Staff

Faced with a long and expensive fight, Stanford has withdrawn its application to dump large amounts of fill, generated by its campus expansion, on the former Christmas tree farm along Sand Hill Road, west of Interstate 280 and across from the Horse Park.

On March 4, the San Mateo County Planning Department received Stanford’s request to withdraw the application to place 300,000 cubic yards of fill over 10 years onto its 143-acre property between Sand Hill Road and the Stanford Linear Accelerator, according to planner Lisa Aozasa.

“It would be a lengthy and pretty expensive process; it didn’t make sense to continue,” said Jean McCown, Stanford University community relations director. “We have a number of other locations to dispose of fill.”

Ms. McCown defended the project as providing environmental benefits by restoring land that has not recovered from years of growing Christmas trees.

“We haven’t changed our mind,” she said. “We genuinely felt this could be done in a very positive and environmentally responsible way that would have resulted in an improved condition at the site and no detriment to the surroundings or neighbors.”

The application had stirred up concerns and opposition from neighbors and environmental groups, including Portola Valley and the Committee for Green Foothills.

Concerns focused on the visual impacts of the project, biological impacts on San Francisquito Creek and Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve downhill from the site, and the prospect of thousands of trucks entering and leaving the site, and traveling on Sand Hill Road over 10 years.

The county planning department sent a four-page letter to Stanford on Nov. 21 listing additional information and studies it would need before bringing the application to a public hearing. This included studies of the wetland crossing of the creek, impacts on the endangered San Francisco garter snake, potential hazardous materials, and traffic issues.

Where then?

Stanford is still considering where to put the thousands of cubic yards of dirt being generated by the addition of almost 5 million square feet of building approved by Santa Clara County in 2000. Because the campus is already densely built, much of the new construction appears as basements and underground parking which generate the fill that needs to be disposed of.

Ms. McCown noted that Stanford is studying a number of options to dispose of its fill.

Lennie Roberts of the Committee for Green Foothills has suggested that Stanford use its fill to help restore the former salt ponds ringing the Bay to active tidal marsh. Inner Bair Island, at the end of Whipple Avenue in Redwood City, needs 1 million cubic yards of fill over five years to raise it enough to open the levees, she noted in a guest opinion in The Almanac on Nov. 14.

Restoring salt ponds and rebuilding levees in Menlo Park and East Palo Alto will also need fill, Ms. Roberts noted. “Providing this fill from Stanford’s nearby projects would yield fewer CO2 emissions than those resulting from trucking fill in from distant locations.”