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Does Stanford need or deserve a $37 million dollar property tax reduction?
It does not seem to be widely understood, but the 8.4 acres of land along El Camino that Stanford owns and which is part of the Specific Plan, were under 50 year long term leases to auto dealerships and have never been reassessed since Prop 13 came into effect.
The net result is these properties have a very low assessed valuation. The current assessed value for these properties is about $260,000 per acre. The land at 1300 El Camino recently purchased by Greenheart and thus reassessed, has a value of $7.5 million per acre.
From these numbers is easy to do a comparison of the property taxes generated by current valuation vs. the taxes if the properties were reassessed to current value.
For the current year Stanford would have to pay about $610,000 more in property taxes. Over a twenty year period, the total difference would be about $15,000,000. Over a 40 year period, the difference would be about $37,000,000.
Reassessment of parcels was certainly brought up during the Bohannon Gateway project. It could be achieved by having proposed projects subject to a development agreement, which would enforce a reevaluation of the parcels.
The Specific Plan, developed with a consultant who at the same time worked for Stanford does not contain such a mandate. It should have been included.
This represents a large amount of lost property taxes that would help fund the City and other districts, in particular the School Districts. Yet where is the outcry that Stanford will be allowed under the current plan to evade fair property taxes, yet enjoy the huge up-zoning in density that the Specific Plan permits.
Morris Brown
Stone Pine Lane
Menlo Park
