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A proposal by Stanford University to build a two-story, 40,000-square-foot office building at 2131 Sand Hill Road and annex almost 16 acres to the city of Menlo Park of a property it owns along Sand Hill Road will be the subject of a public hearing with the Menlo Park Planning Commission on Monday, June 19.
The Planning Commission meets 7 p.m. in the City Council chambers at 701 Laurel St. in the Menlo Park Civic center.
Stanford owns a 15.8-acre site on the eastern side of Sand Hill Road, near the Sharon Park Drive intersection, on unincorporated county land.
According to Stanford spokesperson Jean McCown, the proposed annexation is required by San Mateo County for a new commercial development.
On the property now is an 8,125-square-foot house, built in 1920, where the Stanford provost lives, and a 50,676-square-foot two-story office building where the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is headquartered.
Those structures would remain. Stanford wants the city to agree to zone 12 acres as “C-1-C,” a zoning category that allows professional, administrative or research buildings, according to a staff report. The parcel would include the Hewlett Foundation office building, and the vacant site where the university proposes to build a new office building. The other 4 acres, where the provost residence is, would be zoned as residential.
The proposed office building would be two stories and 39,800 square feet, would have 159 parking spaces, and would be designed to look in many ways like the Hewlett Foundation’s headquarters building.
Ms. McCown said that Stanford intends to lease the building to “companies typically located on Sand Hill Road,” and that Stanford expects to pay property taxes to the city on the building, since it will not be used for academic purposes.
Stanford has proposed to remove six heritage trees, while the Menlo Park city arborist has suggested two of them be kept or transplanted. The university would plant an estimated 91 trees, according to a staff report.
Crosswalks would be added at the two missing pedestrian crossings of the Sand Hill Road and Sharon Park Drive intersection.
In keeping with the city’s below-market-rate housing policy, the Housing Commission approved a suggestion that Stanford provide two below-market-rate housing units, not on this property, but at the university’s 500 El Camino Real development currently undergoing city review. The El Camino Real development is planned to have 215 apartments.
According to an environmental analysis of Stanford’s Sand Hill Road project, it is expected to generate an estimated 302 daily trips, with 47 trips added during the peak morning hour and 36 added during the peak evening hour.
The city has received four emails commenting on the project, including from local resident Janet Davis and the Sand Hill Home Owners Association. Concerns raised include worries about privacy, noise levels during construction, increased traffic, and the cumulative impacts of Stanford projects on the Peninsula, according to a staff report.
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The Robber Baron Era continues. Unfortunately not as colorful as in the later half of the 18th century.
I am surprised that you only list 4 letters I have sent at least that many myself and know that others have written also. My main arguments are Jobs/Homes imbalance; inaccurate traffic report, and dangers conditions of the Sand hill intersection