A view of the Old Union on Stanford University’s campus in Palo Alto on Oct. 7, 2025. Photo by Seeger Gray.
Six years after its ambitious growth plan fizzled in the face of community concerns and county demands, Stanford University is preparing to try again.
The university is getting ready to apply for a new general use permit, a document that would govern Stanford’s growth and set the parameters for new academic space, housing developments and transportation policies on campus. If things go as planned, Stanford hopes to submit an application in 2026 and get approval from Santa Clara County in early 2028.
Yet as the university learned in 2019, colossal planning efforts rarely go according to plan. The university abandoned its last general use permit after a protracted squabble with Santa Clara County over a development agreement that would lock in rules for campus growth. Over the course of the review process, the university was besieged by community requests for affordable housing, additional funding for local schools and stronger protections for open spaces. Stanford also balked at the county’s efforts to impose stricter methods for measuring vehicle traffic around the campus.
Last time, the university launched its three-year planning effort by unveiling a growth plan that included 2.275 million square feet of new academic space, 2,600 student beds, 550 housing units for faculty and staff and 40,000 square feet for childcare facilities. This time, Stanford is taking a different approach. Between now and mid-2026, Stanford will be holding public meetings and convening a stakeholder group that will help it devise the goals of the new plan.
Known as the StanfordNext Advisory Council (SNAC), the 22-member group includes nonprofit leaders, elected officials and experts in land use and transportation. Members include Palo Alto Mayor Ed Lauing, Palo Alto Unified School District Trustee Alison Kamhi, Alta Housing CEO Randy Tsuda, Silicon Valley@Home Executive Director Regina Celestin Williams, and Alice Kaufman, policy director for Green Foothills.
Whitney McNair, Stanford’s senior associate vice president and StanfordNext project executive, said in an email the multi-disciplinary group will “help advise the StanfordNext plan to ensure it reflects a broad spectrum of local perspective and expertise.”
Stanford also plans to hold open house events to give members of the public a chance to weigh in before the permit application is filed. The first of these will be held on Dec. 10 and Dec. 13.
According to the university, the plan is expected to incorporate the gradual addition of research and academic space, student and workforce housing, transportation improvements and greater community access to events and spaces at Stanford’s campus.
That said, the process and the product could be significantly different this time around. For one thing, the main players have changed. Last time, Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian was leading the charge in reviewing the general use permit application. He insisted that Stanford commit to “full mitigation” for all of its growth impacts, a standard that posed a challenge for Stanford as it tried to respond to county demands for more workforce housing.
Simitian termed out last year and the district is now represented by Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga, who did not respond to this publication’s question about whether she would apply the same standard to the university’s growth plans. Stanford has seen its own change at the top, with Jonathan Levin succeeding Marc Tessier-Lavigne as Stanford president.
The university’s needs have also shifted since 2019, McNair noted.
“Since our previous General Use Permit application was withdrawn in 2019, we have navigated the effects of Covid and the rise of hybrid work arrangements, established the new Doerr School of Sustainability, and are currently adjusting to a changing federal policy landscape,” McNair said in an email. “These changes have only deepened our commitment to pursuing exciting research and teaching opportunities that have potential to benefit people locally and globally.”
How else will this effort differ from 2019? According to the university, the forthcoming application will have a “more defined vision and scope,” clearer priorities when it comes to housing, transportation and academic needs, strong alignment with county and state goals and priorities, and stronger stakeholder engagement.
“Our approach to mitigating potential impacts of new academic facilities will be developed as we go through the environmental review process, in consultation with the County and other stakeholders,” McNair said in an email. “We look forward to working with the County in a collaborative way that allows time to thoughtfully process the application.”
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