News Subscribe to Our Newsletter Sign up for Email Updates CGF In the News Press Inquiries Past Articles Calendar			San Jose Mercury News October 18, 2000   EDITORIAL: Stanford's proposed land swap is a creative idea for JCC site  But in exchange the university wants its general use permit approved; county should ensure that good planning principles are followed Community leaders in Palo Alto are cheering a proposed land swap that could allow for the opening of a new middle school while accommodating a valued community center. Stanford University, in some out-of-the-box thinking, has offered to lease the city a parcel at the corner of Page Mill Road and El Camino Real. The site would be developed to house the Jewish Community Center, which will be displaced when its quarters are reclaimed to make way for Terman Middle School. In exchange for the $1 a year lease, the city would allow Stanford to transfer development rights from that parcel to a site elsewhere in the Stanford Business Park.  In addition, Stanford wants Santa Clara County to approve its 10-year community plan and general use permit -- under conditions acceptable to Stanford. It has set a March deadline for the details of both the land swap and its permit to be finalized.  It's a creative response to the perplexing problem of how to house the the JCC, if the school district reclaims Terman.  But the originality of the concept shouldn't exempt the university's long-term plans from critical review.  The university wants to build more than 4 million square feet of housing and academic space. The question is what conditions Santa Clara County will attach to Stanford's use permit, and whether Stanford will find those acceptable. The attractiveness of Stanford's offer shouldn't lead the county to abandon its regulatory responsibilities. No developer seeking permission to build on a large scale realistically expects to get all it asks for.  The county planning staff has set down reasonable conditions. Among the most important are setting a firm boundary to channel growth into the core campus; steering development away from sensitive areas, including the golf course; requiring housing to keep pace with academic construction, and ensuring that a substantial portion of the housing is affordable to staff and students.  In addition, both state and federal regulators have clearly recommended a conservation easement for the red-legged frog, whose survival appears to be at stake.  As we've said before, given Stanford's ambitious plans to grow by one-third, it would be reasonable for the county to require permanent dedication of foothills as open space. Santa Clara County routinely insists that developers preserve 90 percent of hillside parcels, in return for permission to develop on the other 10 percent.  County supervisors, who are scheduled to vote on the Stanford plan this month, should stick to good planning principles. It would be wonderful if the puzzle of situating the middle school and community center also could be solved, the but the county's duty is to ensure good, sensible land use that benefits the entire community. Page last updated November 4, 2001.