After years of advocating for stronger protections for the Stanford foothills, we can celebrate an important victory. On October 17, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved updates to the Stanford Community Plan, including extending by 99 years the supermajority vote requirement to allow development in the foothills. Please use the form below to thank the Supervisors for their unanimous vote!

A victory years in the making

Green Foothills was founded in 1962 to protect the foothills west of Palo Alto and the Stanford campus from development. Along the way there were many victories and losses, but one significant victory occurred in the year 2000, when for the first time Santa Clara County established an Academic Growth Boundary (AGB) – a line roughly following Junipero Serra Blvd – beyond which development would only be allowed pursuant to a supermajority (4/5) vote of the Board of Supervisors. However, that supermajority vote requirement was set to expire in 2025.

Thus, when Stanford University submitted a proposed General Use Permit (GUP) for 3.5 million square feet of new development on the Stanford campus in 2016, Green Foothills advocated for that supermajority vote requirement to be renewed as one of the conditions of approval of the GUP. Although we wanted the requirement to be made permanent, we supported the County staff recommendation of a 99-year extension of the supermajority vote requirement.

When Stanford withdrew its GUP application in late 2019, at first it seemed as though the opportunity to extend the supermajority vote requirement had been lost. But then the County decided to move forward with updates to the Stanford Community Plan, which is where the supermajority vote requirement for the AGB is contained.

In the years since 2019, we have continued to advocate for the 99-year extension. We have countered Stanford’s claims that 99 years is too restrictive by pointing out that the supermajority vote requirement isn’t a total ban on development – it merely requires four out of the five Supervisors to vote in favor of any new development outside the AGB, rather than the simple majority (three out of five) that is typical. This higher bar recognizes that the 2,300 acres of grassy hillsides and oak savannah in the Stanford foothills provide irreplaceable habitat for wildlife and need extra protection.

In addition, the County’s Sustainable Development Study Supplement from 2018 found that Stanford could nearly triple its current density without going beyond the AGB and without becoming any more densely developed than other similar university campuses.

On October 17, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors agreed with us and unanimously approved updates to the Stanford Community Plan that incorporated the 99-year extension.

Vigilance is still needed

Although this was a hard-fought and important victory, the foothills are still not permanently protected. Stanford is expected to return at some point with a new GUP proposal for additional development. We hope that any new development proposals will be located on the existing campus, but it will still only take a vote of four of the five Supervisors to approve development in the foothills outside the AGB.

Green Foothills has worked to protect our local open space for over 60 years, and we will continue to be the champion for local nature, including these irreplaceable foothills. Thank you for your ongoing support of Green Foothills in this effort!

Please take a moment to thank the Santa Clara County Supervisors for their unanimous vote to protect the Stanford foothills.