Planning Commission Delays Vote On Stanford Hospital Project

The Palo Alto Planning Commission delayed voting Wednesday night on whether to accept city staff recommendations and give the green light to the final environmental impact report for Stanford University Medical Center so it can go to the City Council for final approval. 

All members of the commission were present. However, chairman Samir Tuma recused himself because his wife works at Stanford. Lee Lippert chaired this portion of the meeting.

The vote was delayed because Menlo Park is still reviewing the report regarding the proposed massive hospital expansion project.

Following an alternatives analysis in the draft environmental report (EIR), numerous enhancements were made in the final EIR, including a plan to preserve 18 trees that had "particular aesthetic value," according to the staff report.

The final draft also recommends building several pedestrian and bike paths between the hospital and the city, including a new tunnel underneath the El Camino/Quarry Road intersection and an enhanced bike and pedestrian path between the hospital and Stanford Shopping Center.

Other improvements in the final EIR include reducing traffic impacts at Menlo Park intersections, minimizing the impact on bus and Caltrain service in Palo Alto, reducing certain kinds of air pollution during construction, and lowering greenhouse gas emissions in order to comply with the city’s Climate Protection Plan.

Numerous “significant and unavoidable” impacts remain in the final draft of the environmental report, however. Those include increased daily traffic on four Menlo Park roads, air pollutant emissions during construction, construction noise, ambulance noise, demolition of the historic Stone Building complex and the removal of 74 protected trees, according to the report.

If and when the planning commission sends the final draft to the council for approval, a variety of decisions still stand in the way of the project's completion, including on project entitlements such as the development agreement, comprehensive plan amendments, zoning ordinance changes conditional use permits, architectural review and annexation.

The development agreement in particular is still being hashed out, according to Advance Planning Manager Steven Turner. That negotiation will determine how much money in the form of revenue guarantees Stanford offers the city.

“Stanford did offer up a very generous package," said Turner, "however, the city is still reviewing the project to make sure that the project over the long term is not a financial burden to the city. There are ongoing discussions about that.”

Turner expects the City Council review to occur in the middle of May.