STANFORD: Critics of university's plans are not 'bashers' They support 'putting Stanford back on track'
by Jay Thorwaldson

Critics of Stanford University's 10-year expansion plan are often fans of the university who just want to "get it back on track," said Peter Drekmeier, organizer of a "Community Teach-In" July 20. "Who's a Stanford basher?" he asked the audience of about 100 people who attended the event at the Palo Alto Art Center to learn more about Stanford's plans.

"My parents taught at Stanford," he said, adding that as a child he overheard talks on how to end the Vietnam War and other causes. Recently, however, Stanford has been "focusing more on making money than on making things better in the world."

Drekmeier introduced a panel of four speakers on the "general use permit," or GUP, from Santa Clara County: Menlo Park City Councilman Paul Colacchi, Denice Dade of the Committee for Green Foothills, retired land-use attorney Tom Jordan, and Palo Alto City Councilwoman Nancy Lytle.

Drekmeier is a founder of the Stanford Open Space Alliance, which has spearheaded opposition to the development plan.

Dade, of the Committee for Green Foothills, said Stanford "has at least three times' more land than Harvard or Yale," yet those East Coast schools manage to remain top universities.

"Stanford needs to find a way of developing its land that uses the space of its core campus efficiently and doesn't create the environmental impacts this one does," she said.

She said Santa Clara County's required approval of the plan "is purely discretionary," and there are tools the county can use to protect open space.

"The county can and should say no," she said.

Jordan, who in the 1960s was involved in the "Save the Bay" effort and later was a leader in Committee for Green Foothills, said the "right track is for Stanford to be treated like any other landowner." As such, it should be required to make permanent mitigations for impacts it creates, "but the county has never said 'No' to Stanford," he said. The county can also say, "Yes, with conditions," he added.

Lytle said that while she has not had a chance to deliberate with her colleagues on the council about the Stanford plans, she could share personal impressions.

She said the process has been good, and Stanford's fulfilling of the environmental impact report commitments has been "a great thing for building trust." Stanford also is planning more housing than the city has in its 10-year plan, but there will be a spillover traffic impact, she said. On open space preservation, "I think we are closer together than apart," she said.

Colacchi of Menlo Park said a number of traffic impacts will occur at local intersections, but some people are questioning how the traffic "modeling" was done.

"Nancy's right. This is going to generate more traffic," he said. The basic solution is to find something else to do between 4:30 and 6:30."