For more than 70 years, Stanford Research Park has been associated with the tech giants that had set up shop on its sprawling campuses, a list that includes HP, Facebook, SAP and, more recently, Tesla.
This week, however, Palo Alto’s elected leaders plan to make a zoning change that will open up the centrally located commercial district west of El Camino Real for a drastically different function: the construction of housing.
The idea picked up momentum over the past two years, as the City Council crafted the city’s Housing Element, a document that lays out the city’s vision for adding 6,086 housing units by 2031. While the document includes housing at three other sites owned by Stanford University, it steers clear of Stanford Research Park and Stanford Shopping Center. It does, however, commit to starting conversations with Stanford over future residential development in these areas.
On Tuesday, the council will set the stage for these discussions by removing an existing requirement that residential uses in Stanford Research Park be subject to conditional use permits. The change aims to “remove a governmental housing constraint that may encourage greater residential uses in the Stanford Research Park,” according to the Housing Element. The document calls for engaging with the university in “a dialogue about future multi-family housing opportunities within the Stanford Research Park, including consideration of a new neighborhood along Foothill Expressway.”
The changes won’t happen any time soon. The current Housing Element reserves its most ambitious housing programs for commercial areas in south Palo Alto, including mixed-use and industrial corridors on El Camino Real and San Antonio Road. It does, however, call for upzoning three Stanford University-owned sites to accommodate multi-family housing: 1100 Welch Road, 3128 El Camino Real and 3300 El Camino Real. Under the proposed zoning changes, these three sites would be able to collectively accommodate about 940 housing units.
Adding housing to the Research Park promises to be a much longer and more complex endeavor. The park is owned by the university, and it operates it through long-term leases that Stanford enters into with the roughly 150 tenants that occupy it. Any major housing growth here isn’t expected to take place until the next Housing Element cycle, which will start in 2032.
The idea of building housing at Stanford Research Park picked up steam during last year’s council elections, with just about every candidate backing the idea. Council member Pat Burt, who won his bid reelection, vowed during the campaign to pursue additional housing in Stanford Research Park and other commercial locations. Planning and Transportation Commission member Doria Summa also spoke in favor of the idea. During a candidate forum last fall, she cited her advocacy for housing at the research park during the early phases of the Housing Element process.
“It was considered radical at the time, but I think we’ve all come around to that,” Summa said.
The current Housing Element commits the city to holding conversations with Stanford University and Simon Properties, which owns Stanford Shopping Center, to identify housing opportunities on university lands by Dec. 31, 2025. It also sets a Jan. 31 deadline for the city to remove the conditional use requirement on residential use at the commercial park. The council’s Jan. 21 vote aims to comply with this deadline.
According to a new report from Planning Director Jonathan Lait, the requirement will remain in place for housing projects that are proposed within 600 feet of sites that contain hazardous materials.
The removal of the conditional use requirement is part of a package of zoning changes that the council plans to approve to comply with its new Housing Element. Another reform would expedite the review process for housing projects by limiting such proposals to a maximum of two Architectural Review Board hearings.
Other changes would make it easier for the city to construct housing for some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. One zone change would allow group hopes for individuals with disabilities to be constructed by right in residential zones. Another would make it easier to construct navigation centers, which provide temporary housing and services for homeless individuals and families.
These centers would now be allowed in all zones where multi-family and mixed uses are allowed, consistent with recent changes in state law.
