STANFORD ANSWERS THE HOUSING CRUNCH
As the university adds more residences, it faces increased scrutiny and skepticism
PALO ALTO >> The Stanford campus before the start of the fall quarter is a maze of orange cones, chain-link fences and heavy equipment raising new high-rise apartments.
The housing will add 2,400 new beds for graduate students in 10-story towers on the east side of campus. In a neighborhood adjacent to campus, faculty and their families are moving into University Terrace, a new, amenity-packed community of 180 singlefamily homes and condominiums. The additions will expand housing options for the existing university population and enable Stanford to house about 75 percent of its graduate students.
But even as the world-renowned university builds and buys more housing, it has struggled to keep up with demand as the Bay Area tries to cope with a housing crisis. Employees live farther away and face longer commutes. Faculty recruits coming from universities in less expensive towns suffer sticker shock, university officials say.
“People are increasingly concerned,”
said Whitney McNair, the university’s executive director of faculty staff housing. McNair’s staff guides potential faculty through the challenging housing market — and isn’t always able to convince recruits and their families. “It’s impacted decisions.”
The stakes are higher for the university right now. County leaders are considering Stanford’s long-range plan to dramatically grow its workforce and facilities over the next two decades.
The university submitted to Santa
Clara County a long-term plan outlining development that could add 2.25 million square feet of academic buildings and up to 3,150 new housing units through 2035. That’s nearly the size of the Apple Spaceship in Cupertino added to the campus over two decades.
The university could add up to 9,000 students, faculty and staff.
Dozens of residents and agencies wrote to county planners this summer urging them to stop the university from expanding, citing noise, traffic and disruptions to neighborhood character.
“I feel like a frog slowly being boiled to death in increasingly hot water,” wrote one longtime Palo Alto resident.
Another Palo Alto resident wrote: “The Bay Area is exploding from too many people and unaffordable housing. It appears Stanford and other cities want to add to the problem.”
In late July, Palo Alto city officials knocked the proposal for shifting housing responsibilities to surrounding cities. “The university has the land and resources to mitigate housing-related impacts,” wrote Palo Alto interim planning and community environment director Jonathan Lait.
The city urged the county to require most, if not all, housing for Stanford faculty, certain staff and their families to be located on campus, and that Stanford pay housing impact fees for new academic buildings and offices.
County planners in June also offered their first impressions on the plan: not enough housing, too much new traffic.
The county expects to render a decision on the plan before the end of the year.
Stanford’s proposal,
which calls for denser campus housing and expanded access to transit, could offer a template for smart growth but also serve as a bellwether of community sentiment as Silicon Valley’s most powerful tech companies plan future expansion. Several California universities are feeling the housing shortage as the school year opens. UC Santa Cruz responded to the crunch in August by asking faculty and staff to rent rooms to students.
Stanford has its supporters.
“They are extraordinary,” said Russell Hancock, CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley. “They don’t get near enough the credit they deserve.”
Hancock, an alumnus who lectures on public policy, pointed to several innovations and voluntary contributions — subsidizing transit for employees to reduce
traffic and pollution, expanding residential programs for faculty, and paying fees to support subsidized, nonuniversity housing elsewhere in the county.
“They’re saying, ‘No, this isn’t somebody else’s problem,’ ” he said. “Stanford is not passing the buck.”
But other recent housing projects have drawn community ire. Menlo Park residents fought plans to turn old auto dealerships on El Camino Real into a housing and commercial project known as Middle Plaza. The university addressed community concerns over traffic and housing density, and the project, originally proposed in 2012, is now in the initial stages of construction.
Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, a former Palo Alto mayor who represents the region, said the university’s handling of housing has been “a mixed
bag.” He credits the university for adopting several innovations to curb traffic, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build higher apartments.
But since the county permitted the university’s last long-term plan in 2000, traffic has slowed and housing prices have soared. The median value for a Palo Alto home was $3.3 million, according to Zillow estimates. Rent for a typical two-bedroom is $3,160 a month.
Simitian said residents no longer are willing to accept leaders saying “trust us” about future growth.
“There’s a certain builtin tension between town and gown,” said Simitian, who served as a county supervisor the last time Stanford underwent a long-term plan. “These are not unfamiliar to other university communities.”
Stanford houses nearly all of its undergraduates
and many of its graduate students on campus. Faculty members have a range of options to secure subsidized housing, including several hundred deedlimited homes on campus sold only to eligible members of the university community. They also can use a variety of mortgage programs to lower or defer interest, or get a housing allowance supplement for the purchase of an off-campus home.
Stanford estimates it will provide housing for more than 40 percent of its community by 2020.
McNair noted several recent university housing projects and acquisitions that are adding hundreds more homes, condominiums and apartments, mostly for faculty and staff. “We’re looking at both the supply and demand side.”
Stanford recently opened the first phase of University Terrace, a mix of 68 singlefamily homes and 112 condos, next to the College Terrace neighborhood. The community features a pool, fitness center, library, playground and an outdoor fireplace just a five-minute bike ride from campus.
Condos in the new complex start at about $835,000, well below market rate for new construction in Palo Alto. A fourbedroom, three-bath single-family home was listed for $1.9 million.
Jean McCown, associate vice president of government and community relations at Stanford, said the number of applications has exceeded available housing. A lottery has been established to fairly distribute the new homes.
James Cook, president of the College Terrace Residents Association, said Stanford worked closely with residents as it developed University Terrace, and the community welcomes its new neighbors. But Cook feels the university doesn’t always listen to neighborhood concerns and worries future plans could worsen traffic and develop open space. “Sometimes,” he said, “it’s a little of a David versus Goliath thing.”
Stanford has a historic mission as a residential campus providing housing for students and faculty to create a hub for education and research, McCown said. It has stuck to its mission far better than other universities and employers, she said.
Peter Drekmeier, a former Palo Alto mayor and environmentalist, said Stanford is receiving more scrutiny from surrounding neighborhoods. “The university is creating a lot of jobs and not much housing,” he said.
“One thing Stanford can contribute,” Drekmeier said, “is some really great minds.”