County Posts All Comments Received in Stanford's General Use Permit Application

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                        

San Jose – Today Santa Clara County made available to the public through its website all the comments it received during the comment period for the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR). The DEIR evaluates the environmental impacts associated with Stanford University’s request for an additional 2,275,000 square feet of academic development and 3,150 additional housing units. 

The comments can be found on Supervisor Simitian’s webpage (www.supervisorsimitian.org) or the Santa Clara County Planning Department’s webpage:

https://www.sccgov.org/sites/dpd/Programs/Stanford/Pages/Stanford.aspx

“Usually, the public doesn’t get to see all the issues that have been raised until the Final EIR is circulated. On a project of this size, that just doesn’t make sense,” said Joe Simitian, President of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, in whose district the University is located. “There’s a benefit to the public in being able to see who else shares your concerns, and to see the breadth and depth of concerns that others have shared. Now they can do just that.”

When the February 2nd deadline passed for submitting comments on the Stanford General Use Permit Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR), Santa Clara County found itself with a big job on its hands – responding to more than 1,900 separate comments made by almost 300 commenters.

Those commenters included nineteen public agencies, thirteen non-governmental organizations, and 250 individuals, including 90 people who spoke at one or more of five public hearings.

The job that County staff and EIR consultants ESA now face is sorting through the comments, grouping those together as appropriate, determining which apply to the EIR and which apply to the overall approval process, and then actually responding to all of the comments.

The County of Santa Clara is in the midst of processing Stanford University’s request for an updated General Use Permit which will govern development at Stanford for the next two decades.

The development requested by the University is estimated ultimately to generate an additional 9,610 people on campus. It is the largest development application ever submitted to Santa Clara County in the County’s 168-year history.

After comments are responded to and the EIR is final, the project will go before the Santa Clara County Planning Commission for its consideration and then to the Board of Supervisors for a vote.

“With a project as large and complicated as the Stanford General Use Permit, it’s difficult to predict exactly when it will come before the Board of Supervisors,” noted Simitian, “but the public should know we’re doing all we can to ensure a quality process, where their concerns are heard and addressed.” The previous General Use Permit was approved in December 2000.