It should be simple: administrators decide to put up a new building, trustees approve it, construction begins. After all, Stanford owns 8,180 acres of land, two-thirds of it undeveloped.
But it's not that easy. The several counties and towns over which the University's lands extend want their say -- and this year is their best chance to have it. That's because the 1989 general-use permit issued by Santa Clara County -- Stanford's de facto blueprint for growth -- is about to expire. Administrators will apply for a new permit to govern the next 10 years.
What the University will ask for in the permit -- and how area residents and local officials respond -- came into sharper focus this summer at four community forums held by Santa Clara County. Franklin Orr, dean of the School of Earth Sciences, told officials at one such gathering that Stanford must make faculty and student housing a top priority or risk becoming "a second-rate university." He outlined possibilities including building more single-family homes or multifamily units.
Community members seemed particularly concerned about protecting undeveloped land. Some activists have asked the University to permanently designate open-space areas. "My own opinion is that the open space that Stanford has is at least as important as the education they provide," said Craig Britton, general manager of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.
But speaking for the administration, former Stanford President Donald Kennedy told one forum that, while Stanford will promise in the permit application to protect certain open-space areas for the period of the permit, the University won't commit to an irrevocable ban on building in those areas.
