October 2023, Newsletter
Supervisors adopt new Stanford Community Plan
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted an updated Stanford University Community Plan on October 17, effectively approving new policies governing Stanford University's growth in the years to come.
The new Community Plan is the biggest update to the University's growth policies since the County approved the first such Plan in 2000.
County Supervisor Joe Simitian, whose District Five includes the Stanford campus, said that the staff recommendations fully mitigate housing and transportation impacts tied to the University’s future development, and protects the surrounding foothills for 99 years.
Simitian said there were really only three possibilities in connection with future development on the campus: “Either the University mitigates the impacts of its development, or surrounding communities bear the cost and responsibility for mitigating those impacts, or the impacts simply go unmitigated; resulting in traffic getting worse, an even worse shortage of housing, the cost of housing going up, and the open space around the campus continuing to shrink.”