printable versionCounty planners to hear land-use study
BY KATHLEEN J. SULLIVAN
Stanford will present a land-use study Thursday to the Santa Clara County Planning Commission that outlines how it will continue to promote compact development on its central campus and protect natural resources in its 2,200 acres of foothills through 2035.
The Nov. 20 public hearing follows a workshop held earlier this month, during which county staff and university officials presented the 200-page study to the commission.
Earlier this week, Jody Hall-Esser, the county's director of planning and development, released a six-page staff report recommending that the commission forward a favorable recommendation to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to approve the Sustainable Development Study.
The study is required under the terms of Stanford's 2000 General Use Permit, which allows 2 million square feet of new academic buildings to be constructed on campus. The permit governs new construction on Stanford lands in unincorporated Santa Clara County, about 4,017 acres of the 8,180-acre campus.
The building cap applies only to academic buildings, not to new construction of housing for students, faculty and staff, or to new parking lots.
Stanford, which expects to complete 1 million square feet of new academic buildings in 2009, is required to submit the study in order to build the second million.
The study says the university expects to reach the 2-million-square-foot mark in 2018.
The Planning Commission hearing is the third step in a four-step public review process that is expected to conclude with a Dec. 9 presentation by university officials to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.
The university cannot launch new construction projects for academic buildings, such as a proposed new building for the Department of Bioengineering, until the Board of Supervisors approves the study.
"The study is not a proposal for new growth but is a planning study that analyzes how future development could be accommodated on the campus consistent with principles of sustainability and quality land-use planning principles, including avoiding development in the foothills," said Jean McCown, the university's director of community relations.
"A 2035 horizon was chosen because it is quite consistent with many planning studies, such as general plans—it looks to a length of time that allows for some relative confidence about possible scenarios," she said. "The further out you get in time, the more speculative and thus not particularly useful such a study becomes."
The university completed the first step in the review process at the end of October, when the Santa Clara County Department of Planning and Development accepted the study, which contains dozens of aerial maps of Stanford.
"In preparing the Sustainable Development Study, Stanford regularly consulted with the County and has included in the document consideration of all specific items and issues required," Hall-Esser of the county's planning and development department wrote in a Nov. 3 memorandum reprinted in the study.
"The Sustainable Development Study should be a valuable tool in informing future development of the academic campus, preventing sprawl into the hillsides and in resource protection," the memo says.
Stanford completed the second step in the public review process last week when Charles Carter, the university's director of land use and environmental planning, and University Architect David Lenox presented the study to the Community Resource Group, a 14-member committee appointed by the county.
Under the 2000 General Use Permit, Stanford is required to submit a sustainable development study that identifies potential areas for development on the central campus, where most of its academic buildings are clustered, and in the Stanford foothills, which extend from the edge of the central campus to the Santa Cruz Mountains.
"It is a planning exercise required by the Stanford Community Plan that sets the stage for ongoing dialogue that will continue to shape campus growth as development proceeds under the General Use Permit, and as additional development is considered in the future," the study says.
The study presents three potential growth scenarios on the central campus through 2035: 2 million new square feet of academic buildings and housing under a "minimal" growth scenario; 3.5 million square feet under a "moderate" growth scenario; and 5 million square feet under an "aggressive" scenario.
"The minimal growth scenario reflects the amount of square footage that the university historically has built during slower growth periods of 10-15 years," the study says. "The aggressive growth scenario is considered to be unlikely in that it reflects more growth than would likely occur by 2035, based upon historic 10 to 15-year growth rates."
The study says the "moderate growth scenario" mirrors the actual growth rate at Stanford from 1960 to 2000, as well as the first nine years of development under the General Use Permit.
The Sustainable Development Study also presents planning principles for the foothills that are designed to provide long-term protection for covered species—such as the California tiger salamander and the California red-legged frog—and their habitat, as well other important natural resources, including creeks and oak woodlands.
"Although limited development is allowed under the 2000 General Use Permit, the University has no current plans or proposals to build new academic facilities in the Foothills," the study says.
Under the permit, the university is allowed to add up to 15,000 square feet of new structures in the foothills, home of the radio telescope known as "The Dish." Since 2000, the university has recorded a net increase of about 5,000 square feet of new structures in the foothills by renovating a building at the Stanford Equestrian Center and placing a shelter for Dish trail guards at Stanford Avenue and Junipero Serra Boulevard.