Projects & Issues

Stanford GUP


Stanford University filed an application with the County of Santa Clara for a new "General Use Permit and Community Plan" in November 1999. The County planning process for the GUP/CP included many public meetings, and SCRL presented and filed statements with the County throughout this process. The Final GUP/CP was approved by the County Board of Supervisors in December 2000.  This section include information about the process leading to the GUP/CP and copies of the SCRL statements about the plan.

Santa Clara County web pages provide all of the final documents and a monitoring of Stanford compliance.  The primary location from which to access the county documents is available here

History of SCRL Involvement


Trails Issue
Santa Clara County Planning Office Documents  
This site includes the most recent map of trails under consideration by the County.

Campus Residential Zoning
The Community Plan, adopted by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors at the time of the GUP approval, specified that two zoning designations would be developed for the residential areas of the Stanford Campus. As a result of community meetings, there emerged a strong (although not unanimous) consensus that the originally proposed standard of eight homes per acre would allow development that would be too dense.  Homeowners preferred a maximum standard of four homes per acre.  But homeowners recognized that there could be some development that would be more dense.  Homeowners proposed the "four-eight" plan.  The basic idea of the "four-eight" plan was that the zoning plan would allow densities of up to four units per acre as a matter of right (rather than eight, as per the County draft).  However, consistent with the Community Plan, more intense development could be proposed, up to the limit of eight units per acre.  But such development would require public hearing and County approval.  Therefore, any such development proposal would provide the opportunity for complete community discussion and would be allowed only if the County approved the development.

The University agreed to support the "four-eight" plan and the SCRL Board voted to support the "four-eight" plan.  The County Planning Office responded favorably and developed a proposed ordinance for zoning, including the "four-eight" plan for the low density area. The County Board of Supervisors enacted the plan.

The final ordinance governing zoning in our community is available here.

Replacement of Recreational Facilities in the San Juan District

The GUP includes a condition requiring Stanford to replace any recreational facilities that would be removed if housing is ever built on any of the "infill" sites located within the San Juan residential subdivision.  These replacement facilities are required to be of equal recreational value as the facilities that are removed.  The GUP does not require Stanford to provide additional land to compensate for vacant land this place by housing development.  In this plan, Stanford outlines how the university will compensate the residential community for the value of improvements that provide formal and informal recreational opportunities that would be displaced by housing on these "infill" sites.  The Stanford University document, submitted to the County after negotiation with SCRL, is available for download:

Program for the Replacement of Recreational Facilities in the San Juan District