Stanford Report, March 17, 2015

Stanford asks Santa Clara County for GUP amendment

Stanford is asking the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to amend the General Use Permit and Community Plan approved in 2000 to give the university more flexibility in planning future housing construction.

By Kate Chesley

Stanford has asked the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to amend the university's 2000 General Use Permit (GUP) and Community Plan to provide more flexibility in the construction of future campus housing.

Under the GUP's provisions, Stanford was given permission to build 3,018 housing units/student beds on campus, apportioned among faculty/staff, students, and postdoctoral scholars/medical residents. All but 581 units have since been constructed. Of the 581, three are allocated to students, 350 to postdocs/medical residents, and 228 to faculty.

The amendment requested by the university would roll the distinct categories of housing – faculty/staff, students, and postdocs/medical residents – into one. It also would allow Stanford to allocate the remaining 581 housing units based on current priorities, rather than forecasts made 15 years ago.

General Use Permit

The GUP, in tandem with the accompanying Community Plan, placed conditions on Stanford's land use, growth and development and outlined under what circumstances the university could add academic facilities and housing.

Nearly 3,000 acres of Stanford's 8,180 total acres are located in unincorporated Santa Clara County, making campus-planning decisions the purview of the county board of supervisors. The GUP, negotiated over several years, allows Stanford to grow in a comprehensive way without needing to return for county approval for each individual project.

The 2000 GUP included 2,035,000-net-square feet of new academic and academic support uses, 2,000-net new student housing units, 350-net new housing units for postdoctoral scholars and medical residents, and 668-net new housing units for faculty and staff.

Changing priorities

But the university's housing needs and opportunities have changed since 2000, according to Jean McCown, director of community relations. The university has been able to take advantage of opportunities unforeseen 15 years ago.

As an example, McCown cited the construction of 180 new faculty housing units located along El Camino Real and California Avenue. The approval of those units was part of a 2005 agreement with Palo Alto that provided the city new community soccer fields on university land.

"We certainly did our best to project in 2000 what would be the appropriate allotment of housing for different campus groups," McCown said. "But that forecast 15 years ago has not met the need to accommodate more students on campus."

Efforts have also been made to expand the availability of, and access to, housing for postdoctoral scholars and medical residents. For instance, the rental priority list at Stanford West has been changed to give postdocs and medical residents the same status as university staff in access to those rentals.

A Go Pass program also was established for postdocs to subsidize the cost of public transportation and expand the number of communities in which that population could seek housing.

McCown said the university has held preliminary meetings with Santa Clara County officials, as well as with affected groups on campus, to discuss the possible changes in housing allotments. The issue is on the agenda for the March 26 meeting of the Santa Clara County Planning Commission.