Stanford Proposes $4.5 Billion to Invest in Housing, Transportation
Anthony D'Isidoro
Stanford Proposes $4.5 Billion to Invest in Housing, Transportation
Santa Clara County official calls proposal inadequate, continuing standoff between the university and its home county
Stanford University, which has a $26.5 billion endowment, said its proposal goes beyond what Santa Clara County has requested of it. A top county official, however, said the proposal was inadequate. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
By
Nour Malas
Updated June 24, 2019 7:59 pm ET
Stanford University has proposed to invest $3.4 billion in housing, part of its continuing negotiations with regional authorities over how to mitigate the impact of its expansion on a tight housing market in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Under a decadeslong arrangement, Stanford negotiates its expansion and development plans with its home county of Santa Clara, which encompasses much of Silicon Valley. How much housing Stanford will build, especially for its blue-collar workforce, as it adds up to 2.275 million square feet of academic facilities over the next two decades has been a major sticking point with authorities amid a regional shortage of affordable housing.
Stanford sued Santa Clara County in December over a new law that would require it to designate 16% of any new housing as below-market-rate, arguing that the county was unfairly singling the university out. Stanford’s new proposal meets that requirement and could potentially lead to a resolution of the lawsuit, a university spokesman said.
A top county official, however, said the proposal was inadequate, dimming the chance of a quick resolution. Joe Simitian, president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, said he hadn’t yet studied the new offer in depth but said that it doesn’t appear to add a significant amount of new housing compared with Stanford’s past proposals.
“This is the third time at least we have seen a housing proposal that fails to mitigate the full impact on development,” Mr. Simitian said in an interview. He said the proposal falls short of accommodating housing for about 7,000 people expected to be added, as the university grows.
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Stanford on Monday said its $3.4 billion investment will include 2,172 units for its workforce, 575 of which would be offered below-market-rate. County authorities want the university, which has a $26.5 billion endowment, to build far more than this.
“The Stanford community is confronting the serious regional challenges of affordability, housing availability and traffic congestion,” the university’s president, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, said in a statement.
Stanford also said it would spend another $1.1 billion to help ease traffic in nearby communities, worsened by university commuters who can’t afford to live on or near campus and drive in from elsewhere.
Write to Nour Malas at nour....@wsj.com
Paul Creighton
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