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Guest Opinion: A landmark rezoning for Stanford foothills lands

by Liz Kniss

For the first time in nearly 50 years, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors last Tuesday voted to change the zoning on 2,200 undeveloped acres of Stanford lands in the foothills above Palo Alto.

This unanimous action provides more open space protection to the foothills adjacent to Palo Alto than the county has ever done before, and may well prove to be a historic vote.

What does this mean for the future of these foothills? Here's what the new land-use rules say:

1) No residential homes, academic buildings, or research institutes can be placed in the foothills.

2) The only structures allowed are support buildings for agricultural, academic and field research.

3) Rigorous viewshed and ridge-top visibility tests will be part of any structural placement.

4) Only 15,000 square feet of development will be allowed in the entire 2,200 acres of foothills. (Palo Alto single-family-residential zoning allows roughly seven homes per acre, while the Stanford-land rules allow just under 7 square feet of any structure per acre.)

5) Permanent dedication of open space can be required in some cases.

6) There must be county Planning Commission review of any new structure exceeding 1,000 square feet.

7) There must be architectural and site approval as well as Planning Commission review of all antennas over 35 feet in height -- and antennas must be only for public safety or academic research.

8) Trails are permitted, as well as limited outdoor recreational activities.

The end result is the most restrictive zoning ordinance ever placed on a large piece of private property in Santa Clara County. Unlike the General Use Permit (GUP) adopted in 2000, which allows construction of up to 5 million square feet on the core campus over a 10-year period, this new zoning has no time limit. Zoning is the most effective tool that governing boards have to use with private property owners

This new zoning (named Open Space and Field Research, or OS/F) can change in coming years, but only if a future Board of Supervisors votes to amend the current restrictions. Thus, like all zoning ordinances, OS/F will require continued watch-dogging and oversight by the local community. Full language of the ordinance is at www.sccgov.org.

The OS/F ordinance permits "by right" (without further review) just three uses: agriculture, agricultural research and field research.

However, any necessary ancillary support structures -- severely limited in size, height, and location -- may be permitted only after public hearings and reviews.

This ordinance also provides the most restrictive viewshed and ridge-top analysis in the county, if not in California. Originally suggested by the local environmental community and the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, the landmark viewshed analysis uses a complex mathematical model. The scoping is done from all view corridors and all compass directions to determine the most sensitive ridge tops. After examining the results of this electronic process, the Planning Commission members, led by District 5 appointee Lydia Tan, chose the most restrictive way of looking at the viewshed and ridge tops.

In contrast, the old A1 zoning would have allowed for a Los Altos Hills-style residential-development pattern. And in some places, lot sizes were set at a one-acre minimum. Imagine 100 homes lining the ridge of the Dish Hill. Under the old zoning, this could have been permitted. But under the OS/F zoning, all new residential development is prohibited.

OS/F is more restrictive than the zoning applied to ranchlands, hillsides or to any other cities. A view from any airplane or helicopter over the Valley confirms that other cities are burdened with ridge-top development. With the OS/F zoning, ridgelines in the Stanford foothills will stay protected indefinitely.

One additional element of great interest is wildlife protection. Wildlife protections are provided for in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and additional protections are included in the 37 pages of GUP conditions.

Critical wildlife habitats have already been designated within "special conservation areas" in the Stanford foothills. These areas provide the most stringent habitat protection and are reinforced with existing federal legislation. Maps for all of the above areas are available on the Planning Department's Web site, at www.sccplanning.org. All are available in color to designate the individual areas. The bottom line is that this is a precedent-setting ordinance. It adds an additional layer of protection to what is already in the Stanford Community Plan, which imposed an Academic Growth Boundary for at least 25 years. If this new zoning remains in place, the foothills can be protected forever.

Liz Kniss is a member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors for District 5, covering the north county, and is a former Palo Alto mayor member of the City Council. She can be e-mailed at lizkniss@earthlink.net.