Petition to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Regarding the 2018 Stanford GUP.

Stanford University has requested the right to add 3.5 million square feet of new development on campus over the course of its 2018 General Use Permit (GUP), which will guide development through 2035. This amount of development is the equivalent of two-and-a-half Stanford Shopping Centers. We are concerned about the potential impacts of such a large amount of growth over a relatively short period of time. We encourage the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to impose the following requirements as conditions of approval of Stanford’s 2018 GUP.

• Stanford cannot continue to grow indefinitely without seriously compromising our quality of life on the Peninsula. The County should establish a maximum build-out for the University. Under the 2000 GUP, Stanford was required to study the maximum build-out potential for its campus in its Sustainable Development Study, but failed to do so.
• In exchange for the higher density of development on campus, the Stanford foothills outside of the Academic Growth Boundary should be preserved as permanent open space.
• The proposed academic development under the GUP should not make the regional housing shortage worse. Stanford should be required to provide housing on campus or close by for the influx of new students, faculty, staff and contract workers.
• Stanford’s development should not make the regional traffic crisis worse. Every new automobile trip generated by the GUP should be offset by the removal of a trip, both during peak and non-peak hours. Furthermore, the 2018 GUP should require no net new parking spaces on campus.
• Stanford should be required to adopt a policy of carbon neutrality for all new construction.