[Goose]

Stanford’s expiring General Use Plan with the county has very little authorized square footage remaining for development.

Agreed. And that is the problem. They didn't appropriately prioritize undergraduate education IMHO. Instead, they built what is essentially a corporate research park. They didn't need to build that on campus. It could be on Hillview Ave just as well. I understand the Theranos building is available too. Undergraduate education kind of has to be on campus. Graduate education is more flexible, and research only needs to be proximate. SRI worked just fine in that regard. One can also quibble about the space allocated to show vs the space allocated for actual work in many of the new buildings, but that is a nuance compared to the bogus priorities IMHO.

Stanford started negotiating a GUP to go through 2035 in 2016.  After increasing demands from the county and the city, Stanford halted negotiations in 2019.
In the meantime, Stanford acquired an option on the purchase of the Belmont campus of NDNU by 2025.

While I think buying NDNU campus could be a good idea, splitting up undergraduate education by moving part of it to Belmont strikes me as a bad idea. It is going to be tricky to figure out how to use the new campus. I hope they can come up with a reasonable approach. I have a hard time imagining something that can work myself.

A lot of the contention was around the amount of housing Stanford would build for workers, building a new school for Palo Alto, reducing traffic, and committing in perpetuity.the current Stanford Open Space.  Stanford wanted to negotiate a development agreement in connection with its commitments to build housing.

It will probably take a change in the local political environment for Stanford to get approval for significant increases in students and staff on the main campus.

I don't think they need a "significant increase in staff", in fact I think they need quite the opposite. Get rid of staff and add students one for one. There are plenty of positions at Stanford that can go away with little if any effect on the quality of education. We have witnessed that fact before when budget cuts were required in "lean times". It may be with Stanford's very large endowment now there will be no such times, but I doubt the staff situation is more critical now than then.  Perhaps the change in political environment needs to be at Stanford.

[Goose]

Stanford’s expiring General Use Plan with the county has very little authorized square footage remaining for development.

Agreed. And that is the problem. They didn't appropriately prioritize undergraduate education IMHO. Instead, they built what is essentially a corporate research park. They didn't need to build that on campus. It could be on Hillview Ave just as well. I understand the Theranos building is available too. Undergraduate education kind of has to be on campus. Graduate education is more flexible, and research only needs to be proximate. SRI worked just fine in that regard. One can also quibble about the space allocated to show vs the space allocated for actual work in many of the new buildings, but that is a nuance compared to the bogus priorities IMHO.

Stanford started negotiating a GUP to go through 2035 in 2016.  After increasing demands from the county and the city, Stanford halted negotiations in 2019.
In the meantime, Stanford acquired an option on the purchase of the Belmont campus of NDNU by 2025.

While I think buying NDNU campus could be a good idea, splitting up undergraduate education by moving part of it to Belmont strikes me as a bad idea. It is going to be tricky to figure out how to use the new campus. I hope they can come up with a reasonable approach. I have a hard time imagining something that can work myself.

A lot of the contention was around the amount of housing Stanford would build for workers, building a new school for Palo Alto, reducing traffic, and committing in perpetuity.the current Stanford Open Space.  Stanford wanted to negotiate a development agreement in connection with its commitments to build housing.

It will probably take a change in the local political environment for Stanford to get approval for significant increases in students and staff on the main campus.

I don't think they need a "significant increase in staff", in fact I think they need quite the opposite. Get rid of staff and add students one for one. There are plenty of positions at Stanford that can go away with little if any effect on the quality of education. We have witnessed that fact before when budget cuts were required in "lean times". It may be with Stanford's very large endowment now there will be no such times, but I doubt the staff situation is more critical now than then.  Perhaps the change in political environment needs to be at Stanford.